Yesterday was the first NSD of no spend month, so yay!
We had 10 inches of snow last night and school was cancelled --again. So boo.
Since Christmas break ended we've had five snow days, two random days off school for teacher in service,plus a government holiday. I'm starting to feel like life will never be back to normal. Ugh.
Tell me again why I thought staying at home with kids and freelancing with heavy deadlines every week was a great idea? Oh yea, because I didn't know anything about preschool or children!
Now that we are snowed in again, I'm trying to figure out what projects to do with the kids. I feel like I used up all of my good ideas during last week's 3 snow days! We had tons of cardboard and we made 3-D cardboard godzillas, a battlefield for the army men, complete with cardboard mountains, and a fort.
Today? No ideas. Except maybe salt dough, but I don't have much salt. Of course. It's hard with my kids in particular because they do not like arts and crafts. Clearly they do not take after their artsy mom.
I was thinking of maybe having them fill up the dixie cups for seed starting, but I'm not sure I have the right potting mix. This storm really caught me off guard!
Here are the 'finished' godzillas:
NSD and snow day kids project ideas?
February 5th, 2014 at 01:54 pm
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If they give Valentine cards at school this is a great day to get started. Mom cuts the hearts, the decorate and glue to bigger pieces of paper.
Something silly and pointless like a big ball of string used to make a web from object to object in one room makes a fascinating study in 3-D. Just wrap around one chair back, the next chair leg, the corner of the picture on the wall, the door handle, the shoe on the floor, etc until they can no longer walk through the room or run out of ideas of what to connect. After enjoying the web for a few minutes, takes it down and do another one in different order and perhaps discovering more objects to entangle.
Tape a string securely to the ceiling just out of their reach. Add a biggish paper ball to the end of the string. Let the kids see if they can knock the target ball with their own paper balls, and see how it moves when they do.
Have a second ball tied to a string and when the ball dangling from ceiling gets old, tie one to each kid's ankle and let them run through the house with the balls "chasing" them. Elaborate on the former dog-cat-monster-dinosaur-vampire theme by drawing a face with claws & fangs on each ball. Thus they have a an excitingly scary thing to run from and get giddy over.
Got a kitchen scale? Let them weigh objects with Mom as the secretary to write the numbers down. Count up to each number as you go. "14 grams! 1.2.3.4....12.13.14! 14 grams!"
Got plastic scrap in your recycling? Cut "claws" out of empty bottles and tape them to the ends of their fingers. Let them pretend to be cats, dogs, monsters, dinosaurs, whatever, roaring and being very powerful. Likewise, if they are trustable, you can cut a table shape from white plastic. Table with two long legs. The table slips under the upper lip to become fangs. They'd want a mirror so they could see themselves as fanged animals or vampires. But maybe you kids aren't old enough for this yet?
Have them crush and wad pieces of newspaper or other scrap into balls that they can safely throw at each other. Make a lot of them, then scramble to pick them up to throw over again. let them test their tossing skills by trying to get their paper balls into a box or basket.
Give them a blanket and some sheets and show them how to use a table, chairs, edge of sofa, or edge of toy shelf, to make a tent.
Pop some of their stuffed animal toys into odd spots around the house--like wedged in the door of a kitchen cabinet, popping out of a drawer in a room where they are never played with. See if the kids casually spot each animal through the day.
Cut pieces of paper out that they cut glue into cone shapes that will stand upright once glued. You can cut several layers at a time, so you can make a bunch fast. They could also color the cones. Let them discover what the cones could be. People? Trees? Animals? The biggest satisfaction though is just making something go from being flat to 3-D, lickety-split.
Turn off the lights, darken the playroom and give them flashlights. Great to combine with the blanket tent! Got a portable radio? Give them that, too, and let them control the stations and volume, cruising through the band at will, discovering different sounds.
Have them fill grocery bags with toys that "need a bath" (whether they really do or not). Let them take the toys to the kitchen sink or bathtub with washcloths, scrub brushes etc, and scrub them down. Then give them towels to dry the toys or to lay them out on to air dry. Expect a mess, though.
Okie-doke. This was fun for me to even think about.
February 5th, 2014 at 03:18 pm 1391613515
We might make popcorn birdfeeders. That is up their alley.
So far, we've played Sorry and the Allowance Game. They are now playing Zingo.
I should also add that I still have to work today, so there will have to be something they can do without me!
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