Saturday, January 16, 2010

So the kiddos and I are on our own all day today, for 12 hours. M's working an extra long shift. This would be fine in the summer when we can get outside and play. But the weather here has been awful lately so we're stuck inside. I thought I'd give some ideas to help with cabin fever, and maybe someone will share theirs with me!

1. CRAYONS!
We get out the big poster boards and stickers and crayons of all sizes and make beautiful art! The big size of poster board means the kids draw only on that - no overlapping onto the floor.

2. DANCING!
We turn on some music and dance until we fall down (being in the first trimester of pregnancy, this doesn't take me long...) :) This gets out the energies.

3. COOKING!
This is really more of a daddy item, but anyway. Usually he puts one of the kiddos in the backpack carrier so that they can observe the process, and starts out on making something VERY delicious ( see the sidbar - my husband is a chef). Badden in particular LOVES watching daddy cook, and cries if he's not in the backpack to observe.

And of course, we have our old fall back.....
4. MOVIES!
Our kids LOVE movies. Mostly the Pixar kind, but my aunt got them a dvd for Christmas - some British fieldmice, I think it's called 'Brambly Hedge'.... anyway, Chicken has taken to that, and we've watched it a few times now. We go through phases, but her perpetual faves are toy story, Ice Age, Shrek, and anything having to do with Sesame Street. Usually a movie is only on in the background, and we're playing a game along with it. But when it's nap time, a movie has incredible power to calm them down, and make them sit still and drift off to sleep.

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