Kids Activities: Back to the Basics

IIts summertime, kids are running wild and need activities to keep them occupied. 

Here are five great activities to do with your kids

 

Simple Pizza

Kids love to be independent and help out in the kitchen.  A very simple and easy food that they can make is English muffin pizzas.  All you need is a pack of English Muffins, Pizza or Spaghetti sauce, and Mozzarella Cheese, as well as your favorite pizza toppings.

 

Split the English muffin and place it on a microwave safe plate.  If you have more than one child, then make sure they each have their own prep plate.  Let the kids put the sauce and cheese and any other toppings you have on their own pizza.  Place the mini pizzas in the microwave for 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted.  Or if you want to bake it in the oven, then Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes or until cheese is melted.

 

Puppets

Making puppets is a great way to put to use some of that creative energy running rampant in children, and making them is half the fun.  Any materials are suitable with a good imagination.  I’ve used socks to make sock puppet dogs with sock ears and button eyes, (although the sewing may require more hands on help from the adult), paper bags make great puppets as well as construction paper.  Toilet paper/paper towel rolls make a great body and starting point as well.

 

 

Balloon Toss

What better way to celebrate summer than having water balloon toss games.  It helps kids with hand eye coordination, and if they don’t catch the balloon everyone gets wet and they all love it.  Another alternative is to have two kids, or you and the child hold a towel and try to bounce the balloon into the air and catch it again with the towel.  This shows teamwork and helps with hand eye coordination.

 

Origami

My kids love origami.  It’s a lot of fun to watch a piece of paper turn into an elephant, flower or rocket.  Paper airplanes still rank #1 for my kids.  Some projects are very simple and kids get a kick out of doing it themselves.  Others can leave even the most patient adult twisted and frustrated =)

Here’s a couple links where you can find some great origami project.  Word to the wise, if you are a beginner, stick with the beginner projects until you get the hang of it.

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/origami_for_kids.htm

http://www.paperairplanes.co.uk/

 

Make Believe

Kids have wonderful imaginations.  It doesn’t take much to slip into a whole new world where that little tyke is a giant T-Rex stomping through the forest chasing his prey (mainly you).  Kids love it when you join that world.  Best of all, with little to no direction from you, they can take the lead, turning a spring jacket into a caveman’s wrap while a blanket thrown over some chairs becomes a dark cave and hide out.  Join them in that magical world.

Scheduling Your Day

One thing that saves my sanity is having a schedule for the day.  

By dividing my time between work, family, and household chores I make sure that my paying job gets done, my kids get the attention they deserve and housework gets done.  Also the kids are hapier when they know what to expect out of the day.  While its important to have structure to your day, don't be a slave to the clock.  

Now that school is out for summer break, I've reworked my schedule to reflect our changing needs.  My work week schedule feels hectic, and I don't always feel like I spend enough time with the kids, but I make sure that I spend tons of time with the family on the weekends and even manage to squeeze in some me time too.   Don't forget the me time, even if it's taking a walk while daddy plays with the kids.  Since we moved away from family, and my husband occasionally goes out on service runs, somtimes my "me" time comes after the kids are in bed and I can take a deep breath and destress in peace and quiet. 

Here is an example of what works for us, and of course it only works if your paying job has flexible hours as mine does:

6 I'm up and morning rituals

7-8 Kids up, Breakfast & Dishes & kids dressed for the day

8-9:30 Take kids to Park & Walk or Indoor games/playtime with kids

9:45 Morning snack

10-12 Work (paying job)

12-1  Lunch & Dishes

1-2 Work (paying job)

2-3 Structured Play Time with mom/School Work

3-5 Work (paying job)

5-7 Dinner, Dishes & family household chores

7-8 Bath & Story Time

8-11  Work (paying job)

Finding WAH Jobs

Finding legitimate Work At Home jobs can be very difficult, especially if you don't know where to look for them.  Most of the survey "jobs" out there don't really pay much.  I did clothing surveys for one company for years and benefit was aproximately one $25 gift card at Borders every 3 months or so.  Not too shabby for 1/2 hour a month, but still not something to quit your day job over.  If you are curious the company was Partnership-Plus.

Here are a few tips on how to go about looking for work that you can do from your home. 

Never ever ever pay for a job.  A legitimate employeer will not ask you to pay for any training materials, interviews, etc. Don't trust someone you don't know to "pay you back" for training materials either.  That has scam written all over it.  

I love www.wahm.com.   They have a Telecommuting/Job Listing section to their website and try to only list legitimate jobs.  If you want to try to find the jobs yourself check out CraigsList's jobs section and check off the telecommute check box.  Look outside your local area for telecommute jobs.  Most of the work I do is with people who live over 2,000 miles from me.  

Setting Up Your Home Office

If you're going to work from home, you need an area set aside for your home office.   I currently have my office set up in our sunroom in the back of the house.  I get up in the morning, feed the kids, get ready for the day and go to "the office."  While the area is still part of the house and accessable, it is still segregated so that the kids know that they are not to play with any of the paperwork or equipment in mommy's office.

To help promote an aura of professionalism, it helps to be backed by a virtual office service. Services like these offer professional answering services and even mail forwarding so that you can use their professional mail address in a business district and still get your business mail delivered to your home. Here's a link to a great company that I use called California Business Center.  If you are in the Fairfield area they also lease offices and have a host of other professional services you can choose from for small and large companies alike. 

The Library of Congress puts out a great resource for doing business on the internet.  They may have some resources that you need in order to get your business up and running.  Check out their article: Doing Business on the Internet