Thrifty Thursday:Summer Boredom Busters

Can you believe we are already a week into August? Where did the summer go? Chances are, if you have kids, or if you nanny like myself, the kiddos are getting a little antsy. Today, I'll share with you a few things that I have done with the kids throughout the summer that have helped keep the kids busy, active, and best of all, not saying "I'm bored!" These activities are either free or very inexpensive.

-Sidewalk paint-

Mix:

1 cup water

1 cup corn starch

Mix, divide into muffin tin, and add food coloring to each cup. Give the kids a paintbrush and let them go to town!

In the beginning of the summer we did this a ton and the kids loved it!! In the end they would start painting themselves, but the great part about summer is you can throw on their swimsuits and hose them off when it is all over!

-Frozen Toys/Archeological Dig-

Grab a zip lock bag and plastic toys. Fill the zip lock with water, toss in the toys, and freeze the bag overnight. The next day, give the kids some "tools" so they can extract their toys. My nanny kids started off with toy hammers and such and moved on to just chucking them at the driveway. Just be careful with what toys you put in the bag. We did loose a couple when they hit the driveway. For extra fun, add a few drops of food coloring to the water.

-Bike Wash-

Gather up all the bikes, wagons, toy cars, etc... Give the kids a bucket of soapy water, a sponge, and a hose and let them have at the "vehicles".

 

-Shaving Cream and Cereal Toss-

Grab a shower cap (ours came from a hotel that they stayed at on vacation), place it on one child's head, and spray shaving cream all over the top. Have one person stand back a little ways and toss cereal (ours was stale-you can use anything for this really) into the shaving cream on the other persons head.

-Sponge Balls-

Either gather up some used sponges or buy some new. Cut them into strips and tie the stips together with some yarn. Dip them in water and throw them at each other. No more filling up water balloons for an hour!

-Make a Stuffie (Stuffed Animal)-

This is a great way to use up your old fabric! Grab some scaps and cut out an animal or doll shape. Pin wrong sides together and sew around the edge leaving a hole to turn fabric right side out and stuff. Our stuffies turned out rather interesting, but that is ok. The kids still liked them.

On a side note, we did make sidewalk chalk too, but I don't think it's worth the hassel. The kids prefer boughten chalk because it is easier to write/draw with. Plus, even though we tried to color the chalk, it all pretty much writes in white. Here is how ours turned out:





 

Hope these projects help curb the boredom of the final days of summer!

Lexi