Remember that children come clean in the bath! Messy play is great but be sure to take precautions, dress in old clothes and have old sheets to throw over the things you don’t want damaged during art and craft.
Remember that often the simplest games that allow children degrees of creativity are often the best. Incidental learning can occur through everyday activities so structured play is not always necessary.
When going to a party, make the card and even the present yourselves! I know that isn’t a very good promotion for my store, but often I am told that children already have everything, so why not make something! Collage a tissue box, make a jewellery box out of a show box. Let your imagination run wild!
Sutherland libraries have free story time, call them to find out times.
Make your own kites and go and fly them in the park. This teaches a number of things! The making of the kite can be as creative as they like with colours etc. The have to cut things out (fine motor skills) thread string and glue. Flying the kite is so enjoyable and gives an opportunity to talk about why and how things fly with wind.
Cooking
Kids are fantastic in the kitchen! There are heaps of great children’s cookbooks available (a couple of which you can get from REACH J ). Go through them and choose something together, then write a shopping list a go to the grocery store and get your child to find the right ingredients so that you can cook the dish. They will feel so proud to have done something from start to finish and gain more of an understanding of what you do (very helpful in the older years!)
Make your own snap cards. You can draw a large rectangle on cardboard that the children have to cut out and draw two of the same picture on the cards for snap. This can also be done with opposites, colours, letters etc.
On a wet winters day there is nothing better than curling up with a good book. Children can be taken to far away lands and be allowed to let their imagination run wild. You can then dress up and act out the book or make your own books or illustrations. You could even dress their teddy bears up as characters from the story and have a party, play games like three legged racers, egg and spoon race (so good for coordination), hide and seek and sleeping lions.
Chalk board paint is now available making it easy for creative fun, even if you don’t have the room for an easel.
Play dough is fantastic for many reasons that I am sure you all know! Here is a simple recipe:
1 cup plain flour
¼ cup salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
½ cup boiling water
Your desired colour of food colouring (just a few drops)
Combine all this in a bowl and allow children to knead until a dough forms.
There are many shops where you can buy raw art and craft materials such as blank masks, DAS modeling clay, and canvases. These all allow for a lot of fun and creativity… and a lot of mess!
Play straight faces. This allows children so much creative expression you ill want to wet yourself when you see the results. Take it turns… one of you has to keep a straight face while the other does everything in their power to make the other laugh. This is also a great opportunity to talk about the different emotions we feel and how we can control them.
Furnish their own rooms. Unpainted and stained furniture is A LOT cheaper than the beautiful stuff that is available. You can draw up a plan of how you would like it done and allow the children to paint their own furniture. You may not think it looks as nice as what ‘Tree House’ are selling but I guarantee that your child will think it is the best thing ever and feel more responsible and take more ownership for their own room and belongings. Then, when they are sick of it, you can just paint over it again.
Sand is very cheap and easy to buy from Bunning’s or your local hardware store. In the winter time it is often not possible to be able to go to the beach or the local park so it is a good option to make your own. All you need is an old tyre under somewhere covered, fill it with a couple of bags of sand and wallah! Your very own sandpit. Children can now play for hours, feeling the texture, building and experimenting.
Make your own jigsaw puzzles. Blow up their favourite photo, or get a picture they like out of a magazine that has their favourite character. Glue it to a big piece of cardboard, then cut the cardboard up. Once they have done this they can try and fit it back together again to make the picture.
Window paint is a fantastic indoor activity and a great variation of traditional paint. Painting a nice bright rainbow and other happy pictures for the windows are sure to brighten up a dull day. |
