Plastic Bag Kite (AKA Instant Giggles!!)

Be careful.  Trying this activity will produce Instant Giggles.  Seriously!  

I took two grocery bags and cut a length of string for both bags.  (I gave my older child a bit of a longer string, but both strings were about my arms width or less.)  Tie the handles together with one end of the string.  Give to your two children.  Have them hold the other end.  Run!

Then I showed the children how I to make the bag kite fly by running with it behind me.  Then let the kids run wild!!  My children did not tire of this at all.  

Even after they stopped running, they still took the bag kites down the slide and on the swing.  

A word to the wise: If your children might fight over whose is whose, you might want to use different grocery bags.  Yeah, I learned the hard way.

A second thought:  If you recently planted tiny blueberry bushes (which are literally twigs) and they are not protected by a fence, your child might be so focused on the fun plastic bag kite they may not notice the blueberry twig...and SNAP...when you go to water your blueberry twigs later, you'll find one broken off below the soil.  Yeah.  It's a bit sad.  It's even sadder to know that you already ran over a different bush with the lawnmower's wheel, and there is only one left.  Yep, two out of three bushes-gone!

This is not my original idea, but I have no idea where I saw it whether in a book, magazine, or a friend's blog.  Edited: I suspect it was from Almost Unschoolers, a fabulous and creative blog!  (It may have been a year ago; I'm not sure...)  But this is a must-try activity!  NOW!  Go!  Do it! You will love the giggles!  I think we'll do this once a week all summer.  It won't get old that way.

I'm linking up with ABC and 123...check it out for other great ideas for kids!

Alternative Pool Play

I had no idea that a waterless pool could be so much fun!  My children had a blast in it, and it was completely my 1 1/2 year old's idea!  He threw the two plastic softballs in and then climbed in after them!  My daughter joined him.

I promise she has shorts on.  

They enjoy this a lot and have played in the waterless pool several times!

Bike Course

M recently got a bike.  She did well with it, but would go in tiny circles or down our sidewalk.  To help her, my husband drew a big oval in our driveway.


She mastered the big race track quickly.  Next, Derek thought she should do more than just one-way circles, so he made the oval into a figure 8.  This helps her to practice both left and right-hand turns.


I never would have thought to do this, and I thought it was a great idea, so I'm sharing it.

Explanations:
1) E has found the "big" shovel, and just loves pushing it all around.
2) That is a portable sandbox in the second picture.  It is still enjoyed.
3) You might notice some writing on the pavement in the bottom picture.  It says, "Happy Birthday Daddy" from January!  Impressive sidewalk paint, huh?

Indoor Snow Play

We had some fresh snow over the weekend.  It was too cold (in my opinion) to play outside.  So we brought the snow inside to M.  It doesn't snow too often here, so we take advantage when we can.

Tasty, too!

See the little piles of snow?  Those are snowmen, in case you couldn't tell.

What do you do when your child wants to play outside but the weather does not cooperate?

Carpet Skating

Recently we were carpet skating.  M walked and slid on the carpet using wax paper as "ice skates."  Bare feet work very well since the wax paper sticks nicely!

This is not an orginal idea, but it is fun!

Physical Play

The talk over to ABC and 123 is physical activity. Our M is very physical. She seems to need additional sensory stimulation, and we do try to give it to her. Her occupational therapist suggested several things. I'm happy to say they are things we encouraged her to do naturally, because M wanted to do them. Some things that her therapist had suggested were lifting heavy items like gallon jugs, pushing full laundry baskets, and giving her lots of bear hugs (especially from behind). M loves to run. We do play outside, but M is a runner. No, she doesn't go for a run with Daddy, instead she runs away from us! She is fast, too. This summer I am happy to say that she doesn't run off as often as she used to. The more time we spend outside, the more she seems to understand her boundaries. At least she will stay in the backyard unless she hears a neighbor or sees one. Then she aims for the friend she sees. Our yard is not fenced in on all sides, just in the back boundary by a field. We don't incorporate physical activity into our routine, (unless you count the used-to-be-daily walk with the kids in the stroller for most of the walk) but some of it happens inside our home easily. We have an indoor slide with climber (Kangaroo Climber by Step 2) and a toddler's trampoline. She enjoys both. M will often instigate pillow fights and squeals with delight as we duke it out. She also asks for "chase" almost every day, often many times a day. The game of chase is played inside going around in a big circle through the hall, play room, living room, and back to the hall. The adult just walks fast, chasing M. She runs and laughs the whole time. We also had a dirt pile that M loved to dig using her shovel. She could spend an hour playing in it. Since we also have a rock pile (big rocks dug out of our yard), she also likes moving them. We also have this great pool with detachable slide.

Every day she climbs all over us. She particulary likes to surf on her dad's back as he lays on the floor. She also loves it when Daddy lifts her high so she can hold on to the molding around a doorway. It looks like she's doing chin ups...but she's not the one doing the work! M is very physical, but she'll also sit and read for extended periods of time. I think it's important to have a balance...but my personality is more of the sit and play. I am usually up for a game of chase as long as I can put a stop to it after five or ten minutes.

Here M is jumping on bubble wrap. It was lots of fun to watch, so it must have been fun for her, too!

For more physical activities fun, check out ABC and 123!