I'm Bored. Plan my Afternoon?

[SilverSabre25]

I only have my own kids, 6.5 and 3, and a 16 month old dcg today. It was a quiet morning (except for 6.5 and 3 fighting as only siblings can fight).

DCG is napping, hopefully for another hour or more. My kids are taking some downtime with the TV.

But after that...I dunno. I'm bored, they're going to be bored....we can't leave and the weather is chancey (it's blustery with potential storms all afternoon so outside is a toss up). Any Really Cool Ideas that will entertain us?

[mskaykay]

I would probably have an indoor camping trip. Build tents out of sheets, tell stories around a fake fire (I have used a small fan with tissue paper attached), pretend fish, go on a bear hunt.... silly stuff like that. Have trail mix for snack. Even the 16 month old can play in the tents. I don't know... just something off the top of my head.

[SignMeUp]

Got coffee filters? And clothespins? Or pipe cleaners? Make butterflies

Fold coffee filter in half (to make two symmetrical wings - good vocabulary)
Color on folded filter. Lots of color is good because it goes through to other side.
Drop by drop, drip water onto colored filter. Watch the colors spread and blend. (Um, not so fun if your six yo drew an actual picture :: Sorry!)
Let dry and push into the clothespin to make the butterfly. No clothespin?
Use a pipe cleaner around the middle instead.
Spread the wings out and go play

Added: Keep the filter folded as the water is dripped onto it. This helps the color go through to make the symmetrical wings.

[KSDC]

How about GAK? Or Ooblek? Or shaving cream? Or finger painting with pudding?

When I get bored, I love to break out the ooey gooey stuff.

[SignMeUp]

Collages? open-ended glue, paper and scissors :: What could be better?
Old magazines, gardening catalogs, wrapping paper, odds and ends of scrap paper, packing crinkles, etc.

Or go all-out mess and spread a long piece of paper on the kitchen floor. Put a pan of paint at one end and an old towel at the other end and let them make their own footprint posters.

[SilverSabre25]

Hmmm we might go with the butteflies...or the full-body art, I mean "footprint" art if it manages to nicen up a bit (that sounds better OUTside, haha!)...

I'm feeling bored and squirrelly too. This usually leads to an aborted attempt at decluttering the art cabinet or something and I regret it in the end. ::

[SignMeUp]

Once you have made butterflies, it's fun to just experiment with colors on the coffe filters too.
We have also used eye droppers and watered down food coloring on the filters.

Forgot to mention, put newspaper or scrap paper under the filters to absorb any mess.

[daycare]

got any bean bags to toss?

we played a home made version of angry birds..

we took the melissa and doug cardboard boxes, a few empty veggie cans that we wrapped in construction paper, colored some bird pics copied off of a google site and then stack away.

we used an angry bird plush to throw at the boxes/cans.

I started it showing them how to do it and they took over after. they played with it for about 1.5 hours before the fighting broke out and I had to remove one child, the rest went back to playing for another 30-40 minutes.

I have a pic I can share, but you can use anything, cups, boxes, cans, water bottles...... I chose the plush in-doors so nothing got broken and then I had an angry birds balls for outdoors...

Fun fun fun

[SilverSabre25]

got any bean bags to toss?

we played a home made version of angry birds..

we took the melissa and doug cardboard boxes, a few empty veggie cans that we wrapped in construction paper, colored some bird pics copied off of a google site and then stack away.

we used an angry bird plush to throw at the boxes/cans.

I started it showing them how to do it and they took over after. they played with it for about 1.5 hours before the fighting broke out and I had to remove one child, the rest went back to playing for another 30-40 minutes.

I have a pic I can share, but you can use anything, cups, boxes, cans, water bottles...... I chose the plush in-doors so nothing got broken and then I had an angry birds balls for outdoors...

Fun fun fun

ooo that sounds fun. I could get into that. On a dry day soon maybe we'll haul that onto the patio....

I really need to write these ideas all down somewhere. Oh wait, that's what Pinterest is for. Ha!

[daycare]

ooo that sounds fun. I could get into that. On a dry day soon maybe we'll haul that onto the patio....

I really need to write these ideas all down somewhere. Oh wait, that's what Pinterest is for. Ha!

we did it inside for a little while and it worked perfectly my lawn guys came so we had to run inside for about 30 min.....then when they left we went back out.

I just got the idea from looking at all of my crap I have sitting in my garage....

[Blackcat31]

How about some masking tape?

If you have a roll, it's amazing what you can do with it.....and no, I don't mean to tape the kids up/down or where ever...

We covered a doorway with masking tape strips so it looked like a spiderweb.

Then we made balls of masking tape and threw them at the web. The kids played for over 90 minutes, happy as can be! They might have played longer but it was time to move onto another activity.

We've also made a tape line on the floor in different patterns/shapes and played games like hopping to the square or triangle or a balance beam type activity.

I've also given a roll of masking tape to the kids and just let them go.

It's amazing what they come up with.

[Laurel]

got any bean bags to toss?

we played a home made version of angry birds..

we took the melissa and doug cardboard boxes, a few empty veggie cans that we wrapped in construction paper, colored some bird pics copied off of a google site and then stack away.

we used an angry bird plush to throw at the boxes/cans.

I started it showing them how to do it and they took over after. they played with it for about 1.5 hours before the fighting broke out and I had to remove one child, the rest went back to playing for another 30-40 minutes.

I have a pic I can share, but you can use anything, cups, boxes, cans, water bottles...... I chose the plush in-doors so nothing got broken and then I had an angry birds balls for outdoors...

Fun fun fun

When I wanted to make quickie beanbags, I just took a child's sock (some I had bought), filled them with beans and tied a tight knot in them. Worked great!

Laurel

[daycare]

How about some masking tape?

If you have a roll, it's amazing what you can do with it.....and no, I don't mean to tape the kids up/down or where ever...

We covered a doorway with masking tape strips so it looked like a spiderweb.

Then we made balls of masking tape and threw them at the web. The kids played for over 90 minutes, happy as can be! They might have played longer but it was time to move onto another activity.

We've also made a tape line on the floor in different patterns/shapes and played games like hopping to the square or triangle or a balance beam type activity.

I've also given a roll of masking tape to the kids and just let them go.

It's amazing what they come up with.

that last pic is super funny.....I want to do that myself...

[daycare]

When I wanted to make quickie beanbags, I just took a child's sock (some I had bought), filled them with beans and tied a tight knot in them. Worked great!

Laurel

ohhh I love that idea......

how did you close it off? tie the sock in a knot?

[SilverSabre25]

If I could ever FIND my masking tape, that is...