fabric scraps have been the rage here lately. I had cut fabric for patchwork (blankie dolls, actually, so small prints and fun colors) and had a pile of scraps. I cut the pieces down into squares, rectangles, and triangles. Armed with a plastic paintbrush and a jar lid of glue they've been glueing "quilts" on paper and they made mosaic piggy banks using oatmeal containers. Mason has been filling in a large outlined letter or number with glued bits of fabric for his "school" time (when Isabelle is doing her schoolwork).
They also love sewing buttons and beads onto felt.
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~Dannielle
Momma to Isabelle (8/95) and Mason (1/01)
water water, water! Set her up at the sink with warm soapy water, some measuring cups and a whisk and turkey baster and she will play for hours!
That's what Cort does too. I also made a couple of big squishy flooe pillows that are constantly in use during pretend play. Yjey LOVE taking long paper tubes and running cars down them. Playsilks are a daily fun toy.
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~Ames~ Crunchy momma to Faith & Cort
~ email me about custom-made pouch slings spiritfreedom@gmail.com
- Boxes (any size) They've made cars, puppet theaters, houses, etc.... They'll spend hours decorating them with markers, stickers, and having me cut windows or doors.
- Dry beans in a large bucket with spoons, measuring cups, bowls, a baby scale, and whatever gadgets they can find in my kitchen gadget drawer. They will spend hours pouring, scooping, measuring, weighing, etc....
- Paper and any art supplies (my middle dd will spend hours entertaining herself writing stories, drawing pictures, anything)
- flour with spoons, measuring cups, bowls, and whatever gadgets they can find in my kitchen gadget drawer. Everytime I make bread dough, they will spend hours when I'm done playing with the flour.
- playsilks (a nice mama sent us our first playsilks, and the kids adore them, even my 7 yr old ds) The kids will spend so much time creating outfits and costumes using them.
Boxes here too. They love to get in the box, then I give them a box of crayons and they color, color, color their 'house' or 'fort' or whatever they are imagining the box to be.
Toilet paper rolls....two taped together make binoculars. The boys love this!
An empty milk jug, a tupperware container filled with dry beans and pots and pans make for a 'loud' orchestra! Even my 6 yr old likes this. We use spoons, wisks, etc to get different sound effects.
On rainy days, a huge rubbermaid container filled with rice (any small container will do just fine too) gives almost the same effect as a sandbox. The boys like to drive their matchbox cars in them, or use their fingers to make trails. They swirl shapes in the rice with their fingers. The rice has a nice tangible feeling and the smaller kids like the feel of rice in their hands. Plus its easy to clean up. Got this idea off a website.
For my 6yr old paper and pencil keeps him busy the most. He really loves to draw. I like putting still objects for the boys to draw.
Most of all, outdoors will keep them busy not only for hours, but ALL DAY if I let them! They ride their bikes, explore, push cars in the dirt under the tree, play with the baby chickens, pet the horses, play nonstop with the cats, swing and slide, you name it. We live in the country so they have acres of room to play.
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