You might be wondering …
What should I do
with my kids today?!
Daily Idea #126: Handprint Art
School is starting and in most places it looks very different than what you may be used to. For a first day or first week of school activity we like to record things about our children— various favorite books or movies, best friends, games they like, foods they may like or dislike, and hand and foot prints. But sometimes, it’s not so fun to just get your hands covered in paint or ink and then move on so we make an art project put of it.
With finger paint or a washable paint of some kind use a paint brush to get a thin layer of paint on your child’s hands. Have them press their whole hand onto a piece of paper and see what other things you can turn the hand into (a turkey, an octopus, a tree…) Use some markers and your imagination and see what art comes of it.
Daily Idea #125: Ice Man Chip-ith
Today’s daily idea takes a little bit of prep so it may be better used for tomorrow or late in the afternoon today.
Take a few toys that are waterproof (or water resistant) and place them into a medium sized Tupperware container. Place the first 3-4 toys with water into the container and put it in the freezer. When that layer is frozen (or almost frozen) take 3-4 more toys and repeat the process. Keep doing this until the container is full with ice and toys. When the whole ice block is solid remove it from the container and let the kids chip away the ice with spoons and forks and melt it away with sponges and towels.
You can make it even more exciting by adding food coloring to each layer and see which colors melt the fastest.
Daily Idea #124: Sumo Wrestling
We have days where the kids are bouncing off the walls and each other, literally. There is only so much space that we have to stay out of each other’s way. So we capitalize on that; we let them safely have at it.
One of those ways is to sumo wrestle. Get two big pillows, attach them to each child’s front with a belt or a scarf, and let the games begin.
Daily Idea #123: Rocket Straws
I can’t think of anything more fun for kids than to make things fly. My kids are always throwing things up in the air or making paper airplanes to glide across the room. We are taking this flying object thing to the next level and making rocket straws for today’s daily idea.
ITEMS NEEDED—
Straws
Printer paper (light-weight paper)
Tape (or glue)
Scissors
HOW TO MAKE ROCKET STRAWS
Cut your piece of 8 x 11 printer paper into 12 pieces. If you are holding the paper so the long sides are on the side and the shorter side on the top, you’ll cut 6 lines across, and 1 line down the center. Each piece will end up being about 2″ by 4″.
Decorate the paper with markers, stickers, etc…
Roll the paper strip loosely around the straw.
Tape the roll along the edge to keep it rolled.
Fold the top of the paper tube down and tape it.
Put the paper tube on the straw – and blow!
Daily Idea #122: Lego Letters
I love Legos— but I am horrible at creating things on my own. I need the instructions (IKEA is my Lego, as my husband jokes). However, for today’s daily idea I am busting out them out and we are creating the first letters of each of our names with the Legos.
We are going to be doing this freehand but you can also draw a large letter on a piece of paper and the use the Legos to fill in the spaces.
Daily Idea #121: Cookie Head
I know the days have really started to blend together but today is Sunday (trust me) and having a small treat to start the week is always a win in my book.
So for today’s daily idea everyone is going to get a cookie— homemade, store bought, left over from Girl Scouts, whatever… The caveat is that they cookie is going to placed on each person’s forehead. The goal is to then get the cookie into their mouth without using their hands! Seriously, no hands! It’s a lot harder than it looks 😏
Daily Idea #120: Paper Suck
For today’s daily idea you will need a straw (we’ve used plastic straws but a metal or paper straw should work just the same) and some 3X5 notecards or paper cut into 3X5 sections.
The game itself is simple. By sucking through the straw, lift each piece of paper one by one from a pile on your left side to a new pile on your right side. You can compete against yourself by timing how long it takes to do this the first time and then beating your score in subsequent rounds or against other players that whomever gets all their papers to the other side first wins.
Daily Idea #119: Tongue Twisters
Today as an impromptu daily idea my kids started looking up tongue twisters. Tongue twisters are not only funny to try and say without messing up they help with diction and enunciation. We’ve put together 14 of our favorites for you all to try 😋
TONGUE TWISTERS:
Any noise annoys an oyster but a noisy noise annoys an oyster more.
If a black bug bleeds black blood, what color blood does a blue bug bleed?
If two witches were watching two watches: which witch would watch which watch?
Mix a box of mixed biscuits with a boxed biscuit mixer.
If you notice this notice, you will notice that this notice is not worth noticing
The bottom of the butter bucket is the buttered bucket bottom.
A skunk sat on a stump and thunk the stump stunk, but the stump thunk the skunk stunk.
Lesser leather never weathered wetter weather better.
She saw Sharif’s shoes on the sofa. But was she so sure those were Sharif’s shoes she saw?
To begin to toboggan first buy a toboggan, but don’t buy too big a toboggan. Too big a toboggan is too big a toboggan to buy to begin to toboggan.
Betty bought butter but the butter was bitter, so Betty bought better butter to make the bitter butter better.
How much wood could a wood chuck; chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear, Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair, FuzzyWuzzy wasn’t very fuzzy… was he???
I wish to wish the wish you wish to wish, but if you wish the wish the witch wishes, I won’t wish the wish you wish to wish.
Daily Idea #118: Origami
Remember when fidget spinners were all the rage? They have all but disappeared but I found a way to bring them back (in small order). I stumbled upon this really great website to create an origami fidget spinner!
So get your papers out and start folding!
Daily Idea #117: Picture Books
In one of our past daily ideas we called up our grandparents and went through our family tree. For today’s daily idea we are going to through old photo books. I’m taking out our wedding album, family albums, pictures from college and whatever else my kids are willing to sit through and about which to ask questions. They love hearing stories about when I was there age so if I can pictures to go along with it, then that’s what we’ll do!
Daily Idea #116: Flashlight Hide and Seek
Today’s daily idea is coming to you in the evening and this is definitely more of a nighttime game anyway.
Flashlight Hide and Seek is exactly like it sounds. One person is the seeker with the flashlight, everyone else hides in a predetermined space (it’s better to set the boundaries of hiding so people aren’t wandering around in the dark) with the lights off. The “seeker” counts to 25 and then goes off in search of the “hiders” while shining the flashlight around. When the beam of light finds a hider, the person found joins in with the seeker to find the rest of the players.
Daily Idea #115: Penny Drop
Today’s daily idea is super easy in concept but ridiculously difficult in execution.
HOW TO PLAY:
Give each player a penny. The whole point of the game is to get your penny to land on the top of your shoe without falling off. Drop the penny from differing heights (no lower then waist high) and whomever gets the penny on their shoe wins.
Daily Idea #114: Thumb Wrestling
When I was a kid, my dad and I would thumb wrestle all the time! It was a great way to practice finger dexterity and what a time buster. Since today is low key for the kids in our house due to a somber day in Judaism we are keeping things simple for the daily idea.
HOW TO PLAY:
Both players should place their thumbs in mid-air, facing one another. With the right hand fingertips, instruct a child to grab their opponent’s right hand fingertips and clasp tight together.
Start with a thumb bow, and then chant, “One, two, three four, I declare a thumb war!”
Then, let the wrestling begin!
To make it more challenging, try to keep your elbow on a table as you would with arm wrestling.
First one to pin the other thumb down for five counts wins!
Daily Idea #113: Music at Home
When kids’ are left to their own devices their imaginations can run wild. It’s quite fascinating to take a step back and watch as a world unfolds in front of them. They can make objects that we take for granted into whatever suits their needs for imaginary play; with that in mind we are creating musical instruments with every day items in our house.
Pots and pans can become drums. Wooden spoons can be drumsticks or you can use your hands. An empty tissue box or a plastic cup and rubber bands can be a guitar. Give them some household items and let them use their imaginations to see what they can dream up. Enjoy the music!
Daily Idea #112: Make Something from Scratch
Until a few years ago I never realized how easy some things were to make from scratch as opposed to from a mix. Once I started from scratch with one item, I would challenge myself to create more and we have conquered pancakes, brownies, cakes, bread, etc…
For today’s idea I challenge you to make something from scratch. I will include my grandmother’s pancake recipe for you; it’s a great starting point with very few ingredients.
1) a scant cup of milk means to not overfill the cup (it should be barely a cup)
2) I use a frying pan with some butter not a griddle with fat.
3) depending on the size of your pan and the size you want your pancakes, I usually make 3 pancakes at a time in the pan.
4) I only wipe down the pan when it starts to get too hot
Daily Idea #111: Evens/Odds
One game my kids never seem to tire of is Rock, Paper, Scissors; meanwhile, this game grates on my nerves more than I can possibly express. I came across a version of this game that actually uses some brain power so for today, we are playing Evens/Odds.
HOW TO PLAY:
Before each round, all players declare if they will be either “odds” or “evens”. Then the players clench their fists, count to three, and each player – at the same time – opens one hand, to show one or more fingers. If the combined number of fingers (found when adding all of the fingers together) is equal to an odd number – the player declaring “odds” wins and vice versa.
Daily Idea #110: Crab Walk
After a really relaxing and fun day yesterday we are ready to move our bodies.
For today’s daily idea we are going to be crab walking, making a bridge with our bodies, and planking to see how long we can hold it.
To crab walk, sit on your bottom and put your hands on the floor right next to your bottom. Lift up your bottom a few inches off the ground and move your arms and legs either to the right or to the left depending on the direction you’d like to move.
To make a bridge, lay on the ground on your back with your knees bent and your feet on the floor. Bend your elbows and place your hands on the floor next to your ears. Push your whole body up off the floor so you are balancing on your feet and your hands.
To plank, lay on the ground on your stomach. Place your hands shoulder width apart directly under the shoulder joints. Flex your toes so the weight is on the bottom of your toes and lift your body with your arms straight. Another way to do a plank is to hold your body up on your elbows and forearms instead of straightening your arms. And finally you can also put your knees on the ground and bend your legs so your toes are trying to touch your bottom.
Daily Idea #109: Tunnel Through
Today has been a hectic day but I wanted to get the daily idea out for the afternoon because it’s easy and fun.
Take some chairs (dinning room room, desk chair, folding chair, etc…) and make 2 rows with the chairs facing out— one row facing one way and one row facing the opposite way. Take a large blanket or 2 and throw it over the backs of the chairs to make a tunnel. The kids can waddle through it, crawl through it, try and kick a small ball through it, just let them use their imagination with it!
Daily Idea #108: Simon Says
I have no idea why I haven’t posted a daily idea of playing Simon Says but this game is a classic and is fun for all ages!
For the younger kids, Simon Says is a great way to learn how to follow instructions as well learn the basic names for body parts. For older kids, you can disguise it as getting energy out by getting active.
I am attaching a sheet with ideas in case you can’t think of anything else to say or if you kids want to be the leader and they need some prompts.
Daily Idea #107: Charades
Sometimes it’s fun to just be silly and sometimes I can’t figure out just how to be silly where I am not judging myself. But with charades, I know my idea is from a card and I have an easier time letting go.
Today we are playing charades. We write down a bunch of ideas of animals, different sports games, emotions, etc… and then take turns picking out a card and guessing what the person is doing. For those who are younger who can’t read yet, get a book with lots of pictures of animals, sports, or professions for the child to choose from in the book to imitate.