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10 Quick and Easy Kid Activities For Those
Long Weekends
by: Chris Yates
With the holidays quickly approaching, it's
likely that you'll have some unscheduled
'down-time' with your child where you don't
have anything actually planned. Just because
you don't have any planned activities with
your child doesn't mean that they have to
languish on the couch in boredom. Take a
look at these quick and easy anytime
activities.
1. Make Paper Stuff:
It doesn't take a lot of work or planning for
children to create great paper crafts. You can
simply make a lot of paper supplies available and
let them go to town. Provide paper plates,
construction paper, scissors, markers, crayons,
glue, stamps, or stickers and let them make their
own creations.
2. Paint Something:
Kids generally love anything that has to do with
painting. You could give them some finger paints and
paper, provide water colors, or even let them paint
up some scraps of wood or rocks. When given a choice
between painting or carving their pumpkins each
year, my kids always choose painting... kids LOVE to
paint!
3. Pound Some Clay:
There's just something about manipulating modeling
clay that kids find appealing (grownups too!). Give
you child a couple of cans of play dough or make up
a batch of salt dough and they'll have a ball.
Here's an idea... make some salt dough, create the
figures, dry them out in the oven, and then paint
them to combine painting and modeling!
4. Have A Puppet
Show: You can make puppets out of just about
anything you have lying around the house... recycled
bottles, wooden or plastic spoons, paper bags, craft
sticks, etc. all work as a good base, then add
paper, felt, yarn, wiggle eyes, or other objects to
make the puppet. Once the puppets are done, the back
of the couch, a table, or even an old box provides a
great puppet theater.
5. Play Dress-Up:
Children love nothing better than dressing up and
pretending to be someone else. We keep all our old
Halloween costumes in our dress-up box, but you
could also let the kids dress up in old clothes that
you're going to throw out anyway. An impromptu game
of dress-up is always a fun activity.
6. Outside Drawing:
Give the kids a bucket of sidewalk chalk, turn them
loose outside, and they'll play for hours drawing on
the sidewalks, driveway, and just about anything
else.
7. Make
Contraptions: Older children will really love the
idea of making inventions out of recyclable
materials. You'll need recycled toilet paper tubes,
paper towel tubes, wrapping paper tubes, plastic
bottles, and other appropriate recyclables along
with some tape, scissors, and marbles. Tape the
tubes together to make a long runway that starts at
some high point (like a chair) and eventually ends
at the floor. When complete, roll the marbles
through the tubes to test your contraption. You
child may even think of other types of contraptions
based on this idea.
8. Nature Walks:
This may seem silly, but your kids will love
spending time with you doing this... all you have to
do is take your child for a stroll in your
neighborhood or at a park. Spend time talking about
things you observe as you walk and take your time.
When you're done you could write about what you saw,
draw pictures, collect found objects and make an art
piece. Don't forget to bundle up in inclement
weather.
9. Paper Airplanes:
Gather up a pile of paper and make paper airplanes
with your child. Take turns flying them and test out
which techniques work the best. You could even take
turns flying them off a balcony or deck to really
add to the experience. Better yet, pre-purchase a
book of directions for making paper airplanes and
work your way through the book together.
10. Create An
Obstacle Course: This idea may be a little messy,
but your kids will love it. Create an obstacle
course, inside or outside, using objects around the
house, then take turns navigating the course for
time. You could crawl under tables, over chairs,
around objects, etc. all the way to the finishing
line.
There are probably a
lot of other great ideas that aren't listed here,
but this should get you thinking. The REAL idea here
is to spend some time with your child and let them
be creative while you're doing it.
