How do you change your routine to make life more interesting

amother

Seafoam

Mon, Jan 21 2019, 12:04 am

Make the time you are trying to fill into a set special activity time. Use up all the time each day, even if you need a snack break in between. Make it a full hour or hour and a half of fun things to do. Think about getting the kids active and calming them down. Google "snow day with kids" or indoors with kids. There are ton of mommy blogs with great ideas.

You can do a different "theme" each day to mix it up: shabbos/ yom tov, water, color, move, kitchen, music, etc. You can find 2 or 3 activities that fit into each theme and rotate them.

Here are a few ideas:
Interactive read aloud with voices: ie: short interesting book with characters, if you say "the cat said" the child who is the cat says "meow" If you do this with the little red hen, you can follow up by baking something together. You can read, then act out or dance the story, or build the story with blocks or lego, or use dolls or action figures.
you can do this with a book on tape too, or the parsha, purim or pesach story.
go to the beach: have a picnic, play in the "ocean" (tub with bathing suits), sand play, sun bathing on blankets
bubble bath
shaving cream painting in the bathtub
fingerpainting in the bathtub (in bathing suits, contains the mess!)
water play with squeeze bottles/ plastic containers
dress up for purim, take pics, make adar cards for grandparents
put on the music, blow one balloon for each person, keep em in the air by bopping them up while dancing, slow and fast songs
make an obstacle course in the house: walk around the table, backwards, sit in this chair, roll across the floor, hop to the fridge, etc.
blue tape maze on the floor, blow pompoms with a straw across
blue tape city for mini cars
blue tape volleyball game with balloons
make an "amazing abba" party, with decorations, a crown, decorate his chair write a card, write word for word what the child loves most about abba, let them draw a picture.
half birthday or "unbirthday" party
make a "you're a great neighbor/ mailman/ bus driver" card
have kids help choose and prepare a special food for shabbos
Parsha Project: listen to some parsha tapes while drawing pictures to be shared at shabbos table as "divrei torah" don't forget to write out the child's explanation of the picture.
Pesach Seder Pillow decorating: crayon or permanent marker. sign and date for the future!
kosher L'Pesach/ Not Kosher L'Pesach flip signs for the house
kitchen: shape and bake your own challah, make cookies, peel veggies for soup,
make hamentashen

Shabbos is a tough one: Get a shabbos-only game for your kids, age appropriate. You can post here to ask for ideas. Make sure it ONLY comes out on shabbos. I'd suggest getting an engaging chapter book that you only read from on shabbos, so it stays special. "My father's dragon" is an exciting, young kid friendly book: it's a series of 3 books, my kids LOVED it.