Our list of Summer activities has proved to be harder then I thought. Don't get me wrong the girls are loving their Summer but it's me that needs some more ideas. So this is the start to a
Messy Summer program I am going to do. I have heard a couple of ideas from friends of fun engaged activities that they do with their kids to keep them occupied. Generally if any idea includes a mess I avoid it. It's not that I am such a clean person, it's the opposite, it's the fact that it's hard for me to clean, so the bigger the mess the harder it is. All that is about to change.
I want your ideas, of good messy activities you do with your kids (or just any activity). My goal is to try it, and post photos of the fun we had. So I guess this is even a way for some moms to give ideas they would never really want to do, and I have to!
Please get the ball rolling and send any ideas you have, we are ready for fun!
Beans...This is an activity that my friend Mindy shared that her girls absolutely love. I don't have photos so I apologize.
Objective: Buy a bag of beans (or open some from Food Storage) and get out cups, bowls, spoons, any type of containers you are okay with the kids playing with. Then give them each some beans and let them work. They dump, fill, spill, and eat (watch the little guys) to their hearts content.
Results: Wonderful! When I first gave them their beans, and the bowls, at first they just looked me like "what now?" so I said "Just play" they quickly figured it out and did whatever they wanted. The kids loved it. I have gotten repeated requests.
Time occupied: about an hour!!
Mess rating: 4 stars - I had determined before I started I would not get upset when they got to the point of just dumping them on the floor (you know they just have to!) so after ALL the beans had been dumped on the floor I had the kids help clean up, problem solved. This is a great one, because YES it's messy but it's no permanent mess. Unless you include that each time you sweep you will find at least one bean, somewhere!
Body Paint...This is one that I just came up with spur-of-the-moment when my girls brought me a jar of water based paint. I of course was like "no, not today, we will paint later." Then I thought to myself, Why not today? As I went to the garage I saw a big box that we were throwing away and instantly realized I had found our canvas. Stripping down (I didn't have Jaya take any clothes off thinking she's old enough...Big mistake) we got to work. I gave each their own plate of paint, and once again said "just play"
Objective: I initially thought they would paint just their feet and walk on the cardboard,
but kids will always out think you, and so of course the entire body got painted.
Results: Success. Earlier that day we had gone to a musical show put on at the library. As we were painting Jaya looked at me and said "Mom this is even funner then the music show!" I gave myself a pat on the back. I do just have to put in a warning. Those with smaller children, beware they do put EVERYTHING in their mouth. You could have a child like this...
Time Occupied: With the swimming included it was 1 hour. Just painting 30 min.
Mess Rating: 5 stars. This tops the scales of mess (so far). The clean up was great though, we just happened to have a kiddie pool that the girls just jumped into and swam till the paint came off.
PLEASE SEND MORE IDEAS, We are ready to get MESSY!!!
