MyBaby - Mom, I'm Bored: 8 Activities to Keep Kids Busy

Mom, I'm Bored: 8 Activities to Keep Kids Busy

Posted January 23, 2008 at 12:11AM in Activities, Arts & Crafts by kittenmama | Back

"Mom, I'm Bored!"

What Mom hasn't heard their little one utter those dreaded words? Well the next time you can be prepared with some of these fun and easy activities that are guarenteed to keep your kids entertained for at least an hour.

Bottle Beings
Raid your recycling bin and scare up a cast of extraterrestrial characters.

Materials:

Plastic beads
Pinto beans
Pennies
Colored sand
Bottles
Craft knife
Mini sponge ball or foam football
Acrylic paints
Tacky glue
Bottle caps
Buttons
Mini ball
Golf tees
Plastic forks
Colored craft wire or pipe cleaners
Pencil
Craft foam or felt
Packing tape or duct tape

Instructions:

Fill your bottles with plastic beads, pennies, pinto beans, or colored sand
For the head, use a craft knife (adults only) to cut a hole in a small ball (a mini sponge ball or foam football) large enough to fit over the cap of the bottle body it goes with. Pull the out a small amount of the inner foam once you cut the opening.
Add the facial features with acrylic paints, or use tacky glue to attatch bottle-cap or button eyes. For a bug-eyed effect, try cutting a mini ball in half.
For hair, make holes in the ball and insert golf tees or plastic forks ( you may need to trim the fork handles to half their length first).
Add ears by partially inserting plastic milk jug caps into slits cut into the sides of the ball.
For arms, curl colored craft wire (or a pipe cleaner) around a pencil. Then use a strip of packing or duct tape to attatch the center of the curled wire to the back of the bottle.
Cut out hands from craft foam or felt, and glue or tape them to the ends of the wire.

Personalized Tea Bags
Looking for the perfect valentine? This is a great idea for the tea lovers in your life – plus it’s easy and fun for your little ones too!

Materials:

Scissors
Stapler
Construction paper (red or pink for Valentine’s Day)
Pen or Marker
Tea Bags (any brand or flavor with tags)
Clear cellophane bags (try lollipop bags, seasonally decorated or fold over sandwich bags)
Ribbon

Instructions:

Use the scissors to cut heart shapes (about 2 – 4 inches wide) out of the construction paper.
Write or draw a valentine message on each heart.
Staple the handmade tag over the original tea bag.
Put 4 tea bags in the cellophane bag and tie with ribbon.

Beach Ball Math
A great way to teach your kids to add, subtract, and more!

Materials:

An inflated beach ball
Permanent marker (black or dark blue)

Instructions:

Divide the ball into large sections with the permanent marker. In each section write a numeral.
Toss the ball to another player or up in the air and catch. Locate the sections in which the player's thumb has landed, and remember the numeral.
Toss the ball again and note where the catcher's thumb lands. Add or subtract these numerals.
Keep playing!

Extensions of the Game: Increase the difficulty by using larger numbers to add and subtract, or by multiplying the numbers.

Paper Log Cabin
With this paper log construction technique, your child can build a frontier cabin without ever leaving home.

Materials:

Craft paper
Scissors
Pencil
3 1/2-inch cardboard square
Glue

Instructions:

Start with 3 x 2-inch strips of craft paper. Make logs by wrapping each one around a pencil, taping down the open edge and sliding the cylinder off the pencil. Create 24 3-inch logs: 17 to use as is and seven to trim into shorter lengths as called for.
Begin to assemble the cabin on top of the cardboard square. Glue 3-inch logs along three edges of the square, staggering the log ends. On the fourth side, create a front door opening by gluing a 1-inch log and a 3/4-inch log to either corner. Glue on two more rows of logs, alternating the shorter lengths on the sides of the door.
Add another two rows of 3-inch logs all around. For the last four rows, build onto the front and back only, using progressively shorter logs. Taper the ends to create an A-shaped roofline.
For a roof, fold a 3 1/2 by 5 inch paper rectangle in half and glue it in place atop the cabin.
To make a chimney, loosely roll up a 5-inch paper square and glue down the open edge. Then, glue the cylinder to the rear of the cabin.

PipeCleaner Duck

Materials:

4 white pipe cleaners
1 orange pipe cleaner
Googly eyes or markers
Pencil
Fingernail clippers
Glue

Instructions:

Connect two white pipe cleaners end to end.
Bundle the double pipe cleaner around a pencil to make the body. Bundle another white pipe cleaner to make a head.
Bend the orange pipe cleaner in half. Thread the folded end into the head and out through the bundle.
Thread the body onto the orange pipe cleaner.
Bend the ends of the orange pipe cleaner into V-shaped feet. For wings, clip and bend two 3-inch sections of white pipe cleaner.
Insert the wings into the body with a dab of glue (if you want) for extra strength. Glue on googly eyes or draw them with a marker.

Speed Spelling

“This fun interactive or independent game challenges your child to build as many words as he can. It allows your child to recognize word patterns, gain strategies and experience successes as well as observing great spelling strategies modeled by family members!” -Nicola Salvatico, Disney.com’s Consulting teacher.

Materials:

Paper
Markers
Timer

Instructions:

Pick a word family ( at, ab, ag, an, am, ap, ar, ed, en, et, id, ig, in, ip, it, ob, og, op, ot, ub, ug, un, ut, um).
Each person has his own paper, marker and individual letters (consonants). Set the timer for one minute (optional).
Each player then builds as many words as he can using the letters (consonants) and the word family (for example: c + at = cat) and writes the list of words on his paper.
When the timer goes off, each player then reads all the words he has built. Make sure they are real words and not nonsense words.
To extend this activity, write sentences using the words that were built!

Crazy Caption Family Photos
Give your child some family photos, old magazines or catalogs to look through for photos.

Materials:

Family photos or photos from old magazines or catalogs
Glue
Small notebook, sheet of poster board or several sheets of plain paper plus construction paper
Stapler
Pencil, pen, colored pencils or markers

Instructions:

Let him glue several photos that interest him into a small notebook or onto a sheet of poster board or several sheets of plain paper.
Encourage your child to think of a descriptive, funny, or just plain crazy captions for each photo. Have your child write the caption below the photo (with help if needed).
If you've used plain paper, assemble the pages into a booklet by adding a construction paper cover and stapling the pages together.

These great ideas came from familyfun.com, WonderTime Magazine and greatschools.net

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