Daily Idea #305: Skip It!

Anyone remember “Skip It!”? As a child of the 80’s I vividly remember getting my Skip It! as a birthday present and placing it on my ankle to skip over and over and over and over, literally until it broke. I haven’t seen them for a while and I know my kids would love their own Skip It!s. So, to round off the daily ideas of old school games for this week, we are making our own Skip It! with some easily accessible parts.

ITEMS NEEDED:

Plastic embroidery hoop

1/4” Outer diameter plastic tubing (about 22” per Skip It!)

Toggle bolt (needs to fit securely in the tubing)

Whiffle ball

exacto knife or something similar

(Optional— balloon, funnel, and water)

1) cut a small hole in one end of the tubing using the knife

2) open the embroidery hoop and separate the inner circle from the outer. Push the bolt from the embroidery hoop first through one side of the hoop, then through the hole in the tube, and finally through the other side of the embroidery hoop. Tighten the bolt to secure it in place

3) making sure the wings from the toggle bolt are facing out, take the skinny end of the bolt and push it into the other end of the tubing.

4) push the wings through a hole in the whiffle ball

TO ADD WEIGHT TO THE BALL—

1) stuff the balloon into a hole in the whiffle ball

2) position the funnel into the opening of the ballon

3) fill the ballon with water

4) tie off the end of the balloon and push the nub into the whiffle ball

Place the hoop around your ankle and skip away! Here is a video tutorial to aid in your Skip It! making endeavors.

Daily Idea #304: Marbles

For today’s old school daily idea, we are learning how to play marbles! I was given a small set of marbles as a kid and never understood how to play. I knew they were pretty and loved looking at the colors inside but that’s as far as I got. Anyway, here’s the basics:

Draw a circle about 3-4 feet in diameter on the ground (you can use chalk, tape, or even yarn to set the circle boundaries). Set up the marbles you will be shooting, know as the tibs, in a X formation in the middle of the circle. Players take turns using the largest marble, also known as the the taw, to shoot the marbles in the middle out of the circle. Take the taw in the crook of your index finger and shoot it into the circle with your thumb aiming to knock out as many of the tibs from the circle as you can. Any marbles knocked out of the circle are a point to that player. Continue that turn until the taw (the shooter marble) goes outside of the boundaries of the circle.

For more rules and different ways to play, writtenreality.com/kickin-old-school-marbles has a “cheat sheet” that I am attaching below.

Daily Idea #303: Jacks

Since for this week’s daily ideas we are going with old school games, I am taking to day to teach my kids how to play jacks. You need the jacks set, but they are very easy to find (it includes a small bouncy ball and smallish metal pieces in a star type shape).

The rules are pretty easy to follow— the player drops the jacks on the ground to start. They then bounce the ball and before it can bounce a second time, the player has to pick up one jack. Continue until all jacks are picked up. Once all the jacks are collected, drop them again on the ground, and when the player bounces the ball they pick up two jacks without the ball bouncing more than twice. Continue play until you get all the way up to picking up all ten jacks at one time.

Then, in researching this game, I found this site which has variations on the rules and the plays. Enjoy!

Daily Idea # 302: Thimble Bit of Water

For this week’s daily ideas, I was looking into some old school games to play (I’ll be posting each one throughout the week) and I stumbled on the following gem of a game. You’ll need a thimble, some water, a pen, and a piece of paper.

To play, the group decides a category— months of the year, numbers 1-10, holidays, cereals… The first player writes down something from that category hidden from everyone else (for example, if you chose holidays, the person could write down Hanukkah). The player then fills the thimble with water and the rest of the players take turns guessing what was written down. Whomever guesses the correct answer gets the thimble of water tossed at them (and because it’s a thimble, it’s a very small amount of water!) they then get to be the person who writes down the next thing to guess.

Daily Idea #301: Rubberband Shot

My kids will figure out how to make a toy gun with literally anything around the house. Their finger, a stool, a lego… They have nerf guns, and they are even allowed to set up fisher price and lego people and use them as targets. But I thought today, I would teach them how to use a rubberband and their hand to make the good old fashion rubberband gun.

Hook the rubberband around your pinky

Wrap the rubberband in front of your palm around your thumb as shown

Balance the other end of the rubberband on your pointer finger. When you are ready to shoot the rubberband, release your pinky and let it fly!

Daily Idea #300: Dinosaur Eggs

I’ll be the first to admit, I know very little about Good Friday and Easter (you know, besides the basics). I do know that Easter is full of eggs— egg hunts and egg dyeing. Because Passover and Easter share this simple food (on the Seder plate we have a hard boiled egg) we are going to make dinosaur hard boiled eggs for today’s daily idea!

ITEMS NEEDED:

Hard boiled eggs

food safe dye

water

small cups or bowls

1) Once your eggs are hard boiled and cooled off (if you want a simple way to hard boil your eggs, click here), gently tap each one on the counter. The idea is to create cracks all over the egg without too much of the shell coming off.

2) Squeeze some drops of food coloring into small bowls or cups of water, creating as many colors as you’d like (just the primary colors that come in the box or mix them together to create orange, green, and purple).

3) Put an egg in each color (or a few in one color) and let it sit for a few hours or even overnight. Rinse them off, remove the shells, and discover your very own veined dinosaur egg!

Daily Idea #299: APRIL FOOLS

It’s been over a year since I started posting a daily idea and I would be remiss if I didn’t include something for April Fool’s Day. My favorite April Fool’s joke is one I have played on my father since I was quite young. I would run up to him and tell him he had something on his nose. When he would go to look in the mirror, I would then exclaim, “April Fools!” Now, it’s a tradition and while I don’t live with my parents, I will call him every year on this day and play the same joke over the phone or Facetime.

In our house, I like the harmless pranks. Here are a few to start you off—

1. Take the batteries out of the TV remote.

2. Put a dab of food coloring on the faucet in the bathroom— when the person turns on the water it will be dyed that color (it only lasts a little while, until the water washes it away).

3. Say yes to three outrageous requests from your kids today

4. Turn some pictures upside down around the house

5. Push a clock forward 30 min

6. Draw a spider on the toilet paper with a sharpie

Daily Idea #298: ASL Alphabet

Over the course of the last year with everyone wearing masks, I have realized that I rely extremely heavily on reading people’s lips to understand what they are saying. I have never been tested for hearing loss, nor have I ever thought that I needed any sort of aid in hearing, however, I have always been fascinated with sign language and maybe this is why. In any case, I love that I can have a conversation with my friend who speaks fluent sign language across the room (and while I am not fluent, I can read her lips enough to understand what is she saying when signing by putting the two together).

For today’s daily idea we are bringing out the ASL (American Sign Language) alphabet. It’s a really good skill set to have and requires some great hand/eye coordination. Enjoy learning! And have fun trying to spell out each other’s names or even objects that are around you to see if you can figure out what the other person is saying.

Daily Idea #297: Cotillion

There will come a time in the near future where your children will attend a dance— a wedding, a prom, a cotillion, daddy/daughter dance, mommy/son dance or some variation there of… So, for today’s daily idea we are teaching our children how to “slow dance” with a partner. I found this short video to be extremely informative. Take a watch and then enjoy practicing with your kids!

Daily Idea #296: Counting

Passover is almost here, and that means we also get to start counting down to the next holiday, Shavuot (where we celebrate receiving the Torah from G-d). Counting the Omer is one of my favorite things in Judaism. When I was little, I would count down to all important celebrations (my birthday, leaving on an exciting trip, camp…) so the idea of counting from Passover to Shavuot brings out the child in me and reminds me how important Shavuot is.

Some years, I have no problem remembering to count all 49 days and other years, I get completely lost in the twenties and then give up. In order to help ameliorate this issue, we are making our own Omer counter.

ITEMS NEEDED:

2 pieces of construction Paper

Printer paper

Markers

Tape or a stapler

On the first page of construction paper measure and mark off 49 boxes. Decorate each box on the piece of construction paper however you’d like. On the second page, decorate it with a large number 50. Then cut out 49 pieces of paper to match the size of the boxes from the printer paper. Each piece of paper will get marked with a number 1-49. Decorate them as you see fit and tape or staple them to each corresponding box on the construction paper. For each day of the Omer, you can then pull off that day that you have counted and when we reach Shavuot, you’ll have a beautiful picture hanging on the 50th day.

Daily Idea #295: Frog Here, Frogs There

Around this time of year, my kids get the song, “Frogs here, frogs there, frogs were jumping everywhere” stuck in their heads. And then, of course, they sing, “even in his underwear” at the top of their lungs. Well, why not make it into a game? I don’t think I have little frogs but I do have small plastic play figurines in their toys…

For today’s daily idea, with whatever you’d like to substitute for frogs (or use plastic frogs if you have them) and a plastic spoon, try to catapult the objects into a plastic cup. You too will soon have “frog here, frogs there”…

Daily Idea #294: Cross the Sea

One more day with the jump ropes and because Passover is coming up, I need the kids to really have an activity to do on their own without me.

So, for today’s daily idea they are setting up the jump rope into two parallel lines to create a “river” (the Nile River, if you will). They will use some stuffed animals to line the outsides of the rope and then try to hide lego people like Miriam hid Moshe in the reeds. They can each take turns hiding their lego people and then finding them— see who can find them faster.

Daily Idea #293: Jump Rope Math

Are you ready for to take jumping rope up a notch? Give the person jumping rope some math problems and with see if they can jump rope to the number of the final equation. Start with simple equations and work your way up.

Now, I’m someone who is bad at math to begin with so jumping rope while trying to do any math equation is like walking and chewing gum at the same time. For my daughter, however, she sees the math problems in her head and can do them faster than I can; I’m interested to see how well she does while jumping rope.

Let us know how simple or complicated the equations are for you and your families!

Daily Idea #292: Snake in the Grass

Since we have moved to FL and we’ve seen our first snake, I figured this was a fitting game to play. However, no snakes are involved in the game (thankfully).

You’ll need two or more people for this game. Take that jump rope from the other day and have one person holding it by one of the ends. That person will move the rope around in a circle on the ground. The other players will stand spaced around the middle person. Each of the other players will have to jump over the rope as it comes to where they are standing. To make it a bit more challenging, the middle person can decide how slowly they would like to move the rope, as well as how high off the ground they would like it to be, and they can even wiggle the rope a bit as they twirl it around.

Daily Idea #291: Jump Rope

We are going old school for today’s daily idea and bringing out the jump rope. Make some space, grab your rope, and see how many times you can jump over the rope when it comes over your head and down to your feet without tripping up.

Daily Idea #290: Green Smoothie

In honor of St. Patty’s Day (my husband’s side of the family is part Irish) we are making green smoothies today. So, get out the blender/bullet/shake maker and get ready for a delicious (and healthy) smoothie!

Pick your greens— you can use spinach, romaine, kale, arugula, any veggie that is green as your base

Pick your sweeteners— we like to use frozen tropical fruits and bananas to sweeten up our smoothies. Things like mango, blueberries, peaches, etc…

Pick your liquid— you can use milk (plant based or dairy), yogurt, juice…

The breakdowns of how much of each is as follows:

• 1 cup fresh greens

• 1 cup frozen fruit

• 1/2 – 1 cup liquid

There are various items that you can add to your smoothie for different tastes and textures. So you can go with the basics or choose some of the following—

nuts

• nut butter

• extracts— vanilla, mint, etc…

• matcha

• cold brew

• coconut oil

• honey

• protein powder

• spices

• fresh herbs

• seeds— chia, flax, etc…

Daily Idea #289: Defense

When I was looking up an idea for today’s daily idea I stumbled upon this game and I couldn’t wait to play!

It’s a super easy set up and game to play. Get yourself a water bottle and fill it with water. Then grab a ball (a soft dodgeball type ball is perfect). One person will try and defend the bottle from being knocked over by the other person who will toss the ball at the bottle. To make it more challenging for older kids tape out a square on the ground for each person; that player has to stay within their square unless retrieving the ball.

Daily Idea #288: Silent Story

When I was younger, one of my favorite cassettes that I had was the music for the story of Peter and the Wolf. It was strictly music— no words. I could imagine the story based on the levels, tone, and tempo of the music. Ironically, yesterday I was telling my husband that there are certain books that have been made into movies where the composer got the music so right that I feel like that is what I hear every time I read the book.

For today’s daily idea we are going use this idea to tell a story we all know. Pick something the whole family knows— The Three Little Pigs, Billy Goats Gruff, Pinocchio… Tell the story without using any words; have your children use musical instruments or instruments made from things you have in your home. You could even come up with a playlist of songs to be able to tell of the journey.

Daily Idea #287: Back to Pi

Here we are at the anniversary of 2 weeks to slow the spread, well technically it was yesterday March 13th, and it’s Pi Day! Last year we created Pi Cities (you can look back at the daily ideas to see how to make that) and this year we are going to make pi bracelets and necklaces.

By taking the number Pi (3.14159 26535 89793 23846 26433 83279…) we will assign a color bead to each number— i.e. blue is 1, red is 2, purple is 3 and so on… For each number and as far out as you want to go put that many beads on your bracelet or necklace. If 3 is purple, you place 3 purple beads on first, then 1 blue bead, etc…

Daily Idea #286: Hula Hoop Lasso

Now, here’s an idea that I had not thought of until I looked on Pinterest— Hula Hoop Lasso! For today’s daily idea we are becoming wranglers.

Tie a string or a rope to the hula hoop (about 10 feet long). Lay out a bunch of different balls— basketball, football, tennis ball, even paper crumbled into a ball. The idea is to throw your hoop over each ball while holding onto the string, one at a time, and then pull the hoop by the string back to you with the ball in the middle of the hula hoop.

Play by yourself or against each other: see if you can beat your time in gathering the balls each round you play or see who can gather the most balls— it sounds a lot easier than it is!