You all asked, so here it is! I have put together a month of screen free activities for you little ones! Basically, I wanted to make an easy list of 5 activities per week, one for each day that will get your kids busy and encourage their senses and imaginations to grow and thrive! These are all VERY EASY activities that you can put together in minutes, that will hopefully buy you a decent amount of quiet time!
HERE IS WHAT YOU NEED FOR THE ENTIRE MONTH, MOST OF WHICH YOU PROBABLY HAVE AT HOME ALREADY!
-A batch of home made play dough or a tub or store bought
-Play Dough Accessories- Cutters, Dough Roller, Letter Stampers, etc
-Walmart Running Water Sink $14 (or) Under the Bed Storage Bin (I was going to link one but they are more expensive than the sink! HA!!) But if you have one, use it!
-Stickers- we like these dot stickers
-Dry Pasta or Beans
-Glue and or Glue Sticks for Younger Kids
-Clothes Pins
-Tea Set or Cups and a Small Pitcher From Home- no need to buy a set!
WEEK 1:
Day 1- Play Dough with letter stampers, a dough roller, cookie cutters, etc. Here is our post for our home made play dough recipe if you decide to whip up a batch. If you aren't up for that, no biggie, amazon has THIS tub of dough that you can buy and even add food coloring to if you want it a color! Just knead the coloring in with your hands until its spread evenly! Kids LOVE play dough, and even though it can entertain them pretty well by itself, if you add fun tools and accessories, it will keep their interest even longer! Play dough is an incredible sensory activity that isn't very messy and is always lots of fun! After your kids are done playing, ask them to help you bag up the dough and put the tools back in the box etc.. it's important to teach our little people that if they want to play, they must also put it away! We're their mamas, not their maids... even thought it feels that way most of the time! haha!
Day 2- Walmart Water Sink or Under the Bed Storage Bin- If you follow me on instagram, you know that my kids are obsessed with this running water sink because its always on our stories it seems like! The play sink is only $14 and has been so worth it for us- but a shallow storage bin will work just fine also!! Just add some water and cups and a scrub brush and watch you little one have fun! I like to lay out a few towels under the sink/bin while my kids play with it so they don't have to stress about spills (more like I don't have to stress about it! HA!) and it makes clean up a breeze!
Day 3- Sticker Line Tracing. Get a piece of card stock and with a sharpie or marker, draw a straight line, a zig zag line, and a wavy line. Give your kiddo a sheet of stickers and ask them to cover the lines with the stickers. This is a surprisingly simple activity that really does entertain for quite a long time! We like to use these dot stickers because they come in a pack of like one million, but any stickers will work! I would start your kid off with the three lines and offer more as they complete the task, they may just want to do it once, but may be super interested and want to keep doing it over and over again! I don't like to offer too many lines at once because my kids get overwhelmed if that task seems too big and won't want to do it!
Day 4- Cutting Box. This is always huge hit with my kids! I say box- because I have presented this activity in a travel box, but you can really just offer up the strips of paper on a tray with a pair of scissors- no box needed! All you need to do here is cut several trips of paper 2 inches wide and about 6 inches long and draw various lines on the paper... straight line, vertical lines, zig zags, diagonal, etc and ask your kids to cut along the lines. If you have little ones who can't cut yet or are working on their cutting skills, just offer them strips of paper to cut freely! This one can be kind of messy, so I recommend laying down a sheet and asking the kids to stay on the sheet while they cut. That way, you can just gather the sheet and shake it into the trash can.
Day 5- Pasta and Pom Poms. Again, bring out the sheet- I always like to contain our activities on a large sheet or our Gathre Mat- which is basically an overpriced leather mat haha but it keeps our activities contained and is prettier than a sheet! Guilty. Always... get some dry pasta- doesn't matter what kind... farfalle, penne, macaroni, doesn't matter, and pour it in a bowl. Set out a muffin tin, some tongs, spoons, scoops, and a bowl of pom poms and let the littles go wild! You will be amazed at how much they will love this simple and semi clean sensory activity!
OK thats it for week 1! Make sure you are subscribed to our newsletter so you get the emails on when the next week of activities hits the blog!!
