Yay for Friday! This week has just flew by and today was Jaiden’s last day of school! Since it’s now officially summer break for us, I wanted to share some of my ways of keeping my kids busy during the LONG summer days :)
Last year I was beyond nervous as summer was approaching. I had no idea how I was going to keep two very busy toddlers and a 6 year old from going stir crazy all by myself. After scouring the internet and getting advice from my mom and mother in law's I was able to come up with a plan that worked.. on most days :)
I went through their toys and separated them into plastic tubs (and freezer bags for the smaller things) and would rotate what I gave them to play with every couple of days. It's so funny how excited kids will get to play with their current toys if they haven't had access to them in a few days. I did this in order to keep things exciting. Playing with the same thing day after day can get boring. Imagine watching the same movie over and over again or reading the same book back to back. Not very interesting.
Our neighborhood has a pool but taking three kids to the pool by myself isn't ideal and honestly gives me anxiety just thinking about it. If the girls could swim without their puddle jumpers it'd be a different story. I bought a blow up pool from Walmart for around $20 and got bunch of pool toys and would also switch those out every couple of days. We also have a water table that the girls LOVE. I would sit on the back patio as they played for HOURS at a time and when they began to get bored I would give them a popsicle. By the time they were done with their popsicle they were ready to play in the pool or water table again.
We will also play with water balloons from time to time. Corey is VERY particular about the yard and isn't a huge fan of water balloons all in the grass. The solution to this is you keep all of the water balloons in a bucket- when they pop the ones they have they have to bring back the same amount of popped balloons as they want you to give them. That way they are having fun and cleaning up after themselves at the same time.. MOM WIN!
CHALK AND BUBBLES!!! You can never go wrong with either of these. Jaiden and Scarlett would stay outside forever if I let them but Ophelia on the other hand... well she's my little drama queen. She hates getting hot and sweaty. We usually do chalk on the driveway so I will set up a fan in the garage so when she gets hot she can sit in there by the fan to cool off.. literally and figuratively lol.
Since Jaiden is older he doesn't last long with chalk and bubbles but he always ends up getting his sisters to "race" him across the yard. All 3 of them are very competitive so not only do they race each other, they also like to beat their own times.
If you’re okay with your kitchen/ table to get really messy, Publix sells a make your own personal pizza kit in the deli section. It comes with 4 crusts and all of the ingredients needed to make them. My kids love making their own pizza and then they have lunch. It's a win win.
This one is my kids favorite- but who am I kidding... it’s my favorite too lol. I bought cookie cutters and the writeable icing. The kids get to make the shape cookies they want then decorate them with icing and sprinkles when they're done baking and cooling off. This does tend to also get messy but it keeps them busy and happy.
If its raining out we do a movie day. I let the kids pick out the .99 boxes of candy that they want from the store and I pop some popcorn and we watch a movie that at least 2 out of 3 of them agree on (you can't always please everyone LOL). When they get tired of watching movies we will usually play a board game or pop the pig.
What are some of the things that you do to keep your kids busy and happy?
xoxo
No comments:
Post a Comment