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I don’t know about the rest of you with kiddos, but over here, winter is getting on our nerves. We’ve been stuck inside for way too long and have pretty much played with everything in the house. And then played with it again. We’ve been to playscapes, mall play areas, bounce houses, etc. But sometimes it’s just time to stay home and make your own fun!! And that’s what we did over the weekend.
I filled up two bowls with ice cubes and gave Lucas some tongs and spoons and let him transfer the ice between the two bowls. It kept him busy for ages and he had a great time. I thought it would be fun to color the ice, so I got out the food coloring and let L stir colors into the ice. We mixed blue and yellow ice together and made green ice, etc. It was super fun and had a nice little lesson in colors hidden in there too. And here is a “tip”, if you are done with colored ice or what to make new colors, just rinse the ice off in the sink and boom, it’s white again!
Magnets and cookie sheets are an old stand-by, but are always a good time. Our refrigerator is not magnetic, so this is really the only time we get to play with all of our fun magnets. We had fun spelling words and playing with the animals.
Since it’s so winter, we haven’t been able to play in the sandbox in forever. But we can play indoors with Moon Sand! Lucas loved it. He loves playing in the sandbox and I think that this was a good alternative to it. If I had any regular sand, I would totally bring it indoors and set him up in the kitchen on a big tarp and fill up a storage bin with sand and sand toys and let him go crazy! Now that I think about it, maybe I’ll have to buy a bag of sand… I put it in a cake pan to contain some of the mess, but yeah, it was still messy. It only took like 5 minutes to clean up though, so it was no big deal.
Over at this blog (Make It and Love it), they give instructions on how to “make” crayons. I knew as soon as I read it, we would have to try this. I am already trying to decide what shapes I want to make. I know Lucas is going to love having a bunch of mixed up crayon colors in cool shapes and will totally love to help with the process.
I’d love to hear what ideas you have come up with for indoor winter (or rainy day) fun?? We have also:
-Had indoor picnics
-Colored on the windows with Crayola window markers (and)
-Gone “swimming” in the big bathtub
oh my gosh! what great ideas, i especially LOVE the ice cube one! that’s got to be great for their hand eye coordination and dexterity! oh and what is moon sand? looks super fun!!!
Moon sand is sort of the texture of wet sand. It’s easy to mold things and then make new things. But like sand, it’s messy!
http://www.moonsand.com/
Hey Jennifer I stumbled across your blog from following Shannons (I am from the JS board) and I think it is great! Great indoor ideas, we are always looking for fun things to do in the summer because I can only go to the pool so many times and 100 degree temps are not fun to play outside in:) My boys love the moon sand, especially the construction set.
Ohh, I will have to check that set out! That is funny that we stay inside in the winter and you stay inside in the summer :)!
wow what great and creative ideas!!
Amber’s Notebook
Thanks Amber! I hope you are feeling well!
Great idea about the colored ice cubes!
Out this is outdoor fun…but Grandma Dorothy used to give us big buckets of water and huge paint brushes and let us paint her deck and even her house. That was way cool. I bet L would love that. brian better build you a deck first though. Or he could paint the swing set.
Oh my gosh…I almost forgot your mom’s favorite Gavin story. Gavin used to always take his toy fishing pole in the shower with him. I know L takes baths but it would prolly work even better in the tub.