Kidstuff Links
Kidstuff
Playthings, Gardening, Storytelling, Games, Cooking and Baking, Collecting, Crafts, Bird Watching, Kite Flying, Sewing, Scrapbooks, Paper dolls, Puppets, Cloud Watching, Bubble Blowing, Playing Pretend, Music, are just some ideas of activities which kids enjoy.
When my siblings and I were growing up, we didn't have the toys and computer games the kids nowadays have. But we had a lot of fun with what we had! Try these out with your kids and I'm sure they'll have fun too!
Playthings need not only come from the toy store. Pots and pans, plastic measuring cups and spoons, empty spools, plastic jars and tops, buttons, cardboard tubes, paper plates, macaroni, cereal boxes,egg cartons, and other household stuff make great playthings (be sure though that they are safe and not small enough to swallow, depending on your child's age). Make building blocks out of empty cartons or plastic bottles. Make play jewelry from painted macaroni, empty spools or colorful buttons.
Gardening is an enjoyable activity for kids. Start with seeds or plants that are easy to care for. When we were kids I remember we had cactus plants of different shapes that hardly needed any care. For more on gardening, look up my kidstuff links.
Storytelling is something kids love. We can tell a "made up" story about familiar object or experiences, or we can tell of our own adventures when we were young. One of my daughter Elyse's favorite stories is about when she was born and how happy we were when she arrived. Old favorites and simple stories are fun both to read in picture books or to tell to our kids. Favorite Bible stories like Noah's Ark and Adam and Eve are good for even the youngest kids. I began reading to Elyse from the very beginning. Little kids like having the same story read to them again and again. Soon they've memorized the story and they enjoy participating and filling in the blanks. My favorite stories as a girl were The Velveteen Rabbit and The Secret Garden. For Children's Room reading lists, check out my kidstuff links page.
And maybe your kids, like my daughter and nephews, will enjoy making up their own stories too (although, some of the stories they make up can get really gross!)
Games like Charades, Gossip, We all help to Tell this story, Memory Game, Pretend, are a lot of fun for everyone.
Cooking and Baking is for everyone, not just for girls and their mommies. Start out with simple recipes. Elyse loves making gelatin, cookies, and brownies (pre-mixed), and there's always a lot of tasting while she's mixing.
Collecting is a hobby that many kids and adults enjoy. Encourage your kids to collect something which interests them, like postage stamps, buttons, coins, small colored stones, pieces of rock, and postcards. I collect a lot of things - postage stamps (only architectural designs like houses and buildings and Christian themes, mostly Christmas), miniature books, children's books, small boxes, small stuffed toys (specially teddy bears), etc.
Crafts like homemade clay, potato stamping, Easter eggs, stencilling, crayon resist, rubber stamping, finger painting, paper snowflakes are just some of the craft projects I'll be telling you about. Encourage your kids to make homemade greeting cards and gifts. There is a special value in gifts and cards that aren't store bought. My daughter made collages of her grandparents on their anniversaries. She used a picture of them and cut out their faces, added fabric clothes and borders and framed it in a store bought frame. They loved it! She also made me a Heart collage.
Crafts projects like tie dye t-shirts are great for even smaller kids. My 4 year old nephews enjoyed choosing the colors and dipping the tied shirts. How proud they were when they wore their creations! And I still have some of the projects that we made as kids - my mom helped us make paper mache piggy banks with a balloon "mold" and funny looking "people" made with toilet paper and toilet paper rolls.
Kids can also help in making decorations for family celebrations. Also, many of the ideas in my crafts page can be simplified to suit children. My kidstuff links page has links to other sites with crafts for kids.
Bird Watching & feeding are not only interesting, they're educational and good for the environment too. Why not set up a bird feeder and bird house in your garden!
Kite Flying is an activity we all enjoyed as kids. My dad, who is in his 70s still takes us kite flying once in a while, but now, together with our kids too. He has all sorts of kites, one which we call "the mattress" cause it almost looks as if it's as big as a bed mattress. My daughter, Elyse, celebrated her 9th birthday with an afternoon of kite flying - the first time she got to fly the kite all by herself! For more about kite flying and free kite patterns, visit my links page.
Stargazing is fun on clear cloudless nights. Get to know the names of the star groups. My dad taught us where the Southern Cross, the Big Dipper, Orion, etc were. He also had a telescope and we each took turns in looking at the craters of the moon.
Sewing doll clothes and other projects is something my daughter Elyse really enjoys. Who cares if the stitches are crooked and uneven? The finished product is always beautiful. A simple first project is an apron for a small doll. First make a cloth square hemmed with a running stitch on three sides. For the fourth side, sew a ribbon in a coordinated color while hemming with a running stitch.
Scrapbooks with pictures, drawings, and other mementos will keep kids busy today and be a treasure in the years to come. I still have drawings I made when I was in kindergarten! For scrapbook
ideas, visit my links page.
Paper dolls are easy to make yourselves from scraps, old catalogs and other stuff around the house. For paperdolls, you can cut "people" out of magazines and catalogs. When I was young, I used to trace paperdolls from a picture I got from a magazine, mount my drawing on cardboard, and make a whole wardrobe for each doll. Then my sisters and I would decorate a big cardboard box with clippings from old catalogs - curtains for windows, picture frames for the walls, clocks, etc.
Puppets from old socks with yarn for hair, buttons for eyes, and felt for the mouth are great for young kids and easy to make. Elyse still has the clown sock puppet I made for her and she also enjoyed making brown paperbag puppets and putting up a puppet show.
Cloud Watching is a great activity for a nice cloudy day. Go on a picnic in a nice open area and lay on a mat. Watch the clouds go by and show each other the animals, people, things and other shapes you see in the clouds. For more sites on cloud watching, visit my links page.
Bubble Blowing is fun for even the youngest kids. Make your own bubble solutions (it's cheaper!). For more sites on bubble blowing and for bubble solution recipes, visit my links page.
Playing Pretend is something we did a lot of when we were kids. We even played pretend just before going to sleep at night. We called it "Lying down, lying down and we would "walk" and talk while (obviously) lying down in bed.
A lot of household items can be used as props for professions such as a teacher (black board, tables, stools, bell, papers, books, pencils, ), doctor or nurse (old headphones for a stethoscope, strips of cloth or toilet paper for bandages, small flashlight, empty plastic vitamin bottles, old scarves for a sling, old white shirt, tray)- Elyse even had a real nurse's cap, a gift from her doctor auntie. Also, for a hairdresser (one of my daughter's favorites - combs, towels, empty plastic shampoo bottles, basin, mirror), Bank or Office( old "official" looking papers, old calculator), Kitchen food (play dough), Supermarket,-(play money, cerael boxes, plastic bottles). At all times, make sure that all the items are safe for your child's age level.
Music - Make musical instruments such as shakers, clappers, drums and bottle "xylophone". Shakers: put rice, beans, sand, pasta in boxes, plastic bottles, cardboard tubes or soda cans. Drums: use a pail, bowl or large tin covered with a piece of plastic stretched tight across. Clappers: two pieces of wood. Bottle xylophone, fill old bottles with different amounts of water, hit with a fork. The more water, the lower the sound.
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