How to entertain kids - The Marvelous Museum

Another of our fun games for kids that uses the stuff you already have

ADDED August 08, 2008

 

We always want you to be able to keep your kids busy and occupied without having to buy more stuff. So today we present the Marvelous Museum. (Sometimes also known as the Magnificent Museum.)

Explain to your child what a museum is: a special building with a collection of interesting things. Anyone can come to the museum and look at the things and talk about them.

Well, there is also a collection of things in your home.

You and your kid should choose some of those things and display them around the house. Place the chosen objects on the sofa, the coffee table, the kitchen chairs - whatever works.

For a recent Museum, my boys used: a toy car, a spatula, a shoe, a dog toy, and many other marvelous things.

After the Museum has been properly set up comes part two: people come and look at the assembled things. Each item is admired and discussed. (The "people" are you and your kids, of course.)

It's good to ask questions about each thing in the Museum:

What is this used for?
Do you think it is pretty?
Can you tell me something about this object that I might not already know?

Also, it's never a bad idea to exclaim "Marvelous!" or "Magnificent!" when viewing any given item.

The next day or so after making your house into a museum, you could take your children to a ‘real,' out-of-the-house museum. There, too, you all can admire the marvelous collection of things.

And here is the added bonus to this activity: museum visitors should use quiet voices. Everyone must be on their best behavior. And of course, in a Museum, kids really need to listen to their Moms and Dads, and do as they are told!

Have a great weekend with your curious, creative, and obedient museum workers and visitors!

ages 2-8, good at home, longer activity,

How to entertain kids -- Quarter Collectors

More fun with money

ADDED August 07, 2008

 

Turn your kids into Quarter Collectors. This activity will make trips to the store more fun, and it will teach your children about all our American states.

As you may have noticed, quarters these days don't just have the traditional eagle on the "tails" side. Lately these coins have been showing up with representations of each state on them.

Here's all that you need to do get this activity going:

First, find a container to hold the quarters. Second, print up a map of the U.S. You can get a free printable map here or download a PDF one here.

Now you guys are all set to go. Have the container, the printed map, and a handful of quarters from different states on hand to help you explain this new activity to your kid.

Each time your child adds a new state to the collection, he or she should color the state in on the map.

With every new quarter, you and your kid should talk about the state and review the images depicted there. The Indiana quarter has a race car-why do you think that is? You can see a Scissor Tailed Fly Catcher (it's a bird) on the Oklahoma quarter. And what is that very long, boxy looking thing on the North Carolina quarter?

You can choose to give your kid a new state each day, or you both can review the change you get back from your errands.

Have fun learning with your Quarter Collectors!

And when you've got all fifty states, please mail the collection to us here at Today Is Fun. We also will accept any other forms of currency in your collection.

ages 4-12, art supplies needed, educational, good at home,

Kids Games -- What Will You Bring?

An amazingly simple and amazingly effective way of passing some time

ADDED August 06, 2008

 

This works well with a couple kids, but would also have fine results with just one child.

Have your children wait in one room, such as the living room. You leave the room, but before you do ask the kids, "What will I bring back?" (If you can pull it off, try to add a lot of mystery to your voice, in order to build up the anticipation.)

Then, return with one of your kid's things: a toy, or a book, or even a shoe.

"Wow! Who had any idea that I was going to return with your shoe?"

After everyone has marveled over the object and discussed whether it was very surprising or not, then it is your kid's turn.

"First return the object I brought out to its rightful place, and then surprise me with something. What will you bring back?"

This is one of Today Is Fun's kids games that is great for filling a little bit of time, or for when the kids are waiting at home. It saved the day recently as my boys and I were waiting for Mommy to get ready to go on an outing with us.

We are very interested to know: what will you bring back?

ages 2-7, good at home, good for a group, quick activity,

Sticks and Stones

And leaves. They make for a fun, free art project for little ones.

ADDED August 05, 2008

 

Go for a walk with your child around the block, bringing along a grocery bag. Your kid can be in charge of choosing some free souvenirs from the walk, which you will put into the bag. These items include leaves, sticks, stones, seed pods, blades of grass, and so forth. Bougainvillea leaves can be especially nice. The only guidelines here are: don't take too much of any one thing, and don't take anything that belongs to somebody else! (A neighbor's mail, for example, is not available for this project.)

Back at home, take out some glue and construction paper. Help your little one glue the souvenirs to the paper.

Voila! It's a masterpiece! Your child is an artist. And it's fun for everyone. (Except possibly for the neighbor, if your child disregarded one of the above guidelines!)

ages 2-7, art supplies needed,

Hide Some Treasure

And find it later

ADDED August 04, 2008

This is a way to add some fun to walks outside and visits to the park. The trick: hide some treasure along the way.

The treasure we use in our family is a penny or a nickel. (That way, if the treasure gets found by someone else or disappears forever, it's not too great a loss.)

First, you'll need to choose a public place that is fun for your kids. A park is perfect, or a grassy area near the library.

Then, find a place to hide the treasure, any off-the-beaten-track nook or cranny will do. Statues are especially good: our family has stuck a penny into the folds of historical personage's coat. We have placed a penny onto another statue's palm.

Another time, my boys wanted to hide a penny in a statue that, as it turned out, had absolutely no nooks, crannies, or crevices of any kind. We decided to hide the penny at the base of the statue, on the side farthest from where most people walk. Miraculously (we were all pretty thrilled) the penny was still there a few days later.

With this activity, we get the kids outside, learning about pennies and nickels, and looking at statues they'd probably otherwise ignore. Another way to squeeze some fun out of this is to have the kids come home, after having hidden the treasure, and draw up a map. They start the treasure map by drawing everything they can remember: the grass, the bushes, the parking lot, the sidewalk, the trees, and so forth. We don't really worry about correct scale, or even correct placement of things; if a tree winds up in the middle of the sidewalk, it's fine by me.) Then we draw a big red X to show where the treasure is hidden. We also talk about the phrase "X marks the spot," and how you can "spot" something.

On the way to go to find out if the treasure is still there, I make sure to warn everybody that it might no longer be there. There is a chance somebody else found it. That way, they are prepped and not overly disappointed by the penny's absence. I also bring along another handful of pennies, because if the first batch is missing, well at least we can all have fun hiding new ones and trying it all over again.

If you'd like to email us, and tell us the location of the money you're hiding outside, we'd be happy to know. fun@todayisfun.com

ages 3-12, educational, summer activity,