| Dancing Queen
My girls and I love to turn up the music and dance. Dim the lights,
grab your microphones (wooden spoons fit the bill perfectly) and bring
out your inner diva. Be creative, make up some new moves and dance and
sing like no one’s watching. Your kids will love it, and you’ll
be amazed at how good it feels to move with no reservations.
Bake up a Good Time
Head to the kitchen to bake some fun treats. One of our favorites is
“sugar cookie pizzas.” Slice several thick cookies from
a roll of refrigerated sugar cookie dough. Gently flatten them a bit
on a cookie sheet to widen them, bake, and cool for about ten minutes.
Next, your little pizza chef can decorate his or her pie with strawberry
jam or red icing for sauce, shredded coconut for cheese and red M&Ms
for pepperoni.
Family Photo Bingo
Improve your child's memory and help him or her learn who's
who in your family tree with this photo game. Take nine family photos
and arrange them into rows of three, then give your child nine playing
cards or checkers pieces to serve as bingo chips. When you call out
"Daddy" or "Grandma," your toddler covers the photo
with the card. Three in a row wins.
Bowl-a-Rama
Empty water bottles and a rubber ball
are all you need to transform the family room into a bowling alley.
Six bottles should suffice for bowling pins. If the bottles fall over
too easily, fill them up with a little water or dry pasta for some extra
weight.
Laundry Slam Dunks
Folding laundry is not one of my favorite things to do and having my
kids unfold what I just folded makes it even more cumbersome. To avoid
a big pile of sheets, towels and clothes in the middle of my living
room floor, here’s how I keep my children occupied while I’m
folding. First, I have them help me match and fold socks into bundles.
Then, I give each of my girls a few bundles, and I place the laundry
basket a few feet away from them. Whoever throws the most pairs of socks
into the basket wins. Moving the basket further and further away makes
the tosses more challenging. To make things funnier, I blindfold them,
spin them around and then have them throw the socks. Their giggles make
my day, and the laundry stays folded.
Masking Tape Marvels
Who would have thought a roll of masking tape could provide so much
fun? The possibilities are endless:
- Make a hopscotch pattern or a mock balance beam on the living
room floor.
- Have your child color pieces of tape with markers and use them to
"design" his or her own t-shirt.
- Make different shapes or letters on the floor and have your kids
jump to the shape or letter you call out.
- Make an invisible dollhouse by laying down a “floor plan”
on the rug and furnish the house with doll furniture.
Family Room Picnic
Change things up by serving lunch outside of the kitchen. First, grab
your basket–even the laundry basket would work here –and
assemble some picnic foods the kids can pack themselves. Juice boxes,
water bottles, raisin boxes, string cheese, paper plates and napkins
can easily be handled by young children without any accidents. While
the kids are busy filling the basket, spread a blanket in the family
room and make some sandwiches. Then unpack your picnic and watch the
lunch disappear.
The Great Indoors
Drape some sheets, blankets or throws strategically over your dining
room table, china cabinets, sofas or curtain rods and toss some pillows
around. Sit back and let your children’s creative juices flow.
I am always amazed at how my ordinary home is transformed into a jungle,
a movie theater, a forest or my van in the blink of an eye.
Getting Colder/Getting Warmer
Take a small toy and hide it somewhere in the room with just a little
bit of it peeking out of its hiding place. As your little one looks
for it, give hints by telling him or her that he or she is getting “warmer”
or “colder” in proximity to the hidden object. I save this
game for those times when I’m burned out but my daughter is still
raring to go. Your child will enjoy playing this game even when you
are lying in an almost comatose state on the sofa yelling “Warmer!”
and “Hot! Hot!”
Body Part Tango
Here’s another game that’s fun to play and still allows
you to stretch out on a sofa while hollering out instructions to your
child. Move a chair to the middle of the room and have your child walk
around it. Yell out a name of a body part, like “knee” or
“chin.” Your child must immediately touch the body part
to the chair. He or she can then resume walking, only to be stop when
you yell the name of another body part. This game, as silly as it sounds,
is hilarious to watch. My personal favorite is “back of neck.”
Feel free to play some fun music so your child can dance around the
chair if he or she wants.
When you and your kids are stuck inside on a stormy day, don’t
fret. Take advantage of the slower pace being indoors offers and enjoy
the simple pleasure of just hanging out with your kids in your pajamas
until lunchtime—or even dinnertime. Before you know it, you’ll
be rushing out the door again to go to work, attend play dates, cheer
at sporting events, return presents, drop the kids off here, pick them
up there, go grocery shopping, get a haircut, pick up some milk and
take Fido to the vet. After a few days of that hustle and bustle, you’ll
probably be wishing for another snowy pajama day.
Brinda Abu-Obaid is a stay-at-home
mom who lives in Clifton, VA with her husband, Aladin, and her two daughters,
Yasmina and Noora.
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