I’m always looking for things for Jess to do and lots of her
favourite activities don’t involve any expenditure – always a bonus! I thought
I’d collate some of them here. You probably do most of them anyway, but
hopefully some of them might give you a few ideas. I’ll update this as I
remember more so keep checking back for more ideas.
Indoor activities
Peg pictures
Jess will play for ages with my clothes pegs and I love it
because afterwards she can just scoop them into a bag and there’s no mess. Jess
finds they make excellent sunflowers and loves just using the pegs to make
designs on the floor or clipping them together to make structures. You can
always dip them in paint to use as stamps too, but I like to keep them as a
non-messy game!
Indoor bowling
We stand pegs up on end or use empty plastic bottles. Then I
make a ball out of newspaper and wrap a bit of sticky tape around it so it
doesn’t unroll. If it’s for older kids or you want to use a more powerful ball
such as a foam one, you can add some rice or water to the bottles to make them
heavier.
Paper ball games
We use the newspaper ball (above) to play loads of indoor
games as it’s light enough not to cause any damage. Catch, rolling the ball to
each other, target throwing (try to bounce it off a soft toy’s nose!), seeing
if we can touch the ceiling with it, batting it back and forth with our hands
like volleyball, indoor tennis using books as racquets, football and so on. The
possibilities are endless.
Painting activities
Potato stamping is fun and cheap. You don’t have to be
particularly artistic. We’ve made Christmas cards with one cut into a Christmas
tree shape, and experimented with simple shapes like squares or triangles.
Sprinkle a bit of glitter on while the paint is still wet for added interest.
Try stamping using everyday items like bottle tops and jar
lids, small plastic containers, or paperclips.
Painting with something other than a brush can also be fun.
As well as the obvious finger-painting, try using scrunched up paper or kitchen
foil, pieces of pasta, or experiment with dragging an old comb, ruler, fork or
toothbrush across the paper. If you don’t mind the mess, you could also
experiment with using different things for ‘paint’, such as baked bean juice or
soy sauce! Try chalk pictures too.
Collages too of course; set older kids free with an old
catalogue, a pair of scissors, and a scrapbook. For younger kids, just have
everything cut up ready – bits of paper, wool off-cuts, bits of material, rice,
lentils, anything they can stick down. If you want to combine a day trip with a
craft activity, try collecting shells, sand, seaweed and driftwood on the
beach, or sticks, leaves and flowers from the park or the woods. Then use them
to make a collage. You could also make an outdoor collage without glue –
arrange them on the ground to make a picture. Try a mermaid with seaweed hair
and shells for a tail.
Magnets
Most kids seem to have a fascination with magnets. If you
have fridge magnets, they will often play for hours with them, seeing what they
stick to and what they don’t. There a few games we play with our magnets such
as fishing and races. I cut out lots of paper fish shapes and Jess decorates
them, then I stick a metal washer on each one. I tie a string to a stick, attach
a magnet on the end, and Jess tries to catch the fish. For races, Jess and I
make two paper characters or animals (you could use cut up photos) and stick a
washer to each one. Then we put them on top of a sheet or large piece of paper,
and use magnets underneath to ‘race’ the characters. A lot of our magnets are
round and different colours – Jess uses these to make designs on the fridge. She
also likes to see how many magnets she can stack on top of one another. You can
often pick up packs of cheap magnets at poundstores; even if you aren’t a
fridge-magnet sort of person it’s worth getting some for the kids to play with.
Painted dominos
Jess and I often make and play colour dominos. I cut out
lots of paper rectangles and draw a line down the middle of each piece. Jess
paints a coloured blob on each side. We leave them to dry and then play like
normal dominos, matching the colours rather than numbers.
Alphabet games
I spent a bit of time finding pictures on the net – two or
three different pictures for each letter. I tried to find ones that start with
the sound of the letter (so ‘cat’ rather than ‘chair’ for example). I printed
them out along with the letters themselves, both small letters and capitals,
and then laminated them.
Although it took a bit of time to do the cards, it was well
worth it as we use them all the time. We use about 10 of the letters and 10 of
the pictures to play pairs with, matching the picture to the letter. We do a
snap game, matching capital and small letters or letters and pictures. We use
the letters to do an I-spy type game (can you see anything that begins with
this letter?) and the pictures to practise letter sounds (what is this picture?
What letter does it start with?) and what they look like (can you see the
letter that this starts with?). Jess also likes just playing with the cards,
putting the pictures into sets (animals in one pile, people in another,
vehicles in another and so on). Really, the only limit is your (or their)
imagination. And it’s educational too; Jess’s recognition of letters and sounds
has improved no end.
Treasure baskets
This one is for younger children (babies and young toddlers)
but I thought it was worth including. There are companies willing to sell you
treasure baskets if that’s the route you want to take, but you can put one
together yourself in minutes. Get a basket or box and put in about a dozen
household items that are different textures and shapes. It’s as simple as that.
Ours contained: measuring spoons, a sponge, a scouring pad, a metal spoon, a
wooden spoon, ribbon, a small rubber duck, a walnut in its shell, cotton wool,
a wooden curtain ring, scrunched up tin foil, a shell, a sweet wrapper, a piece
of plastic sheet, a peg and a bit of furry fabric. Plonk your child in front of
it and let them explore. Just ensure there’s nothing they can choke on; if you
are putting in small items then supervise them carefully.
Box games
You will already know that most young kids seem to prefer
the boxes to the toys that come in them. If you have a large box, they’ll love
it. You can always pick one up at the local supermarket, they are usually glad
to get rid of them. We’ve used boxes to make cars, a space rocket, a train, an
aeroplane, a bus for Jess’s soft toys, a tent, a den, a doll’s cot, a doll’s house,
all sorts of things. They can decorate the box and add smaller boxes or
cushions etc. or just play with it as it is. When we stayed with some friends
and their children, the kids made a big box into a tank, tied thick string to
it, and took it in turns to ride in it while the others pulled them along.
When they’ve finished / the box has fallen apart, we use the
card for other things. We cut out wobbly shapes and play ‘Peppa Pig and Muddy
Puddles’ which is a version of musical chairs; they have to jump in a ‘puddle’
when the music stops. I cut out circles or shapes and we make masks. Or you
could tear it up into small bits and use for papier mache.
Outdoor activities
Chalk pictures
Chalk pictures outside can be a great way to spend a bit of
time without too much clearing up, especially if you plan it for a day when
rain is forecast later! Get the kids chalking pictures on the pathway or
flagstones, then just wash away when finished. Or draw a hopscotch grid and
teach them how to play.
Water play
One of Jess’s favourite activities is water play and water
painting outside. I give her a big bowl of water, an assortment of kitchen bits
(funnel, spoon, small plastic pots, jug etc) and a paintbrush. She will spend
ages just pouring water from one pot to another, ‘painting’ pictures on the
floor with water, and washing her dolls and toy cars. Sometimes she’ll ask for
a bit of washing up liquid in the water and use it to clean the garden
furniture or the front door - bonus!
Buried treasure
One for the beach, the sandpit, or if you have a bit of
garden the kids can dig in: Jess and I take it in turns to bury an item and the
other one has to dig to find it. If you’ve got older kids and can be bothered
with the effort, you could do a ‘treasure map’ for them.
Picture I-Spy
(Suggested by a friend) This one is great for car journeys.
I find pictures on the net of various things we might see on our journey
(traffic signs, post-boxes, vehicles etc), put them all on one sheet, print it
out and laminate it. Then Jess has to spot each item and either tick it off or
put a sticker over it.
Anywhere activities
Running quiz
This is a good game for parties or a group of kids. You need
a fairly large space (enough to run around in) and a bit of preparation. Plan
your quiz questions. For youngsters, television programmes, nursery rhymes,
books and toys are a good starting place; such as what is Peppa’s brother’s
name? What colour is Thomas the Tank Engine? What was Little Miss Muffet scared
of? As well as the questions, you also need three or four possible answers for
each one.
You then need three or four corners or areas (you can mark
circles out on the floor if you want). Label each area with either numbers,
letters or colours.
Call out a question and the possible answers. Allocate each
answer to an area. The kids have to run to the area that they think represents
the right answer. So it might be something like this:
“What is the eldest Tweenie called? If you think it’s Jake,
run to number one. If you think it’s Fizz, run to number two. If you think it’s
Simon, run to number three. If you think it’s Bella, run to number four. Ready,
steady, go!”
If you want a ‘winner’, make sure the questions get
progressively harder. For older kids, trick questions can be good – they often
rout out the ones who are just copying their friends! If they still aren’t
being picked out, you can disqualify the last child to get to each corner.
Stick to two or three area / question answers for younger kids.
It sounds harder to organise than it is, especially with
older kids. They usually have so much fun just squealing and running around,
the questions barely matter anyway!
Tents
Jess loves making tents under the kitchen table. She takes a
few cushions and a range of toys and plays there quite happily, which is
especially handy when I’m cooking. Sometimes I’ll put a sheet over the table so
the sides are covered but she’s perfectly satisfied without it. On sunny days,
I put a blanket on the ground outside and then take two chairs and put them
back to back with a space in between them. I drape an old sheet over them
weighed down with a few books on the chair seats, and Jess sets up camp
underneath. She loves playing in there, and I can either play with her, do some
gardening, or (my preferred option) put my feet up and read a book in the sun!
Messy play
I’ve put these under ‘anywhere’ as I guess they could be
done inside but it’s much less messy outside. If you do try it inside, use
smaller bowls or trays, and put them in the kitchen or bathroom – somewhere
with a washable hard floor! Take a large bowl or a small paddling pool. Fill
with any one of the following: Rice Krispies (super-cheap value ones because
you’ll want a lot of them), cornflakes, shaving foam, play foam, shredded
paper, pasta or rice (particularly good if you cook them lightly with a bit of
green food colouring in the water), water mixed with bubble bath and / or food
colouring (just a drop or two!), polystyrene balls (the ones you get in bean
bags), plastic packing ‘quavers’, or anything else you can think of. Put the
kids in OLD clothes
or strip them off altogether if the weather is warm enough, and let them get on
with it. If food colouring is used anywhere, the old clothes are an absolute
must as it will stain. Older kids love the green pasta or rice – put in some
plastic animals and they can play jungles. Bubbles or shaving foam are good
with toy cars (car washes). For very young children steer clear of the
polystyrene balls and stick to cereal, then it doesn’t matter if they stuff it
in their mouths. If you do use cereal, it makes cleaning up easier as the birds
will do most of the work. You could also combine this with the buried treasure
game and hide things in the mess for the kids to find.
Animal game
Great for car journeys and queues! Take it in turns to
describe an animal, the other person has to guess what animal it is. You can
vary the descriptions depending on the age of the child: “The animal I’m
thinking of goes oink” for younger kids, “This animal is what we get bacon from”
for older ones. The kids love describing the animals too; be prepared for some
interesting descriptions!
I-Spy colours
Another one for queues and car trips, this is a version of
I-Spy for younger children who can’t spell yet. I-Spy with my little eye,
something… yellow / red / whatever. Once they have a rough knowledge of their
letters you can combine the two: for example I-Spy with my little eye,
something red beginning with T.
Seasonal activities
Christmas List
How about a picture list to Father Christmas for the ones who
can’t write yet? Much like collages, give the kids a few catalogues and ask
them to find pictures of what they’d like for Christmas. The slightly older
ones can cut them out, the younger ones can tear them out, or you could cut out
a pile of pictures yourself for them to sort through. They can then stick them
onto a ‘letter for Santa’ and either burn it in the fire if you have an open
one (obviously I mean you can burn it, they can watch!), post it to one of the
charities that replies for a small charge, or leave it somewhere outside for
the elves to collect. (Don’t forget to remove it when they are in bed and
sprinkle a bit of glitter [fairy dust] around.)
If you want to encourage giving rather than asking, try the
catalogue pictures and a pile of (unwanted) family photos. They can stick a
picture of a family member on a piece of paper and add pictures of things they
think they would like for Christmas. You never know, they might even give you
some ideas!
Decorations
Homemade decorations are fun to make, the kids can always
use their creations to decorate their bedrooms if you don’t fancy glue-streaked
paper chains everywhere! Try salt dough decorations (see my article on ‘A
Homemade Christmas’ or just google salt dough); ours came out nice enough to
give as presents. You can always get the older kids involved with stringing
cranberries, and even very young children can help make cards or wrapping
paper. Older kids can make tags from old cards or scraps of paper.
More ideas will follow as I remember what else we do!
