Winter Boredom Buster #5: Water Painting

The other night as I was trying to finish up my potholders, Hendrix wandered into the sewing room and found a paintbrush on the floor. First he tried to brush his teeth with it, then he wouldn't stop talking about painting. Then I remembered this post about a Buddha Board. I had never heard of it, but I've seen similar things that are made of a foamy material that gets dark with just water, then it dries and can be "painted" on over and over again. I thought maybe that would happen with this sheet of orange craft foam I had laying around.... Well, it didn't at all. The water just kind of stayed on the surface. BUT Hendrix still painted on it with water for a good 15-20 minutes! He loved it and even asked to do it again  a couple times the next day. Eventually, we may have to upgrade to a real buddha board type thing, but I was so tickled at how much he loved doing this. 

Of course, he did spill eventually, but not as quickly as I thought. No big deal, you only need a little water in the cup anyway. 

And if you have a chalkboard somewhere in your house, try water painting on that.

We are going to see the 40's this weekend! It's a heat wave.

Winter Boredom Busters #3 & 4: Magnets and Marshmallows

Neither of these are new ideas, but they are nice because you may have what you need on hand.

I grabbed a spare cookie sheet (my husband decided to buy 2 one day at the store, even though we don't bake cookies ever) and a bunch of old flat magnets off the fridge. I also had this stained glass looking contact paper in my craft stash. I think I got it at a thrift store a long time ago, kinda weird. I stuck the magnets on the sticky back and then cut them into random shapes.

I guess I was thinking that Hendrix could be all artsy and make want he wanted out of the abstract shapes.

Which was fun, but I think he might tire of this quickly. In the near future I may reuse the magnets and glue actual shapes and recognizable things on them, made of colorful felt or craft foam. I think he would enjoy making scenes with animals and other things he knows a bit better.

There are really tons of variations on this one. Here's a magnetic scene I created for my niece last Christmas complete with paper doll outfits. In college, I was an education major and I did a project where I recreated scenes from kid's books by copying the pictures out the books, cutting out and laminating, and then smacking some magnets on the back. This would be really fun to do with your child's favorite books if you have access to a color copier.

And then there's the tried and true classic, marshmallows and toothpicks. This is Ryan, who is three and quickly exclaimed, "I love this!" a couple minutes into the fun. He had brought the supplies home from preschool with him on a day I was watching him and his sister, so we did it when the younger ones were napping. I don't know how well it would go with someone Hendrix's age, but we might try it before the winter hibernation is over.


I've seen several other bloggers with winter boredom on their minds. Here is a post from Mini Eco that has a ton of ideas just in the comments. (Plus her site is full of really fun stuff, you should look around.)
And if you like the artsy activities, have you seen The Artful Parent or No Time for Flashcards yet? Tons of things to do.

So it's still the dead of winter and 27 degrees, but on the bright side:

• The sun was shining a lot today.
• Hendrix is now accepting after-nap videos which aren't Fantastic Mr. Fox. (I love that movie, but we must have watched it every day for a month.)
• The Superbowl is Sunday, which I don't care at all about of course, but it's a good excuse to have a party and make yummy appetizers. What are you making?
• It is now February, which means March is next, which means April is after that, which means warmth, the Reds, and a baby girl!

Winter Boredom Buster #2: Small objects.

Last night I raided the craft/ office supplies to see what could keep us busy before bedtime.  A pack of 50 multi-colored pencil erasers was a HUGE hit. I gave him the box and 4 plastic cups and he went to town for at least 20 minutes. 20 MINUTES! Even after that he would come back to them every so often. He would pick them up one at time and put them in one cup, then dump them into another, then stack the cups, then shake them out all over the floor. Really, I don't know why we got him any toys for Christmas, I can think of lots of household supplies that would work this well. Colored tape, plastic spoons, staples....wait.

I realize some people might think those erasers are not big enough for a less-than-two-year-old to play with. But he really doesn't put things in his mouth much anymore, and of course I was with him. Also, you may be thinking, "gosh they have a lot of loose wires hanging out." But I promise those are much farther under the console than they look and he can't reach them. Anyway, no reason to defend baby-proofing philosophies. We honestly never did much of it. We just tried to train him well and watch him closely. Boom- baby proofed.

While pencil erasers are great fun, I am painfully missing warm weather and evening sunlight. I cannot wait to take a walk or play in the backyard again. But it's not happening any time soon- this morning was 3 degrees. Ugh.

Winter Boredom Buster: Window Paint

I went to Joann's to stock up and spend a couple of Christmas gift cards the other day when I spied this little window paint marker thing for a couple bucks. In this, the middle of January, I'm always looking out for little things to do indoors to keep the toddler in the house busy, even if just for a few minutes. I need to put together a box full of them or something.

He liked the idea of getting to paint on the windows, and especially liked getting to sit in a tall chair to do  it.

Here's a great post on Ohdeedoh about 5 little winter activities like that to have on hand. I'd really love to try the painter's tape all over the walls, Hendrix would love that. What other simple things have bought you 15 minutes of indoor fun?