Are your kids are home from break and you don't know what to do with them?
1st remember kids are people too. When you worked if ever and you got used to a
routine then if you had to stay home for a while, you would go kind of nuts
too. 1st day or two is fun but by the third day or so the lounging monster of boredom
takes over. Well I have some fun indoor games for that! Volleyball anyone?
Lets face it you would be bored too. After watching every movie you own, and rereading a few books or
magazines you get stir crazy, well so do, your kids. If possible try to allow
them to get out for a little bit. Older kids can walk a block or two to the convenience
store for a snack or pop, younger kids need you to take them out. This doesn’t
have to mean Pizza Machine followed by Cocokey, just a simple trip to burger
king for an 89 cent ice cream will make you the hero of the day. Also allow the
kids to be bored in groups, your kids will do much better just hanging outside
with a friend. In this cold weather however that can be a challenge too. What do you do with bored locked in kids? Solution? Keep them active! I sugesst you set these
games up for your children or else they might break your dinning chair or get
too good of a ball and their goes Aunt Millie’s vase!
Game #1 Indoor volleyball
Take 2 chairs, and a broom, position the broom on top or through the top of
the chairs. This is your net. A balloon makes the perfect ball, stops vases
from getting broken. To stop the kids from getting overly routy, the kids must
play on their back using only their feet in the air. This actually makes the
game more challenging, defiantly full of silliness and is a great form of
exercise. If this doesn’t wear out your kids I don’t know what will.
Game # 2 Indoor softball
Ok 1st you take an empty(important no spilling and you want this
to be sort of flimsy)water bottle, this is your bat. Then a soft squishy, (if
to hard will fly to far, not good for your home, if to soft won’t fly at all, a
little trial and error might be best) small stuffed animal, this is your ball.
Now we play in our family room. The batter starts in the middle of the couch. The
pitcher throws the ball from just behind the coffee table. To score you must
get around the coffee table all the way and touch the end of the couch, without
being touched by the pitcher with ball in hand or hit by the ball itself. Also another
reason you want a soft squishy ball. In our family room this works great
because behind the coffee table is a wall so the ball literally stops there. If
this isn’t the case for you, you may want to examine a better location for your
game. Maybe in a kids bedroom start on one side of the bed by the headboard and
you have to go around to the other side and touch the headboard to score. This
may take some imagination and moving of breakables before game play. We do 1
out or after 3 scores it the other persons turn. That way younger kids have a little
more time to play against an older sibling.
Game #3 In door balloon dodge ball
This is great with a larger group. You need aprox. 6 kids, moms and dads you
may have to fill in for a few people. You all stand in a large circle with at least
2 feet of space in between each of you. Then you make teams, half and half. 1st
you call out a name, hit a balloon with your fist giving it more speed, then as
it comes at you, you must either repunch it or catch it. If it falls at your
feet you’re out. As the puncher you have to go for someone at least 2 people
away, or if the group gets more thinned out then you have to spread out through
out the circle. If you are the puncher and you forget to call out a name or the
balloon doesn’t go to the person you called out or it doesn’t make it past the
halfway point in the circle then you as the puncher are out.
Game #4 (1 2 3)
This game is fun and also requires more then two players, I find it best
with three to six people, any more and the circle gets too big and hard to
play. This is basically a game of tag with your feet, jumping at each other,
tagging their feet with only your feet. No one else may jump except the person
who is IT and after they jump the next person in the circle is IT. Play continues
around the circle. Other players can jump but only at the same time as the
tagging IT person to jump away. All players can jump with the IT person. You
get out by either being tagged or jumping out of turn (not with the IT person)
or falling over. Everyone gets in a tight circle - this is best in a larger,
more empty space, like a basement or a large family room. Everyone says 1, 2 ,3
then takes a giant leap back, then the
game starts. The IT person can fake jump to get others to take a leap out of turn
and thus getting that player out. This gets really fun when there are only two
people left jumping back and forth at each other.
Game #5 Kitchen table shuffle board
First of all this is a little messy, if you are not into messy don’t even
bother reading on. I am one of those mothers who believes life is messy and it
is often more fun that way.
This game is for 2 at a time best with older children age 7 and above. So
you start with 6 bottle caps of different sizes and shapes, try to find ones
with little or no bumps on the top. Pill bottle caps work perfectly, *make sure
you put the pill bottles up high after removing the caps if there are little
ones in the home.* Then you split the
caps in half varying the sizes between the two teams. Add duck tape, scotch
tape, or masking tape to one the tables end to mark 2 points on the far end of
table starting at least 3 inches from the end then give 4 inches for the next piece
of tape, working toward the middle. Then mark the middle point. Add a slight
dusting of flour (told you this would be messy) *mom make sure you put the
flour bag up, often a flour fight occurs during this game and it is just too
easy for your son to dump the whole bag on his sister.* Then opponents take
turns sliding down the table with their caps, points are only giving to the player
who’s caps are the farthest down the table. If you have 2 caps on the table and
your opponent has one in-between them only the farthest cap counts. As play
goes on a player may try to knock the other players cap off the end completely.
This can back fire and give your opponent more points if their cap doesn’t fly
off the end. Points are based on where the cap lands ( and again only score the
farthest out caps from only one player)Caps landing in between the middle line
and the first line without touching the tape line is 1 point. No point if the
cap doesn’t make it past the middle line. Touching the line is 2 points and up
till you touch the last line. When touching the last line you get 3 points and
hanging off the end of the table you get four. After all caps are played you
count points marking them down, and go again. 1st player to make 25
points (or your determined amount) wins. I suggest making points a little higher
then say ten, after all the set up they should be playing for a while, also it
may take a round or two for a younger child to get how to play. Mom you may
find yourself getting in on this game challenging the winner. It is a fun game
and very addicting, make sure before you
start this game you let the kids know they will be helping clean up the mess.
