|

Activities for Kids

With rainy summer days or road trips in the car, it’s nice to have some activities to keep the kids occupied and happy. Pinterest is full of fun ideas, and so I picked a few to try out with my younger two.

First was straw rockets from DIY with Grant and Kiley: Now I don’t know if your kids are like mine, but whenever we’re at a restaurant, they love tearing the paper off the end of their straws and shooting them at their father and each other, until I beg them to stop. So when I saw this super simple way to recreate the fun at home, it was a done deal!

indoor activities for kids, Activities for Kids, Joyful Homemaking

You need some paper, a pencil, tape and of course, straws.

indoor activities for kids, Activities for Kids, Joyful Homemaking

Cut a small rectangular shape just big enough to fit around your pencil with a little
overlap, and about half the size of your pencil in length.

indoor activities for kids, Activities for Kids, Joyful Homemaking

Tape up the side, and then fold over and tape off the top so no air can escape.

indoor activities for kids, Activities for Kids, Joyful Homemaking

Slide it on the end of the straw.

indoor activities for kids, Activities for Kids, Joyful Homemaking

Then you just need some lung power! Let your kids have fun seeing how far their “rockets” can go!
Measure the distance to see who’s the winner.
Just make sure they don’t aim at each other’s eyes!

Another entertaining activity that can also be a learning opportunity is vinegar – baking soda art.

You’ll need:

indoor activities for kids, Activities for Kids, Joyful Homemaking

Vinegar

indoor activities for kids, Activities for Kids, Joyful HomemakingLiquid food coloring

indoor activities for kids, Activities for Kids, Joyful Homemaking

Baking soda

indoor activities for kids, Activities for Kids, Joyful Homemaking

Eye droppers

indoor activities for kids, Activities for Kids, Joyful Homemaking

Pour vinegar in separate little containers (I used an ice cube tray, which worked well), and then
add a few drops of food coloring to each to make different colors.

Then spread a thin layer of baking soda in a baking dish or pizza pan,
and let your kids use the droppers
to make fizzy patterns with the vinegar colors in the baking soda.

indoor activities for kids, Activities for Kids, Joyful Homemaking

indoor activities for kids, Activities for Kids, Joyful Homemaking

indoor activities for kids, Activities for Kids, Joyful Homemaking

We didn’t have any masterpieces, but the kids had fun.
I must say, make sure you have more than one box
of baking soda, because it gets “muddy” quickly,
and we went through several trays.

We recently took a 6 hour trip to get away for a few days,
and I printed out some kids activities for the car
to keep them busy and entertained, without having to resort to dvd’s
and video games, for at least the entire trip.

indoor activities for kids, Activities for Kids, Joyful HomemakingHere is where you can find these awesome BINGO printables:
Road Trip Bingo by Oopsey Daisy
Just attach them to a clipboard, and they’re good for the car!

When I originally saw these next little art kits, they were made with plastic travel soap containers,
(the link seems to go to an ad, so I just gave the pin picture link)
but I couldn’t find any large enough, so I substituted with what you can find on clearance everywhere this time of year:

indoor activities for kids, Activities for Kids, Joyful Homemaking

Plastic pencil containers
(Try to find one with a flat top)

indoor activities for kids, Activities for Kids, Joyful Homemaking

You’ll also need some sticky or post it notes…

indoor activities for kids, Activities for Kids, Joyful Homemaking

Washable markers or crayons

indoor activities for kids, Activities for Kids, Joyful Homemaking

Simply fasten your paper to the lid, add crayons, and you have a drawing kit for the car.

indoor activities for kids, Activities for Kids, Joyful Homemaking

For some more ideas, check out some of my other kid friendly posts:

Marshmallow Pops
Educational Games
Edible Peanut Butter Playdough
Edible Chocolate Playdough
Edible “Tinker Toys”

Hope this gives you some fun activities to keep your children busy and content!

Save

3 Comments

  1. Awesome ideas! I love the baking soda art – and, when my boys are down – I should make them straw covers:) Thanks for sharing your activities!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.