10 Ways to Make Today Magical

Happy Monday!  I can’t wait to get back to yapping with you all again (if anybody is still out there!).

I’m sorry to be gone so long this time.  Life has only gotten busier since I started Magical Childhood nearly 18 years ago in 2000 (and later this blog instead of the emailed newsletter, in 2009).  Back then, I had a baby girl and a toddler, who are now both officially grown ups  — Rhiannon (Annalee) is now 18 and Victoria is 20 years old!  Luckily, I still have little ones too.  Fiona is now 6, Alex just turned 11 and Jack just turned 15.  My hands are full but my heart is happy, and I love having all different ages of kiddos to play with now.  🙂

I’ll start updating you all with some of the happenings here in our family, but in the meantime how about an old fashioned list of ways to make the day magical?

Here are 10 ways to make some magic this week!

1.  Make mud art!  Find a good place to dig in the dirt and provide some water, spoons, platters and pretties to decorate with (dried flower petals, dried beans, dragon tears, beads, etc.).  Let the kids mix up mud and make whatever designs they like and leave them to dry.  Take pictures and then just rinse and reuse the special stuff later.

2.  Drape some blankets over a clothesline, tree, tent poles or other props in the back yard and make some impromptu forts.  Stock the insides with some fun books, games, snacks, a flashlight, whatever, and see what fun the kids dream up to have in their new fun space.

3.  Use clean sand castle molds to an make ice cream castle.  Decorate wildly and eat!

4.  Teach the kids how to play marbles.  This is such a simple way to have fun at any age.  Here are the instructions if you’ve forgotten (or never learned!).

5.  Put birthday candles in each child’s dinner tonight.  It doesn’t matter if dinner is sandwiches and it’s 9 months from their birthdays, kids just love blowing out candles and feeling special. Relight them and do it again and again!

6.  Make paper boats and sail them in puddles or the kiddie pool.

7. Make some fairy wands.  This is a simple craft we’ve been doing for years.  Simply attach some colorful ribbons to sticks and you’re good to go.

8.  Have a bubble relay outside.  Players blow or carry their bubbles from person to person and start over if they pop.  Alternately, blow a bubble and see if you can work as a team to blow it across a finish line.

9.  Go for a walk in the rain with your child.  Umbrellas optional.

10. Have a family “3” challenge. See if each of you can do three sweet things today for each other family member today.  They can be tiny little things, just something to show you love them, things that you know will make them happy.  Make your teenager’s favorite dish for supper.  Leave the dishes and go read a story to your toddler.  Give extra monkey hugs (in our family, we dip kids upside down and holler “monkey hug!” and swing them back up again and again), and so on.

Have a magical week!