Helpful Mom

Our family was sick this last week so over the weekend we didn’t do much of anything.  But in an effort to find a few fun things to do that didn’t involve pulling out new toys I was searching through my books for inspiration.  Katrina found one herself on the cover!  I took large boxes and cut one of the sides off so I could then tape the other three sides together into a triangle shape making them each their own “tent”.  They could then draw and color their own tents inside and out.  They spent at least an hour playing with their tents, bringing blankets and pillows from their rooms so they could camp out.  They dragged them around the house.  And somehow Katrina got the idea of turning it on it’s end and called it a garbage can.  They spent another hour running around the house picking up everything in sight to throw in the “garbage”.  It was very funny to watch.

Than later that night I tried out another idea from my book.  I took oatmeal containers and cut out the bottom circle, leaving the top intact so I could still use the removeable lid.  I then traced a circle on construction paper and cut it out, I used scrapbooking punches to make shaped holes.  Then I taped it to the bottom of the oatmeal container.  Then you can put a flashlight inside the container and project those shapes on the walls or ceiling.  In Katrina’s case it was Tinkerbell shaped, she was so excited.  They spent the rest of the night playing in the dark with their special flashlights.  It was simple and easy, taking less than 5 minutes to make, although locating the flashlights was a bit harder, go figure.  You could use shoeboxes instead of oatmeal containers.