Make a Mask

Take a paper plate and cut out two circles for the eyes. Then have them decorate a funny, scary or whatever type of face. Glue a popcicle stick to the plate for them to use as a handle. Then use them!

Be a Bus Driver

Get outside and have your child ride their big wheel, bike, or tricycle. Have them pretend they are a bus driver and stop at houses to pick up kids. You will get a slow walk in..but hey, you are outside and not on your hands and knees digging in the dirt or playing with chalk.

Search for Pennies

If you have a babysized pool and a few friends over, then grab a handful of pennies. Have the kids look away while you toss some pennies into the pool. Say go...and let them hunt for pennies. Then have them count them to see who gets to hide them next.

Challenge:
If you have older kids you could use other coins and have them practice counting their money.

Car Wash

It might be getting a little cool for this now, but a friend of mine says this keeps her girls busy for hours. Bring out the kiddy vehicles in your garage..the push car, bigwheels, bikes etc. Get out the chalk and a bucket with some bubbly water and the hose, if you are brave. Let the kids drive the cars around, color on them with chalk...or the chalk paint mentioned in a prior blog post. Then they get to wash them off.

Giant Board Game

Head outside one of these nice fall days and get out the chalk...oh and bring a dice or spinner from a game you have inside. We happen to have a pair of giant sized dice that my husband got at a work thing.

Draw a giant board game on the driveway. Add special spots that have you running around the house, going back, or ahead certain numbers of spaces, or doing other outside tasks.

My son loves this. Making the board and playing gets you outside for almost an hour.

Bake

Get your child involved in the kitchen. Start out easy with a box muffin mix that only has you adding water. Soon your child will be asking for something with more ingrediants...like mine. Which motivates you to brave the world of cooking from scratch.

Picture scavenger hunt

My son got a digital kid camera for xmas this past year. When I am trying to make dinner or fold laundry etc. I will have him go on a scavenger hunt with his camera. I will say..find something red...and he has to go take a picture of it. Other ideas:

Find something square
Find something you love
Find something alive
Find something that belongs to your daddy
Find your favorite toy
Find a place you clean yourself

Picture Time

Take your kiddo on a nature hike outside and let them snap a few pictures. Then print them off and let them put them in their own photo album.

Penny Clean Up Challenge

Trying to motivate your child to pick up...this is a little silly because by the time you have placed all the pennies you, personally, could have cleaned up the entire play area...however, your child would not have helped. So on a rainy day when he/she has pulled out every toy and it is time to clean up..make it fun!

Hide some pennies or stickers underneath some of the toys. Then tell them that they need to find the pennies. The trick is that if they pick up a toy to find a penny they have to put it away..whether there is a penny there or not.

I found that when I did this, my son was a little over three and he had a hard time remembering to put the things away. I had to watch and remind. But he had a fun time and got super excited.

Memory and Go Fish

Yes! You can buy these games but why not turn it into two activities. Get some index cards and make the cards with your child and then play! I did the alphabet and numbers and my son is proud to play with the cards that he made.

Make your own chalk paint

Chalk paint
¼ cup corn startch
¼ cup water
Food coloring
I found that your child has to be patient because when you first paint it there isn't a bright mark but as it dries the markings are very bright!...but it doesn't make large markings. I think my son had more fun mixing it and picking the colors that he wanted.

Paint the Sidewalk without a mess!

Use sponge paint brushes and water and let the kids go nuts painting the driveway or anything. By the time they finish, it starts to disappear, and they have to start over…avoids the chalk mess but the kids usually get wet.

PlayDough Mystery Shapes

First, use a broad-tip marker to draw shapes (circle, square, etc.) on construction paper, one shape per sheet. Cover the sheets with clear contact paper. Have your child roll play dough into ropes and shape them over your drawings. Have your child close his or her eyes and try to identify each shape. You can also play this game with letters and numbers.

Snowball fights

Build forts and toss snowballs, wadded up socks or paper

Fishing in the bathtub

One night I was giving my son Charley a bath and we came up with this game.

Scatter bath abc letters in the tub. We would take turns grabbing a letter and telling each other what we caught...for example if I caught a c I caught a car. If he caught an a he caught an apple. Be silly fishing for things in the tub by naming something that starts with that letter and then snagging the letter. Take turns.

Or

Scatter letters and adult calls out a letter and then you race your child to finding the letter first. Great for letter recognition.

Number Board

Help your child learn the value of counting, sorting and pattern recognition by making a colorful number board. First, use a marker, ruler and piece of paper to draw a chart with twelve rows. In the top row, write a title like "Charley's Numbers." Along the left edge, number the remaining rows 0 through 10. Next, collect small objects in groups of 1 to 10. Try to find beads, buttons, paper clips, dry cereal and more. Help your child glue each group of objects onto the appropriate row. Finally, put the finished work in a place where your child is able to touch the object as he or she counts it.

Timer Hide

Materials: A timer that ticks

Hide the timer after you set it for 3-5 minutes. Your child has to find the timer before it rings. They can use their sense of hearing to find it.

Pirate Treasure Hunt

Pick a few rooms in your house and call them your islands. Take a piece of paper and draw symbols for these rooms on the paper (like an apple for the kitchen and a tv for your family room). Take 4 post it notes and number them 1 thru 4. Hide each one on a different island. Then hide a treasure (a snack, an old toy, whatever makes your child happy). Your child's first job is to find post it note number 1 first. Give them a verbal clue or just tell them which island it is on. Once they find the post it note have them bring it to you and then you give them the next clue. They have to find the four clues before they get the final one.

This activity will keep your child busy while you can putter around the house getting things done. My son got hooked on it but I insisted that we only play it once a day so it was special.