Happy Monday! I hope you and your family had a fabulous New Year’s. We had a messy, wonderful time.
I want to say a quick thank you to Jennifer and Melissa for adding to our ornament collection last week. I’ll be making a donation in honor of Zev this week and I am so grateful to all of you who helped decorate our tree!
Here’s a few ways to make some magic this week…
1. Get an old, light colored tablecloth (or an old sheet) and spread it out on the table or floor. Take some washable markers and make a town on it, complete with streets, railroad tracks, parking lots, stores, houses, parks and zoos. Add some fun elements like an amusement park if you like too! Then get out the little people, matchbox cars, toy animals and anything else you can use and set up a little village to play with. When you’re finished, fold it up for next time or wash it to start over!
2. For a sweet eco version of the tablecloth idea, make a forest or park instead. Draw a winding river, mountains, paths, lakes and other natural features together. Then put out an assortment of natural materials like river rocks, crystals, acorns, sticks, pine cones and pine branches, and let the kids make a natural wonderland.
3. Play the Activity Mom’s Beware of Crocodiles Game.
4. Got an old record player? Put a paper plate on it and turn it on, then let the kids use crayons or markers to draw on it as it goes around. If you’re really brave, drizzle paint. When each masterpiece is finished, put a sticker in the middle over the hole. You can also cut pizza boxes and other bits from the recycling bin for the canvases.
5. Make colorful ice sculptures. Not Just Cute shows you how!
6. Play the gratitude letter game to pass time driving or waiting together. Pick a letter and then go back and forth naming things you’re grateful for that start with that letter. Teens and adults can have a minimum number of syllables (like words of 3 or more syllables) to keep it challenging with younger players. The words can be anything at all that you’re glad to have in your life, from artichokes to Aunt Julie.
7. Make aromatherapy sensory bottles. Clean out old spice bottles and insert a cotton ball with a few drops of essential oil on it. Snap on the lid with the holes and then screw on the top. Some good scents are peppermint, lavender, lemon, vanilla and even eucalyptus for when the kids have colds!
8. Make a winter wreath for the door together. Use an old wreath, grapevines, a wire coat hanger bent into an O, a wreath form or whatever else strikes your fancy as a base, and then gather up materials to make it together. It can use fabric, feathers, branches, ribbons, anything! Don’t stop creating till it makes you smile, then proudly hang it.
9. Start a thank you book for each child. Each day write down one thing for your child that you’re thankful for. It can be tangible things like helping a sibling with homework or sentimental things like having such a contagious laugh. Keep them in their rooms so they can read them at the end of each day.
10. Keep up the New Year fun. Did your kids get a kick out of tossing confetti on New Year’s Eve? Love making resolutions? Have a blast with noisemakers or party hats? Use some of those things one more time, just for the fun of it.
Happy Monday!
FANTASTIC Post!! So nice to read this after reading running blogs all night! Thank you. Love the old sheet/marker/town idea…I think I will try that in the morning! Love your blog!
Thanks for including me in a great list of activities!
So lovely to come across your magical blog, you left a very kind message on mine. thank you. I will find out how to do the subscribe option, haven’t figured it out on wordpress just yet, but if you have it I should be able to. Such gorgeous children and so many wonderful ideas. You all look like you’ve having an adventurous time out there.
I absolutely LOVE the “Thank You Book” idea. Thank YOU for coming up with such creative ideas for us not-so-creative moms!