My Reasons

My Reasons

This Is Where It All Begins

This Is Where It All Begins

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

I Could Use Some Help...from you.

So...the days are getting colder and the nights are getting dark fast. I LOVE winter time, but I am running into a big problem. How do I entertain the kids!!!! A little snow would help, but I can't really control that. We are such an outside family, and now that we can't do a whole lot out there, I don't really know what to do. I could use some help/advise for sure!
I guess I am just not a creative mom, but I can't seem to find enough things to keep the kiddos busy. Mary has preschool 3 times a week and gymnastics two times a week. We go to the library, shopping, etc.
It just seems like there is SO much down time at our house and we are all walking around bored. Boredom leads to loneliness which leads to homesickness which leads to frustration which leads to all of us getting grumpy which leads to the whole house feeling down in the dumps. Not fun!
Mary has started watching WAY too many shows, but when I limit her, we have nothing to do. She is such an active girl...I hate to see her waisting her brain cells in front of the T.V. We read books a lot, but after about 10 books, I need a break. If any of you that live here ever want to let your kid come over....Mary would LOVE that!!!
What do all of you do? How do you entertain the kids that are home all day???? Any ideas of things that kids can do on their own so mom can have a break? I really really need some advise here. Help me out!

6 comments:

Familia Morales said...

A roll of tape. A roll of paper towels. The cardboard inside the paper towel roll. Paper bags. My kids are destructive artists, so I give them any of these things and they have a hay day.
Also, you can put shaving cream in a cookie pan and give them cars, and they can drive around in the 'snow.' It does get messy though. Hope that helps. Oh yeah, and Laura Rhein posted like 100 ideas for kids to do on her blog about a year ago...if you can search that down, it helps a lot. Saved my sanity last winter.

kendra said...

sorry, I can't help you!! I have NO idea what we do. Well, I guess sometimes we walk around the mall and play at the play place, but other than running around doing errands and stuff, I have no idea what we do. Before Landon started school I used to take the kids to the community center and do little classes - they had music class and even a pirate treasure hunt class. Maybe the community center here has something like that. Also, a zoo pass is fun. Now that Landon is in school I feel like all I do is clean my house, run errands, and cook. Weird, I thought having a kid in school would make life less busy but all it does it make it so you have only until 3:30 to get everything done.

oh and when Sam gets a little older Mary and him will play more and hang out together - that will really give you a break! If Mary wants to play you can send her over here - our preschool schedules are opposite so it makes it hard but we can find time, I'm sure!

Sue said...

I feel your pain we are bored here too. The other day I gave the kids a paintbrush and a cup of water and they "painted" a piece of paper. Neither kid even thought about needing actual paint. That bought me a half hour.
Good luck!

Brandon said...

Build a fort!!! Gia LOVES forts. Usuaully it takes help from me to get it set up, but then she usually plays inside w/ her toys/dolls, whatever for a while. Gia always wants me to play, but she and Jace are better at playing/fighting with each other. We mostly use a cardboard table and blankets,chairs..Sometimes we move the couches around and get creative. The few minutes of time put in by you up front should pay off for some quiet time after it's built.

Unknown said...

I sort of know what you mean. I have such a hard time entertaining my CTR-5's for 2 hours let alone the entire day. When Tyler and I are bored, we go to petsmart to look at all the animals. Lame? Perhaps. But at least we make sure to go to one that has an adoption center so we can look at the doggies too. Also, if you hit saturday morning, it's pretty entertaining because of adoption days. I know this may sound weird if you are not an animal lover...
Also, when I have to entertain my nephew and niece, I take them to a McDonalds playhouse because it's indoors and they can play around!
Hope this helps!

Steph and Adam Robison said...

Hey Becky, I have an idea for you. Kind of Messy, but worth 45-60min of entertainment. I got a big plastic tub, a flatter one about 6 inches deep and filled it with stuff like oatmeal, rice, and dry beans. Sort of like an indoor sandbox. I put a big blanklet underneath it. Then gave him spoons, and bowls, stuff like that. When he was done, I just took the blanket outside and shook it. I still did have to vacuum, but it was worth it to me. He loves it when we get to get "the sandbox" out. Hope you guys are doing well.