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Confession time.

When everything Covid first started I was so into doing different projects with the girls. We were buying new supplies, looking up ideas, and really excited about some of the new things we got to do. It was great! Being a working mom, I FINALLY had time to do things on our “wishlist” or all of those stored up Pinterest ideas.

And it was also getting hard. Especially with two little nuggets, one being a newly walking 1-year-old, (let’s explore EVERYTHING! & tear things down, and take off running somewhere else before mom can stop me or clean up the first mess). Honestly, they also started to seem to be a little bored of mom bugging them to do crazy project time every day. I remember one day when P said to me “mom I kind of need to be left alone today”…OMG! She was barely four then BTW.

So although there were still going to be days where they needed me to structure the day a little more than others, we started to add in more dance party days, movie days, and just really free for all days. I needed to simplify things for ALL of us before we all drove each other nuts, even the little 1-year-old. After all, when it comes down to it, that’s the motto I’ve been trying to have us live by anyways; make life simple to enjoy more of it!

So here’s what we are doing these days…in case you are running out of ideas to entertain, to keep busy, and tire out these little ones (PS, it’s ALL of us). Oh, and these activities can be set up and enjoyed within 30 minutes.

Nature Walk

As easy as it sounds. We stayed in our own yard on this particular day but can also be done around the neighborhood or at a park. We were on a mission to find as many bugs as we could, flowers, stones, anything in nature. P had this magnifier/bug catcher that she used to briefly look at some of the bugs we found but you do not have to have anything besides yourself.

Talk with them about what sounds you hear, how things feel, and when you look closely enough what you see. We noticed how on some of the flowers and flower petals that we looked at, you could still see small raindrops from a shower that happened a few hours earlier. You can even set up themes such as trying to find things by color or size. If you want a bit of a challenge check out our outdoor scavenger hunt.

Water Play

If you have a kiddie pool or water table great but if not I’ve got options for you… baby bath tub, buckets, really anything that can hold water! Let them experiment with different containers transferring water between them. Talk about how the amount of liquid that can fit in each container changes between the shapes and sizes of containers. We used sponges in our water play and we did a little race on who could fill up their container full of water first using just the sponge to put the water in. We also talked about how the sponges are heavier when they are full of water and different sponges hold different amounts of water. If you want you can even add some food coloring to the water and experiment with creating different colors.

Shadow Making

I’ll admit this one did not keep them busy for as long as the other activities and my 1 year old just started to do her own thing, but… it still was a lot of fun! We experimented with how on different surfaces our shadows looked different. Also how in different areas depending on where the sun hit, even though it was the same time of day, our shadows would look different. P now likes to check out how her shadow looks at all different times of the day or while doing different things and holding different poses or objects.

For older kids, you can let them experiment with taking pics of their shadows especially at different times of the day. Have them identify when the sun seems strongest and discuss how plants and nature react to that as well. You could even have one draw or trace another’s shadow with chalk. I think what makes this activity so much fun, despite how simple it is, is that it allows you to get really silly and we all need some of that, don’t we?

Bring Back the Classics

Isn’t it crazy how much you forget from childhood until you have kids? I mean when I was a kid we used to play freeze tag at least once a day in the summer and at times for hours on end. These were some of the best games and didn’t require much of anything except for some energy, another person, and lots of laughs. So bring these back with your kids;

• Freeze tag
• Hide-n-seek
• Duck, duck, goose
• London bridge
• Simon says
• Red light, green light
• I spy

Sidewalk Chalk Neighborhood

OK, so I have to admit, this is my favorite one of all these activities. I used to play this on repeat when I was little. So many different ways to create this too which allows your kids and your creativity to flow. Today we created ours out of sidewalk chalk. We created a neighborhood with a store, restaurant, park and we used our hot wheels cars car wash & service center too. We had parking lots, a drive thru with arrows to teach about following directions, and stop signs. We have also created this using poster board and a sharpie and with craft paper. I’ll have to admit P was devastated when we went out the next day and her neighborhood was gone after a rain storm. I reminded her it just meant we were able to create a new one, in which she requested I create the city of Chicago…so cannot say I didn’t warn you they might REALLY enjoy this.

Another way you can use this activity is with Barbie cars or even Fisher Price Little People cars. You can also create a larger version and depending on the space available, for kids and their bicycles. But even if you just have some sidewalk space you can draw some yellow lines, a few stop signs and now you have a road.

I hope you all enjoy these activities as much as we did!