Painting with the Kids

I like to paint with my kids. There's something great about making a picture of your house or family and sticking it on the fridge when you are done.

I have a few rules that must be followed or I'll take all of the painting gear.

1. Painting is only done outside.
2. Cleaning up is mandatory for all involved parties.
3. You must mix your own colors.

To make that last rule a bit easier and more fun for all, I found an old cupcake pan at the local Salvation Army. It's not the sort that washes up easily any more for baked goods but makes great containers for mixing paint that won't tip easily.

At first my boys were annoyed that the green would run out and they'd need to make more. Inevitably it would be a slight different color. And they would moan and groan and ask me to help make it the same as before. Since I won't do it for them, we've learned how to adjust colors by adding a huge glob or just a few drops.

Instead of complaining, now they experiment with different shades of green or what happens when they don't mix it completely.

Painting is a favorite activity for all of us.

22 Things to do with your Kids and No (Little) Planning

1. Make paper airplanes
2. Host a video game tournament with your favorite racing game
3. Watch the clouds go by
4. Have a movie night, complete with popcorn
5. Have a picnic lunch in the living room
6. Take a bike ride together
7. Make cookies (yum!)
8. Color a picture
9. Write a story together
10. Put puzzles together
11. Make flash cards
12. Sing songs and record the session
13. Read a book
14. Act out the story
15. Then make a video of it
16. Write a letter to a relative in a different city or state
17. Build a city for your Hot Wheels cars
18. Practice impressions of people or animals
19. Blow bubbles
20. Make a daisy chain with dandelions
21. Play a board game
22. Celebrate a half birthday

Story Writing for Kids

Last Friday, I shared my scavenger hunt with you and left a teaser of how I expand that activity into another one.

After a couple of scavenger hunts, I decided to take a picture of the child with the scavenger item as a way of recording the memory and getting some great candids of them. I started taking photos of them running after they spotted the items, and as they checked it off. Really, the photos were telling the whole story.

Why not make a book of them?

Digital prints are inexpensive either at home or at a local photo shop. Three of them in my city regularly have specials for $0.10 copies. If you wait for one of these to run, this project should come in under $4.00.

I have the kids select the photos that they like the best. Just because I took it, doesn't mean that they liked it. In fact, the seven-year-old has told me a time or two that I take bad pictures of him.

Once they have their story in order, and the pictures have been printed, I dig out a photo album purchased from the dollar store.

The first time we did this, I had a wordless book from our library. I wanted to make sure that our book was just like the professionals and coached the kids into realizing we needed a cover, a title page, credits for our author and illustrator, along with acknowledgments.

We inserted the photos on the right hand side only, leaving the left hand side for our text. Adjust as needed, depending on the layout of the photo album. Our happened to have space for one 4x6 photo per page.

For the first book, I wrote the story, but the seven-year-old chipped in on the second one. Even the three-year-old added his contributions.

The boys love to share their stories with family and friends who come to visit.

Scavenger Hunt for Kids

I love taking walks in the summer. My oldest would rather ride his bike. My youngest would rather search for bugs in our backyard. I figured out a way to keep the three of us entertained, spend some quality time together, and let me get some much needed exercise.

We have scavenger hunts.

It's such a simple idea and requires 30 or 40 minute of prep work. I create two different lists, appropriate for each age level and interest of my boys.

The seven-year-old's list looks something like this:

• A blue pick-up truck
• Three skateboarders
• A red slide
• Two dogs
• A maple leaf
• Baseball players
• Soccer players

Note: We live near several athletic fields and finding teams on a weekend is pretty easy.

The three-year-old's list looks something like this:

• A ball
• A yellow flower (dandelion)
• A squirrel
• Ants
• A smooth rock
• A jagged rock
• Leaves

Once you've done this a few times, challenge them to write lists for each other. Helping each other out is easy as well. You'd be surprised what one will see without effort and will be challenging for the other.

Because the two lists are different, I can easily re-direct potential fights about who is done first or who has the most. Developing their sense of team work could be cut to a single word that is only used to remind them. Our is "peanuts" since each of them needs help from someone else to open the shells.

The next time we go scavenger hunting, I'm going to take along our digital camera. Tune in next Friday for that activity.

Building with Kids

Summer days are great for playing in the park, walks and bicycle rides. But for those occasional rainy days, a new activity is needed.

I love open-ended play that building blocks bring. But when that's all the kids have been playing with, they need something new.

One of my favorite alternatives to building blocks is building with gum drops and toothpicks. No matter what the age range, everyone can jump in. Mom's and Dad's contributions are welcome too.

I got my supplies at a dollar store. A box of 1,500 toothpicks (enough for the kids and for the kitchen) and a bag of gum drops or spice drops were $1.00 each and supplied plenty of materials.

I start the session with a challenge. I make it easy enough for the youngest in the group. Some suggestions are

• Can you make a square?
• Can you make a triangle?
• etc.

The next step is to expand and challenge the kids. Can you turn a square into a house? Or a cat? What about a horse? Mom and Dad can really be creative here. I recently built a soccer ball when my seven year old challenged me.

What are you waiting for? Get out the toothpicks and gum drops! Have fun.