Happy Monday!
I hope things are good in your little corner of the world. Here are a few ways to make some magic with your kiddos this week.
1. Make up some garden potions in the back yard. Kids can mix and match ingredients to personalize them, like blowing dandelion seed wishes into them. Secretly drop a bit of food coloring in the bottom of the potions so they’ll magically change color when the kids add water.
2. Make a love box. Find a fun, small box and put a treat inside. Leave it on someone’s pillow, at their seat at the dinner table or in a lunch box. The person has to put something in it and pass it on to another family member. Ideas for treats– a chocolate, a tiny toy, a poem, a drawing, a love letter, a fresh flower, a list of things you love about the person, a coupon for a back rub…
3. Start a craft sheet. This is such a fun way to make art and memories. Grab a plain white sheet (stained is good!) and designate it the new crafting sheet. Now use it to make artistic messes. Hang it up and paint on it. Put it down as a drop cloth when you do messy crafts. Use it on the kitchen table when you do art projects. Wash it when needed, knowing that some stains will keep and it will be a more and more colorful souvenir of art fun over the years.
4. Buy a pack of cheap toilet paper for the sole purpose of goofy fun. Wrap your kids up into mummies, make toilet paper streamers and run through the yard, toss it and see how long you can get the tail as you throw, experiment with getting it wet and having “snowball” fights with it… If you can, compost it when you’re finished.
5. Make a clothesline fort. Use blankets to make a backyard hidey space for your kiddos. If you don’t have a clotheslines (or a back yard!) you can use chairs in the living room or whatever you have in your space. Crawl in and join them to play for a bit too!
6. Go on an after-dark walk together. Chat, look at the moon, talk about when they were little, and enjoy how different everything feels under the stars.
7. Paint ridiculous word rocks together. You know how people paint smooth rocks to say things like love, hope and faith and leave them places? Make up some silly ones! Have them say random things like smidgeon, hyperbole and wonky. Have fun leaving them places to be discovered and imagining how people will react.
8. Let the kids use markers and decorate mama. I’ve done this plenty over the years when I was feeling worn out, fighting morning sickness or otherwise not feeling up to much in the way of magic-making. 😉
9. Next time it rains, go splash in the puddles together.
10. Bake treats or bring flowers to people who help your neighborhood — your local animal shelter, fire fighters, the office staff at your doctor’s office, whomever. Deliver them with a homemade card of thanks.
And with that, my magical peeps, I’m off to tackle a to-do list slightly longer than those aforementioned rolls of toilet paper. Have a magical week!