So here's Benji boy enjoying one of the activities I mention below from the
Preschool Activities in a Bag.
Yucky weather or a busy momma makes for restless children, especially the smallest. Sometimes the cheapest fun is the best fun. I used to make a little boy happy with something as simple as tractors and trucks cut out of old magazines, or a ball of yarn that the kids could wind around table legs, doorknobs, anything that wouldn't fall over and break, turning the whole room into a giant spiderweb. The only rules were that the big kids had to watch out for the littles and it all had to be cut off and thrown away before dad came home. I'll post that photo when I find it.
We had the regular blanket tent creations and giant box caves, but also couch cushion castles and bed pillow tunnels. I once or twice let the kids, nieces and nephews included, use an old foam twin mattress to slide down the stairs. Well, okay....I slid once too, but only because they begged and said it was such fun, and it WAS FUN!
Other ideas for bad weather:
- Go outside anyway. They do where the weather is rainy or snowy a lot.
- Games- charades, board games, hink pink, hide & seek, hot & cold, red light/green light, gossip (a good time to discuss gossip with your kids), Mother may I? Simon says....
- Go to a museum or the library.
- Make & take cookies to the fire department, police station, or post office. (call first)
- Scavenger or treasure hunt.
- Get out your favorite Bible kids songs DVD or CD and move or make up your own motions
- Have a puppet show (stuffed animals work for this)
- Play dress up
- Make playdough or Bread dough creations like we did here (play dough recipe coming)
Starfall is a free, interactive website for littles learning their alphabet sounds, and for those beginning to read.
Tumblebooks are ebooks for kids, sometimes narrated by the author. You can get a trial subscription, or access them through a public library with a subscription like this one: Tumblebooks at the Portland Public Library.
One of my favorite sites for littles is DLTK kids Craft page. It has printable paper crafts, alphabet tracer pages, songs and rhymes, mini books, online puzzles, Bible crafts, coloring pages.....
Preschool Activities in a Bag are wonderful fun for preschoolers to do on their own while you work with older children or need an uninterrupted moment for Bible study or housework. Even if you are very crafty and make learning things and games for your kids as I did years ago, these books are great tools to help you plan and do a swap. What's a "swap"? You invite other moms, babysitters, grandmothers...anyone with little people in their lives to make an educational activity in a bag for each participating family, and set a time to get together and swap! That means if there are 20 participants your family will receive 20 different activities! Maybe when you meet and swap you'll have a picnic lunch together as a group, go on a field trip together, or some other extra to get your preschoolers together for some fun. I participated in one my friend, Marsha, organized and then my daughter did one with friends where she lives, in Germany. Here's Benji's stash.
Made by Joel is the blog of a crafty, creative dad. Make sure to check out his printable creations like the paper city, thaumatrope spinner, and easy homemade toys like his branch trees toy and box dollhouse. His blog is chock full of neat, cheap fun, like Cheerios box crafts, simple marionettes, slotted building disks.... well he also has a book, Made to Play.
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