Go, Speed Racer, Go!

Are you stuck inside on a cold or rainy day? Do you have sick kids who can't attend playgroups or go to the nursery, keeping you at home and confined? Are your kids tired of their toys and acting out because they are bored? Try this!

Set up stations around the room with different sets of toys. I used three different puzzles, a shape sorter, stacking cups and pull-back cars. Depending on the ages/stages of your kids, you can make things more challenging by mixing all the puzzle pieces together instead of sorting them by puzzle, spreading out the stations or maybe even using blindfolds.

Treat the game like an obstacle course. Time them and see how fast they can complete all of the activities. They can compete against each other if they are close in age or against their own best time. Take turns with the kids setting up the different activities and rules - they might think of ways to use their toys that you wouldn't have. Here are some other ideas for stations:

• Build a block tower X blocks high (varied based on the age of the child)
• Say all the sounds of the Little People farm animals as you hold each one up
• Do a somersault or jumping jacks
• Say the alphabet or count to 20
• Roll a ball towards anything resembling bowling pins (toilet paper/paper towel cores)
• Make a snake out of play-doh

The possibilities are endless... and you can bet that they won't be bored with their toys for much longer!

Making 'the Kid's Table' Memorable

A thought recently occurred to me: in most families, each 'sub-family' is generally asked to bring something to contribute to the family holiday meal. Whether you're in charge of dessert, a side dish or wine, everyone contributes something so no one is burdened with the responsibility of feeding the entire family.

Another thought occurred to me as well: why doesn't someone take charge of the kids' activities this year? There are so many crafts and projects that are simple to organize and will keep the kids busy and entertained so the adults can catch up with each other and enjoy the holiday too. Age appropriateness needs to be taken into consideration, but maybe you could pair up older cousins with younger ones and have a creativity contest that the rest of the family can 'judge'? Everyone can get involved that way - and who doesn't love prizes?!

If you're hosting the party, you could use these projects before the party to have your kids create decorations for the centerpiece, mantle and placesettings. Holidays are more fun for kids when they feel that they are involved and can contribute! (Click on each title for instructions)

Village People

Pilgrim Place Cards

Pilgrim Pal

Make Your Own Hats

Alphabet Treasure Hunt

My kids love playing peek-a-boo, so I'm already seeing plenty of games of hide and seek in our future. I started thinking that we can (and should) take the things that our kids love to do already and use them to make learning more fun. If your kids are old enough, try this: Get magnetic alphabet letters for the refrigerator and hide them around the house (use one room for little kids, the whole house for older kids). Give them some time to race around to find the letters and bring them back to the refrigerator. Help them identify the letters and put them in ABC order. If any letters are still missing, help them figure out which ones are missing by singing the alphabet song. What are some other ideas for teaching kids their letters (and numbers)? As an added incentive to contribute your ideas, you'll get another entry in my blog giveaway for commenting!! If you haven't entered yet, see the post below for all the contest details!

Around the World

I love to travel! I think that seeing how others live their lives and experiencing other cultures is one of my very favorite things to do. New foods, new sights, new languages, new stamps in my passport... I love it all! Though travelling with kids can be next to impossible, that doesn't mean you can't foster a love of other cultures in them at an early age. I saw an idea this month that my mind just ran with! You start by making your child his very own passport. You can get as creative as you want with this - use old maps, scrapbook paper, stickers, colored paper, glitter, ribbons - or as basic as you want (white paper and a couple staples and let your child decorate himself). Label the pages with a country name. Look at a globe or map together and let your child choose which countries he would like to learn more about. Has he heard about some on TV or in school that he is curious about? Does he like a particular kind of food from a certain part of the world? Customize it based on his interests! From there, focus on learning - but make it fun! Research the different kinds of food they eat, the music they listen to, the climate, the major languages spoken, major religions, what tourists do when they visit, what continent it's on, how long it would take to get there... and anything else you can think of! As you're learning about it, find some recipes you'd like to try or take out some books from the library about that country. Find online resources that would teach simple words in another language. Label things around the house in that language! Make it a family affair by talking about what you learned at the dinner table. When you feel that you've learned all you can about a country and you're ready to move on to the next one, draw the country's flag in your passport to represent "visiting" that country. There doesn't have to be a deadline on finishing this, so you can keep adding more countries or spend all your time on just a few. Kids love to learn - why not harness that energy and learn something new together!

A Screen Time Money Maker

I saw this idea in the October issue of Family Fun magazine and knew that I wanted to remember it for the future. The basic idea is that you give your child 7 $1 bills for the week. Each $1 bill represents 1 hour of screen time (TV, video games or computer games), and every time they engage in an hour of time, they have to hand over $1. The cool thing about this is that they get to keep the leftover money at the end of the week, which teaches them to discern whether or not they really wanted to watch a certain show or if they wanted to save a little extra money that week. This would really come in handy if your child is at the age where he/she wants to buy things - what a great way to teach money management! Since they obviously can't get a job to earn money, this will show them the value of a dollar in a different way. I'm still trying to figure out how I'll use this concept with two boys. I can hear it now, "But Mom, that was Owen's pick for a show, why do I have to give over a dollar too?" This idea would work great in the vacuum of a one child household, but I'm sure it can be modified to fit your needs too. What do you think? Do you have ideas for how to limit your child's screen time? Are you going to let them watch TV at all? Do you already catch yourself letting them watch too much? (Are you secretly slightly afraid that they are going to start monitoring your screen time when they are old enough to understand this? I am! : ))