Daily Idea #285: Bullseye

Since we got our hula hoops and I am no master at actually hula hooping, I am going to post all sorts of games you can play with the hula hoop that have nothing to do with getting it to twirl around your hips.

For today’s daily idea, you can play solo or with another person. Lay the hoop on the ground at one of the room (or if outside, at one end of the yard). Stand about 5 feet away from the hula hoop and try and roll a ball (a tennis ball is ideal) into the hoop without it going over. If you get the ball in the hoop, flip the hoop over so you are closer to the other end of the room (or the other end of the yard). If the ball ends up outside of the hoop have the person you are playing with be the designated retriever until you can get the ball into the hoop enough times to make it all the way across the room or yard. If playing solo, retrieve your own ball and continue.

Daily Idea #284: Hula Hoop Movement

We are going in search of hula hoops today. You know that I am all for using what you have on hand to create activities at home, but since we don’t have any hula hoops (and I am assuming most of you don’t either) we are getting a few to keep on hand; hula hoop games are so much fun and can take up a lot of time (two great things in my book).

Once we get our hula hoops today, the first thing we are going to do with them is set up some hula hoop movements. Now, if you are going to order some hula hoops and have them delivered, you can do this activity without said hoop.

4 “stations” will do it— if you can do this outside, lay each hula hoop down on the ground about 4 paces apart from each other. Label with chalk, each hoop with a different movement (stork stand, jumping jacks, burpee, and a bridge for example). In a round robin fashion, have each child go from hoop to hoop doing each activity. Go in one direction on the hoops, then go in the opposite direction. If you are inside, you can still do this but with writing your activities on a piece of paper and placing the paper inside the hoops.

Have fun with it and see how long the kids will go from station to station.

Daily Idea #283: How Does It Work?

We all have an antiquated electronic device sitting around doing nothing. I’ll admit, I have a Walkman, more than one game boy, a mini disc recorder… And for what am I saving them? I have no idea.

For today’s daily idea, I am letting my kids take apart one of the electronics (they will have to work together as I am not ready to part with more than one) to see how the components all come together inside. One person can take pictures of the process while another one takes the electronic piece of equipment apart. Another person can be in charge of collecting all of the tiny screws and parts that will inevitably come from said electronic.

Once they have taken the whole thing apart, can they actually get it back together by looking back on their documentation? We shall see…

Daily Idea #282: Map It Out

I have said it many times, but I truly love understanding the point of view my kids have. It’s fascinating to watch them learn and grow; as their understanding of the world around them changes, I, as their parent have to change my expectations.

One of the ways we can physically see each child’s maturity is through their understanding of where we live. We teach our children their address with a song from a very young age, but to conceptualize that information in the grander scheme is something that comes with age and growth.

For today’s daily idea, I am asking each of my kids to make a map of where we live. This can be as simple as the street we live on with our house and some trees, or as complex as the surrounding city and the different components of said city. It’ll be interesting to see the intricacies that they have picked up on as well as how they view their world.

Daily Idea #281: 20 Questions

20 questions is a favorite in our family. Whenever we’d be out and the kids would start to get antsy, we’d play this game. It would keep them engaged and close by and the actually ask to play more often than not. The funny thing is, my kids now comment on seeing other kids playing on electronics and can’t figure out why they don’t also play some of these brain games…

To play, we usually stick with a theme so that it makes the game a little bit easier to start asking questions. One person thinks of a character or object; the rest of the people playing take turns asking yes or no questions to find out more about the character or object and eventually guess what it is. You can stick to the “20 questions” that is the name of the game, but we usually don’t keep count of the questions. If the character or object is too difficult to guess, then we give in.

Daily Idea #280: Make A Word

When I was younger, I had one friend who was the master at the game Boggle. He could find every word possible in the jumble of letters and no matter what I did, I could never beat him. I would practice constantly by trying to find words within other words and eventually was good enough that I became a challenging player but I don’t think I ever beat him to this day.

For today’s daily idea, we are creating words from other words. We’ll play as many rounds as my kids will allow. Starting with a word like “CONVERSATION”, we will create as many words as possible with the letters in the larger word. Feel free to use some words of your own choice— I’ll provide a few here:

NOCTURNAL

DOCTORATE

EXPERIMENT

DEVELOPMENT

Daily Idea #279: Distanced Hellos

Now that some states are opening up and people are venturing out, we have to find our comfort zones as to how to greet our friends again. Many people are still keeping their distance (and whatever works for you may not work for someone else) but they want to see friends and family again. How can we greet our friends and show them love without actually giving a hug or a high five? Here are some ideas to practice (and please come up with some of your own!).

Ways to greet each other without touching:

Blow a kiss

Spirit Fingers

Salute

Tip your hat or slightly bow your head

Make your hands into a heart shape toward the person you are greeting

Place your hand on your own heart

Sign “I love you” by holding your hand out to other person with your thumb, your forefinger, and your pinky extended and your middle and ring finger curled in toward your palm

Curtsy or bow

Make up a distanced handshake or dance

Daily Idea #278: Time Capsule

I think we may have exhausted our use of the tin cans (besides make them into planters or pencil holders) so for today’s daily idea we are using them for one final project. We are going to make a time capsule about the past year.

We all know this past year has been completely different than anything we have ever experienced. Lock downs in varying different forms depending on the state, masks, not being able to do many of the activities we were very much used to doing, yet, things are beginning to come around; we will all have our risk management lenses on to figure out what is best for us and our families. And while 2020 seems like a year we’d all rather forget, I’d like to preserve some of the memories to look at years down the road.

The kids will be tasked with finding or creating a few items to put into the time capsule.— a mask, a poem, a drawing… anything that will remind us of how we spent 2020 (especially since there were major milestones that seemed to just get passed by). Put it all in the tin can and then put the tin can away in a place that you can find later, years and years later.

Daily Idea #276: Stilts

Since we used some tin cans yesterday for our phones, I am not sure how excited my kids will be to turn them into something new, but we are going to try (if you have new cans then you can use those). For today’s daily idea we are turning our cans into stilts.

Using a hammer and nail, make 2 holes near the base of the can, one on either side. Tie the string inside one hole with a loop long enough that your child can hold it taut when stepping on the can, and then tie the second knot into the other hole. Decorate however you’d like and enjoy!

Daily Idea #275: Can You Hear Me Now?

There are many many things you can do with tin cans and some string (Home Alone, anyone?). My favorite thing to do is create a tin can phone; the added bonus is that it blows the kids’ minds!

All you really need are two tin cans and some string. You can decorate your tin cans however you’d like— my recommendation is to cover the open edges with washi tape or something like it to smooth any rough edges. Then, make a small hole in the bottom of the cans using a nail and a hammer. Cut your string to the desired length. Put each end of the string through each of the bottoms of the cans so that the knot will be tied inside the can. Tie a knot in the string to keep it from coming out of the hole and VOILA, you have a tin can phone!

Daily Idea #274: Putt-Putt

For those who don’t know, we have moved to the land of Putt-Putt (aka. Mini golf). For today’s daily idea we thought we’d try and create our own putt-putt course in the house.

Some obstacles will be made from legos, some from the plethora of boxes we have, and some will just have straightaways with blocks lining the edges. Get creative— use household materials to create 2-3 putting holes as well as the club (think ruler and tissue box for this one).

Daily Idea #273: Do Unto Others

One of my favorite parts of the Purim story is hearing how Haman describes to King Achashverosh the fashion to which he wishes to be honored and praised. Haman wants a parade for the king’s most loyal and favorable person in his “cabinet”. He wants that person to be celebrated and to ride through the town on a horse for all to see. Haman is, of course, describing what he himself wants, thinking that he is the person the king would choose to honor. The twist is that it is not Haman, but the Jewish man, Mordechai who the king honors and for whom he creates this celebration.

For today’s daily idea, we are going to do something similar. My kids will be asked how they would like to be honored. What could we do to celebrate something they have done? I want them to really think about what their dream day would be.

When each child is finished, we will compare their ideas to see the similarities and the differences. We will then try to incorporate all of their dream day ideas and see if we can create a day to celebrate them all each as individuals and as members of a team in our family.

Daily Idea #272: Hand Masks

In the spirit of Purim (which begins tonight) and even though we have our costumes all set, we are making masks for Purim. We try to do it every year as it’s one of my kids’ favorite activities. It’s fun to see the growth of their hands year over year and eventually, we can take the whole cadre of masks and make a giant mask.

All you need is construction paper, scissors, tape or a stapler, and markers to decorate.

Outline your children’s hands on two pieces of paper. Have them cut out the shapes (sometimes they need help with the more intricate sections). Tape or staple the butt of the palms together; the fingers should be pointing outwards and the thumbs can face down or up. Cut eye holes and decorate. You can either secure a stick to your finished mask to hold like a fancy mask or you can use elastic to secure it behind your head (we didn’t do either as we made them more for decoration than for wearing).

Daily Idea #271: Noise Makers

Normally I am not a proponent of lots of noise, so things that create more noise are usually banned in my house. With that said, this Friday is Purim— the Jewish holiday where we are supposed to make noise when we hear the name “Haman” (and the name of his sons). So, for today’s daily idea, we are making noise makers or gragars with items found in the house.

ITEMS NEEDED:

empty water bottle

beads/ dried pasta/ rice

any decorations you’d like to add

This is a super simple noise maker— take your empty water bottle and fill it about 1/3 of the way full with the item of choice— pasta, beads, rice, beans, etc... Seal the bottle and decorate as you see fit. You can color it, glue ribbons to it, whatever you’d like.

Daily Idea #270: Drum Cardio

When my parents gave me their giant blow up exercise ball years ago, I thought to myself, “what in the world am I going to use this for?” Well, let me tell you, this ball has been blown up and deflated more times than I can count for the amount of times we have used it in our house.

For today’s daily idea we are blowing up the ball again but this time using it as a drum! There are plenty of videos on YouTube that have some routines but this is one that I found that I liked the best.

You’ll need that exercise ball, a laundry basket or large bucket to use as a stand, and drum sticks or wooden sticks. Follow along with the drumming routine or make up your own to another song.

Daily Idea #269: Balloon/Can Race

We are taking advantage of our bag of balloons and blowing one for each child today. Then let the races begin!

For today’s daily idea, line up a few cans or tennis balls on the ground in a line with a bucket at the end. The goal is to get all of the cans or balls into the bucket without letting the balloon hit the ground. This is one of those daily ideas that sounds easy but isn’t. Have fun!

Daily Idea #268: Float My Heart Away

We’ve been on a 2 week vacation from posting daily ideas (thanks to a move cross country) and we are back! We are almost a full year into dealing with COVID-19 and various forms of lockdowns. Hopefully with all the emerging science, we’ll see more of each other face to face but no matter what, I’ll be continuing with daily ideas until we’ve reached a full 365 days of ideas and activities; that way, you’ll have plenty of ways to keep busy!

For today’s daily idea, we are doing a simple science experiment. You’ll need a smooth surface (like a plate or a bowl), a dry erase marker, and some water.

On your plate/bowl draw with your dry erase marker a small object or as many as you’d like— a stick figure, a heart, a balloon… Then slowly pour some water into the plate/bowl. Watch as the object(s) float off the surface! Here is the science behind this experiment.

Daily Idea #267: Apple Donuts

Donuts are a treat in our house that don’t come around very often; they disappear from the counter but stay in our bellies for far too long 😏 So to make a healthier version, we are going to use apples, a shmear, and some sprinkles.

First, if you can, core your apples. If you don’t have an apple corer you can cut the seeds out after you slice the apple but it becomes more tedious. Then slice the apple starting at the top and working your way down to the bottom of the apple across the middle (you’ll be making apple rounds) into thin rounds. Here comes the fun part— take your shmear (cream cheese, peanut butter, hummus, etc…) and spread some on the top side of the apple. Add whatever sprinkles you would like, if any, and you have yourself a healthy apple donut!

Daily Idea #266: The Chicken Dance

Today’s daily idea could be one of the silliest ideas yet— THE CHICKEN DANCE! We all know and love this super silly song and dance, but do any of us know the history of how it came about?

For a brief history lesson, this link not only has the story of how the chicken dance came about, but it also has a video of one of the earliest versions of the dance. So, get your chicken on and dance away!

Daily Idea #265: Unicorn Bark

I think we can all agree that unicorns are one of the best animals (alright, maybe they aren’t real, but they are “awesome creatures” as my 9 year old just said.)

In honor of this incredible non-real species, we are making unicorn bark. All you need are three ingredients— Yogurt (dairy based, plant based, soy based…), food coloring, and sprinkles.

Take a cookie sheet and line it with parchment paper. Separate the yogurt into three bowls. Add a 3-5 drops of one food coloring to each separate bowl to create pastel colors (if you do not want to use food coloring, you can blend blueberries, strawberries, and mango into the three different bowls of yogurt to create the different colors). Spoon dollops of each color yogurt onto the parchment paper lined baking sheet. Sprinkle any kind of sprinkles that you have on hand on top of the yogurt sheet and freeze for 4 hours or until completely frozen. Once the unicorn bark is frozen through, break it into chunks and store in a plastic bag in the freezer for about 2 months.