Keep Kids Busy With These Simple Make Ahead Projects
Kids, ya gotta love them, but man, they get bored easily! I was posting activities to Pinterest this morning and decided to do a round-up of ideas to keep kids busy. Some of these are new to me and some of them I have been using in our home for years.
Face Magnets at The Iowa Farmer’s Wife – This looks like such a fun project for little kids. I can see adding some animal face pieces and accessories…maybe even some tiny bodies!
Edible Slime at Fun at Home With Kids – This looks like an awesome recipe, no borax! She also has recipes for Edible Water Beads that looks fun. We make homemade playdoh often, but the would be a nice alternative.
Masking Tape Speedway at Kids Activity Blog – This was one of my sons all time favorite activities when he was two to three years old. I would set up a track and he would play for an hour or more. Masking tape and painters tape are both good for this but don’t let it stay for more than a day or you will get sticky residue on your rug.
Shaving Cream – Fill an old cookie sheet with shaving cream and let the kids have at it! You might want to take their shirts off before you let them dig in, let’s just say I speak from experience. My kids love to do this, my seven-year-old still asks all the time. If you want to get really creative, let them add some food coloring. I like to do this right before bath time so that they can just hop right in and get rinsed off.
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Potions – Put some baking soda in a shallow bowl, give the kids a glass of vinegar and a dropper and let them make tiny volcanoes. If you want to get really fancy, give them a few containers with water, oil, salt, sugar, flour, and let them experiment. I have collected a variety of droppers, tiny cups, fancy bottles, tiny spoons and bowls to use during this activity. Anything tiny or fancy makes them feel like wizards in a magical lab.
Blank Elephant and Piggie Comic Pages from Adventures in Tutoring and Special Education – I don’t know how many of these I have printed out in the last few years, hundreds probably. My kids will fill them out over and over again, making up new stories and retelling the Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems.
There are a ton of other round-ups out there with ideas:
13 Quiet Time Activities from The Kids Activity Blog
10 Easy Busy Bags from Powerful Mothering
25 Quiet Time Activites for Kids from Tatertots and Jello
30 Free Printable Scavenger Hunts for Kids from Buggy and Buddy
What are you go to projects for keeping kids busy?
I love these tips! I’ve never seen the face magnets before – what a great idea! This post will definitely come in handy when the weather turns cold this winter. Thanks for sharing!
I really want to do the face magnets, I kinda want to play with them 😉
Fun list of ideas! Those face magnets … Creepy but fun! 🙂 We’ve done the masking tape roadway before – a big hit. We left it up all summer.
Did you have a problem with stickum left behind? I used painters tape and left it for a few weeks and we had a sticky rug for a while. Seems fine to leave it for a day or two, though. Thanks for stopping by!
These are all great ideas!! I know I’ll be using some of these on the next rainy day when we’re trapped inside!
I hope you get some miles out of these ideas! Thanks for reading!
Those magnets are BRILLIANT! I’m definitely doing that for my preschooler. She’d love it.
TenThousandHourMama.com
Is your preschooler as obsessed with magnets as mine is?