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Cereal Box Puzzle How Well Do You Know Your Family? Jump Rope Matching Game My Favorite Disc Paint The Yard Road Trips Ten Fun Things Treasure Hunt	Back To All Categories
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Cereal Box Puzzle

Young children love to assemble puzzles. This activity is a great way to recycle your child’s favorite cereal box and have fun with puzzles.

Playing and Learning: This activity is fun for your child, and your child will develop some early learning skills, such as:

Eye-hand coordination
Word recognition and word assembly
Listen carefully to 3 step instructions
Wait patiently
Recycling

Directions: After you are done with your favorite cereal:

Cut out the front portion of the cereal box.
Remove the sides, so all that is left is the front of the box.
Turn the front of the cereal box face down and draw 6-8 puzzle shapes directly onto the cardboard. You should make the pieces distinct enough so that once they are cut out they are easily re-assembled.
Cut out the shapes. Try not to leave jagged edges.

Begin the activity by allowing your child to simply explore the shapes.

Remember to praise: Children need constant praise and encouragement.

Help, rather than lead: Children need to feel successful, so don’t be too anxious to form the puzzle yourself. Remember, you are your child’s first and best teacher!


For more tips, or if you need more information or would like to talk to someone: In Washington State: Call the Family Help Line at 1-800-932-HOPE (4673) Outside of Washington State: contact your local Circle of Parents agency

How Well Do You Know Your Family?

Living as a family means nurturing, teaching, talking and listening. It means doing things together and doing things apart. No matter how much time we spend with another person, it can be surprising how many things we still don't know about them!

Using the following simple questions, take turns guessing each other's answers. And remember--there is no right or wrong here! The things you learn about each other may surprise you!

What is your favorite color?

Who is your best friend?

What embaresses you the most?

Would you prefer a strawberry milkshake, pizza, or chocolate candy bar?

What is/was your favorite subject at school? Your least favorite?

What is your favorite kind of music? Or favorite song?

What is your favorite book?

Would you rather--play basketball, run relays, or do exercises?

What is the hardest part of your day?

What is your biggest fear?

If you could be an animal, what animal would you be?

As your children grow older, their answers may change. Yours may too!

Getting to know your family is an ongoing process.
You may want to try this again at birthdays or other family events.
You can even make up some new questions!


For more tips, or if you need more information or would like to talk to someone: In Washington State: Call the Family Help Line at 1-800-932-HOPE (4673) Outside of Washington State: contact your local Circle of Parents agency

Jump Rope

It may seem that everywhere you look someone is telling you:

How important exercise is,
That you should be a role model for your children,
Exercise should be fun!

But what if you aren’t into the typical sports?
Consider jumping rope! Jumping rope is an aerobic exercise that burns lots of calories. Some jump rope experts say that ten minutes of jumping rope is like running an eight-minute mile. And jumping rope doesn't just work you aerobically. Jumping rope develops agility, coordination, balance, muscle fitness, and since it's high impact, jumping rope is good for bone health too.

Jumping rope is inexpensive: all you need is a jump rope.
Jumping rope is convenient: no need to go to a gym or a special athletic court.
Jumping rope feels like play as much as it feels like exercise.
Jumping rope has many different skill levels: you don't have to be an expert in coordination to start doing it or get benefit from it, but you can increase difficulty whenever you want.

Start small:
Don't expect for you or your child to be able to jump rope for hours on end. Start with 5-10 minutes.

Buy the right length rope
You and your child will need different length ropes. Holding one end of rope in each hand, step on the middle of the rope. The end sections should reach the middle of your (or your child's) chest.

Jump outside
Jumping in your house isn't a good idea, as you can easily knock things over. Why turn a fun activity into a stress-fest? Take your jumping outdoors, where there is lots of room and nothing that an errant rope will smack into.

Learn at least one rhyme
Jumping is all about rhythm. Jumping to music or a rhyme is a great way to improve your skills and get more enjoyment from the activity. For ideas, go to: http://www.gameskidsplay.net/jump_rope_ryhmes/


For more tips, or if you need more information or would like to talk to someone: In Washington State: Call the Family Help Line at 1-800-932-HOPE (4673) Outside of Washington State: contact your local Circle of Parents agency

Matching Game

This activity is good for children 4 years old and up. Of course you can buy a matching game at the toy store, but part of the fun of this activity is making it with your children!

Materials:

Clean lids from frozen juice cans
Stickers—you need to have doubles of each one. Use stickers of easy-to-recognize objects. Let your children help you pick them out!

Directions

Take two juice lids and stick a matching sticker on each one. There you have it—the first set in your matching game!
Continue until you use up all your juice lids and/or stickers.
If you don’t have enough juice lids, you could pre-trace one juice lid onto cardboard or thick paper, and then cut out the circles.


For more tips, or if you need more information or would like to talk to someone: In Washington State: Call the Family Help Line at 1-800-932-HOPE (4673) Outside of Washington State: contact your local Circle of Parents agency

My Favorites Disc

This is an activity to do with your child; remember; the point is to have fun, not to make the project look perfect.

Materials

Paper plate (one per child) or white construction paper
Markers, crayons, colored pencils, etc.

Preparation: Create the "My Favorites" disc.
To create your own disc, you can use either paper plates (one per child) or trace and cut out a circle shape from an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of white construction paper. If you are making your own circle, make the circle as big as you can, filling as much of the paper as possible.

In the very center of the circle or plate, draw another circle, about 3" in diameter. Write your child's name here.
From that center circle, draw 7 or 8 lines to the edge of the bigger circle (or plate), forming 7 or 8 "pie slices".
On the outer edge of each "slice", write the name of the "favorite". For example:
- Movie,
- Song,
- Book,
- Place,
- Sport,
- Musician,
- Ice cream Flavor.

Decoration

Older children can fill in each section, writing not just the words describing their favorite, but also decorating the disc, perhaps drawing a picture of their favorite item in each category. They can add categories to the back of the circle/plate too.
With younger children, you can ask them to tell you their favorites, and write it down in the appropriate "slice". Then, just let them decorate the plate however they want.
When finished, you can punch a hole at the top of each one, thread a string through it, and hang it up. You can make one too—that would be a great way of helping your child learn about you!


For more tips, or if you need more information or would like to talk to someone: In Washington State: Call the Family Help Line at 1-800-932-HOPE (4673) Outside of Washington State: contact your local Circle of Parents agency

Paint The Yard

For this activity, you will be "pretend painting" the yard or playground. It is lots of fun for the children to watch any wooden or brick playground equipment get wet: it can seem to turn color when wet, and then as the water dries, the regular color returns. If you have big house-paint size brushes the children really feel like they are painters!

Materials:

Buckets/pails filled with water.
Paint brushes of different sizes, from tiny to house painting size. A variety is good, but children usually gravitate towards the biggest brushes.
Outside play area that is safe. A play area with a lot of playground equipment is best.

Preparation:

Your children will get very wet doing this activity. Put them in bathing suits first—it’s a great activity for a hot day!
Place buckets filled with water around the outdoor area, at strategic locations near playground equipment.
Tell the children that their “job” is to paint every available surface (you may need a “no painting on people” rule). Encourage them to “paint every surface!”

Getting started:
If you’ve never done this activity before, children often find it hard to imagine what to do. They also may not initially understand that it’s really okay to “paint” on your house because it’s really water, not paint. You may have to demonstrate. But once they understand the concept (and also realize that it’s okay if they get wet in the process) they have a blast!


For more tips, or if you need more information or would like to talk to someone: In Washington State: Call the Family Help Line at 1-800-932-HOPE (4673) Outside of Washington State: contact your local Circle of Parents agency

Road Trips

Tips for road trips with children:

Travel Goodies:

Give each child a travel bag of goodies with each item in the bag individually gift-wrapped. Include things like a small box of crayons with coloring book, plastic toys, rubber stamps, etc. For older kids you can include puzzles, magazines, crazy sunglasses or hats, or cassettes/CDs. They can open a new gift each time they reach selected destinations.

Geography Lessons:

Give the kids maps (laminated if possible – try looking for one at a book store). They can mark destinations, drawing a line between each destination. Have them look for road signs of towns or points of interest indicating where they are on the map. Older kids can be assigned to be navigators if this is something they can do. Talk to them about where you’re going, giving them interesting facts about some of the landmarks and towns.

Sleepy Time:

If you leave early in the morning, let the kids go to the car in their pajamas where they can continue to sleep. They can change later at a rest stop or when you stop for breakfast. Have pillows and blankets in the car – it’s so great when they fall asleep on a road trip – that’s your quiet time. Wake sleeping children about ten minutes before you stop for a break. By the time you get there, they’ll have their shoes on and won’t be so groggy.

Breaks:

Take regular breaks from driving. How often you take breaks depends on the ages of your children. Bring a Frisbee, jump rope, a ball, etc. – have them burn off some energy for at least 15 minutes during breaks. Have picnics instead of stopping at a restaurant. The kids can be as loud and as jumpy as they want to be outdoors. End your driving time early enough for the kids to get a little playtime in before retiring for the night. Go to a shopping mall, take a walk or check out the swimming pool. This should help the kids sleep well in the evenings.

I Need Space:

Make sure your vehicle isn’t overly crowded with people or stuff. You may have to decide to leave grandma and grandpa home for this trip. When there’s plenty of room, kids can stretch out more. You don’t have to hear, “Mom, he touched me!”

Keep it Simple:

Try not to over extend yourself with too many destinations or too many planned activities. Be realistic about your travel plans. Remember, vacations are for quiet, restful activities too. When you’re tired, you can’t enjoy yourself.

I love taking road trips -- driving to new destinations, stopping at tacky tourist attractions, having leisurely lunches at funky, roadside cafés, buying stuff at gift stores you would never consider buying other than on vacations, and just watching the view go by at 70 miles an hour. It’s the best way to take a vacation!
However, it’s been said there are two ways to travel. There’s traveling first class and then there’s traveling with children. Taking a road trip with kids is an experience like no other experience. Everyone, together in a small, confined space for extended periods of time is, well let’s just say, beyond words and definitely not first class. You’re lucky if you can actually look out the window to enjoy the view. But it’s doable and it can be a positive, fun experience, if you prepare.
I’ll never forget a road trip my husband and I took to Disneyland with our two kids, ages 11 and 13, and the grandparents. To make things worse, we were in a sedan. I don’t remember exactly who caused the most trouble. It was a toss up between the grandparents and the kids. Either way, it was not well planned trip and we all paid for it – big time! It was “Summer Vacation with the Bickersons”. It was a nightmare!

I know better now – but at this point I can’t convince anyone to take a road trip with me anymore. I don’t know why? Perhaps I’ll get a chance to hit the road again with my future grandchildren some day and I will certainly do things differently.

Have fun!!


For more tips, or if you need more information or would like to talk to someone: In Washington State: Call the Family Help Line at 1-800-932-HOPE (4673) Outside of Washington State: contact your local Circle of Parents agency

Ten Fun Things

10 Fun Things to Do with your family

Build a fort in your living room. You will need chairs, pillows and blankets. Place a blanket over the top of two chairs and put the pillows on the seats of the chairs to hold the blankets in place. Crawl in the fort and pretend you are camping.
Have a bug-less picnic indoors. Prepare picnic food and spread a blanket out in your living room. Talk about what you like about picnics and being outside.
Make drums from oatmeal boxes and have a parade around your home.
Design hand puppets from paper lunch bags and have a puppet show. You can color the bags or use construction paper to decorate the puppets. Create a puppet stage from a cardboard box.
Use your imagination to make up crazy stories. Have each child or adult add one sentence to the story. These creative stories will always be remembered.
Make a life–size paper doll. Using butcher paper, have a child lie down on the floor on paper and draw his/her outline. The child can cut out the paper doll and color it with markers, paint or crayons.
Celebrate your dog or cat’s birthday. You can make cupcakes and decorate them with sprinkles. Tell your pet what you like about him.
Have a red party. Wear red clothes, sing songs that have the word red in them and eat red food. (You can use any color.)
Make play dough: Mix 1 cup flour; ½ cup salt; 1 tablespoon cooking oil; food coloring; ½ cup water. Knead by hand. Store in a plastic bag.
Make homemade bubbles: 1 cup Joy, Dawn or Ivory dish detergent; 12 cups water; ¼ cup glycerin. Stir well without creating foam. Let bubble mixture settle for 4 hours before using it. Blow bubbles in a grassless area outside of your home. It gets pretty messy.


For more tips, or if you need more information or would like to talk to someone: In Washington State: Call the Family Help Line at 1-800-932-HOPE (4673) Outside of Washington State: contact your local Circle of Parents agency

Treasure Hunt

A well-planned treasure hunt can keep children amused for hours, and is a perfect rainy day activity.

Start by planning:

On small pieces of paper, write individual clues that lead to the location of the next clue, and the next and the next…the last clue leads to a hidden "treasure".
You hide all clues but the first.
The first clue you give to your child.
And of course you hide the final treasure!

Make the hidden clues easy to identify.
Write the clues on brightly colored paper. Hide them, but not too well. You want them to be found eventually! For example, tucked beneath a sofa pillow with a corner showing is fine; hidden under a sofa cushion is too hidden for a young child.

For very young children who can't read, you can draw pictures as clues.
For example, the first clue you give a child would be a picture of a bathtub. This would signal that the child should go and look in the bathtub. Inside the bathtub would be the next clue, perhaps a picture of a carton of milk. This would signal the child to look in the fridge. The fridge clue could be tucked under a milk carton. Etc.

You may want to limit the number of clues for young children;
Have the same number of clues as years of their age (a 3 year old would get three clues).

For older children, the clues could be riddles they need to solve or rhymes to figure out.

You could also do a word scramble:

Hide the treasure in a location that is pretty easy to spell--for example: "guest bathroom".
Write the letters g.u.e.s.t individually, on separate pieces of paper.
Write the letters b.a.t.h.r.o.o.m on separate pieces of paper.
Use different colored paper for the letters of each word so the children know to assemble the words separately. For example: write g.u.e.s.t. letters on blue paper and b.a.t.h.r.o.o.m on yellow paper.
Now hide all the letters in different parts of your home.
Tell the children how many total letters are hidden.
They have to find all the letters and unscramble them to make them into the word/words that tell them where the treasure is hidden.

Make it age appropriate: There are many different ways to plan a treasure hunt.

For younger children, an adult can hide clues in different locations.
Older children may want to plan and execute the treasure hunt on their own, for their younger siblings and friends.


For more tips, or if you need more information or would like to talk to someone: In Washington State: Call the Family Help Line at 1-800-932-HOPE (4673) Outside of Washington State: contact your local Circle of Parents agency