Plan lots of fun activities to  keep the kids occupied and prevent them from being bored.  Use these ideas:

~ Teddy Bear Picnic – Host a picnic for your kids and their favorite stuffed animal friends. Spread a blanket in the back yard or on the floor in the house. You can’t go wrong with a teddy bear picnic.

~ String Painting – Get string and cut it into various lengths. Dip the string lengths into bowls of paint and get creative.

~ Make a Nature Collage – Go for a walk and collect things from na­ture – flowers, acorns, leaves, grass, etc. Once you’ve collected everything, glue them onto paper or cardboard to make a collage.

~ Food Jewelry – String macaroni, Cheerios, noodles, or straws on string. You can make necklaces, bracelets, anklets or even belts!

~ Make a Playhouse – Get a large appliance box like a refrigerator. Paint and deco­rate the box – preferably outside in the back yard. Cut out a door and windows, and voila, you have a play house!

~Bubbles – Blowing bubbles is always lots of fun.

~ Play I Spy – To play this game simply choose an object within eyeshot and state the color of the object “I spy with my little eye, something yellow ” Each person takes turns guessing what object you spied. Whoever guesses the object gets to go next.   For emergent readers you can also use the first letter of the object as the clue, “I spy with my little eye, something that starts with ‘n’”.

~ Play Hide It – Hide an object in an obvious place. For example, place your cell phone on top of the television. The first person to find it gets to pick the next object and hide it. The only rule is that the object cannot actually be “hidden”; it must be in a visible place.

~ Water! -On a hot day nothing is more refreshing than water, for both drinking and playing. Children of all ages love running through a sprinkler. School age children enjoy water squirters and water balloons.  For children up to about age six, a large paintbrush and a pail of water can keep them happy and busy as they ‘repaint’ the house.