What's in the dress up box...

• Hats
• Purses
• Old halloween costumes (animals, superheros, etc.)
  
• Costume jewelery and beaded necklaces
• Bandanas
• Old sports uniforms
• Play cell phones
• Aprons and wooden spoons
• Clip-on ties
• Plastic high-heels (I totally loved these when I was a little girl, and now my girls do too!)
• Tap dance shoes
  
• Gloves
• Pom-poms
• Skirts
• Tulle--yards of it!
• Sunglasses, fake reading glasses
• Wings
• Princess dresses
• Outdated bridesmaid/prom dresses
• Scrubs
• Wedding veil or fake flowers for a bouquet

Check for all these items at yard sales or thrift stores, even in your own closet. The Dress Up Box is a favorite with my kids and pretty much all of our young visitors! You won't regret building a collection of items that keep your kids independently entertained while exercising their imagination.

Reading version

• Play Boggle or Boggle Jr.
• Play Scrabble
  
• Label your furniture and drawers and dishes and toys with post-it notes for a day or two
  
• Cut out pictures from magazines and glue them to one side of a note card, then write the name of the picture on the other side, you could use these several different ways. Or write the words on a separate note card and have your kiddo match the picture with the word. Simplify it and work on phonics by just writing the first letter or the first sound.
• Play Upwords
• Find letters or words that start with certain letters while you run errands around town
• Play GO-fish with letter cards
• Choose a poem on Monday, learn it and recite it to each other at dinner on Friday.
• Turn off the TV and listen to a book on tape instead.
• Turn off the TV and read to each other, snuggled up on the couch, or on mom and dad's big bed.
• Set aside 5 r 10 or 20 or 30 or 60 minutes as part of your bedtime routine.
• Read aloud while they eat breakfast or lunch.
• Listen to books on tape while you drive.
• Do Mad Libs
• Play on Starfall
  

Fun stuff to do with kids

• Make squid dogs from Family Fun Magazine
  

• Make rock candy from The Exploratorium

• Be the first two to go jump in the swimming pool this year
• Play with a slinky
• Roll down a hill
• Paint your car with washable acrylic paint (you know you have always wanted flames!)
• Decorate balloons to look like people in your family
• Put some food coloring in tubs filled with clear liquid soap and use it for bathtub painting (this is for older kids, who won't rub it in their eyes, and test it on your bathtub first, so you know it won't stain)
• Bathe your pet
• Memorize poems and recite them to each other
• Have a contest to see who can recite the most Bible verses from memory
• Ask your kids what they want to do...and do it...no matter what they say!

• Put a small object inside a brown paper lunch sack and have the kids guess what it is. To give a clue write the first letter of the object on the outside of the bag.
• Hide jelly beans around one room of the house, but hide the jelly beans close to objects of the same color so that they are camouflaged.
• Make smiley face pancakes.
• Make sack lunches for another family and deliver them to their doorstep.
  
• Have a big-water, big-bubble, bath in the middle of the day.
• Prank call the grandparents, let the kids disguise their voices.
• Next time you go to Starbucks, leave the cashier an extra $5 to pay for the next person's drink, then you and the kids sit in the corner and watch the reaction.
• Answer your phone like Buddy the Elf. (This is Buddy, what's your favorite color?)
• Take some cookies to the librarians.
• Do a scavenger hunt at the library with a list of books, or other things you see when you are there.
  

Fun stuff...rainy day style...

• jump in puddles with rain boots
• jump in puddles without rain boots
• sing in the rain
• count raindrops as they land on your tongue
  
• go for a walk in the rain, don't forget your umbrella
• make a waterproof outdoor fort with tarps
• take turns reading out loud in a favorite book
• take a picture with your camera phone and send it to a friend...right now...and don't forget the silly faces!
• spin tops, race the tops, see whose top can stay up the longest, bump them into each other, try to spin them on top of each other, try to spin them on your hand, on your knee, on your nose
  
• go to the dollar store and each pick out one new toy, that should be good for a couple hours or maybe an afternoon of rainy day fun
  

• rake the leaves and jump in them, then do it again.
• dissect owl pellets
• make corn husk dolls
• see who can go the longest without talking
• arm wrestle
• thumb wrestle
• wrestle
• let your girls try on your jewelery
• say "Mrs. Smith's Fish Sauce Shop" ten times fast. Then try this one,

"A Tudor who tooted a flute tried to tutor two tooters to toot. Said the two to their tutor,"Is it harder to toot or to tutor two tooters to toot?"

If your kids are anything like mine they will start giggling hysterically at the first mention of anything "tooting!"

Have fun!

• organize a neighborhood toy auction
• volunteer at the zoo, local animal shelter, old folks home, soup kitchen
• order a pizza, try a combination of toppings you have never eaten before
• make root beer floats
• memorize the presidents
• memorize the states and their capitals
• do some worksheets in preparation for a new school year
• have your kiddos call the extended family to make a list of their birth dates, use it to send them bday wishes throughout the year
• move across the country, it will keep your whole family occupied for at least a month when all is said and done
• do show and tell after dinner, let the kids choose the item in the morning or afternoon so they anticipate it all day long
  

• take a nap
• spend 15 minutes everyday practicing a new skill until you master it
• spend 15 minutes everyday cleaning in the one room of your house you never get to
• paint flowers on your toenails
• hula hoop
• take silly quizzes online
• sing "The Song That Never Ends"
• microwave a marshmallow
• microwave a light bulb in a bowl of shallow water
• take a trip down memory lane, talk about your favorite memories together
  
• drop a mento into a bottle of coke
• go fishing
• let your kids choose what is for dinner and eat it no matter what
• ENJOY YOUR SUMMER...IT IS ALMOST OVER!!
  

• start a club
  
• make milkshakes
• use puppets to tell a bedtime story
• make a hideout or clubhouse
• make a human sundial (scroll down a ways)
• memorize a poem
• go to an Imax movie
• play tag
• feed some squirrels
• your mall probably has a play structure, brave the crowds and go to play on it, AND talk to a stranger, you might make a new friend.
  

• Find a store that sells products made in your state and learn about some local industry
• Go fishing
• Lots of theaters have free summer movies, check out your local theater
• Give your kids a dollar each and take them to some yard sales
  
• Invite the grandparents over for dinner or out for a picnic
  
• Do a "Secret Summer Santa" where your kids secretly make little surprises or do sweet things for a secretly chosen sibling/parent, then reveal after a week...might cut down on the summer arguing.
• Go to an empty parking lot and have bike races, public school parking lots are empty right now.
• Play a board game that you haven't drug out of the closet for a long time
• Play hide-and-seek
  
• Watch a movie or read a book and then write a review, this would be good to brush up on some language arts skills/parts of a story/critical thinking this summer
  

Fun stuff to do with kids

• play store
• play restaurant at breakfast, lunch or dinner complete with menus
• give everyone crazy hairstyles
• have a carpet picnic
• have breakfast for dinner
• dress up fancy for dinner at home
• take bubble baths
• go get drinks at Starbucks
• go order some fries to share and play in the playplace at Chick-fil-a, or McDonalds with those who are unfortunate enough not to have a Chick-fil-a
• take a nap in the grass, or under the trampoline, or if you live in the south, you better take a nap on the trampoline or you will get eaten alive by the ants. On second thought, this is for my northern friends only. If my southern friends tried to take a nap on the trampoline, they would fry like eggs.
  

Fun stuff to do with kids

 

• make paper airplanes and see who's flies the best, does the most flips, flies the farthest, etc
• see who can make the longest paper chain
• use a paper chain to count down to the next big thing you are looking forward to
• make paper hats
• make paper plate masks
• play rock paper scissors
• do paper mache
• cut holes in the bottom of a cardboard box, and try to weave ping-pong balls through them
• tape record a letter and send it to someone
• play in a bubble bath
  

Fun stuff to do with kids

 

• make animal footprints out of cardboard and strap them to your feet
• get an ant farm
• make up an obstacle course and run through it with bean bags on your head
• bean bag toss
• bean bag basketball with pot in middle of floor, yard, driveway, etc
• blindfold someone and guide them around
• play follow-the-leader
• trace your body with sidewalk chalk and then decorate it
• make a shadow animal show
• play musical chairs
  

Chicken Scratch or Dots and Boxes

My mom taught my sister and I how to play "chicken scratch" on a road trip from Kansas to Mississippi one summer when I was a kid. I have called it chicken scratch every since, but apparently the real name is "dots and boxes." Either way I liked playing it when I was a kid, and now I like to play it with my kids! Print a few copies and keep them in the car, use them at restaurants or in the doctor's office while you wait.
Chicken Scratch

Publish at Scribd or explore others:

Fun stuff to do with kids

• fingerpaint with shaving cream
• collect sticks and mud and build a bird nest
• write newspaper articles for a pretend newspaper (or for the family newsletter if you tried that one)
• let them vacuum the window blinds
• let them wash windows and mirrors
• clean out the garage in preparation for a yard sale, let them price their own items and keep the money they earn
• create a design box (copper wire, string, odds-and-ends destined for the garbage, pom-poms, thread, yarn, etc.)
• make family t-shirts, there are about a million different ways to do this
• build a house out of plastic cups
• eat popsicles

Free chocolate!

You might remember this post. Where Hershey's chocolate and free came together...
The offer is good every Friday between now and the end of September, isn't that generous! We have gotten two coupons so far, and used them to get snacks to take to our free movie last week, and you are allowed to do it up to four times between now and September! Go get your free Hershey's chocolate bars!

Fun stuff to do with kids

• cut up old magazines and make a collage with a theme, things you like, things you dislike, Christmas/birthday wishes, etc
• make a treasure map
• go on a treasure hunt
• make your own "fun stuff to do with kids" list
• let the kids plan a special activity for the family, make it free or give them a small budget to work with
• plan an imaginary trip to the mooN
• play dress up
• play dolls
• practice math facts
• make up a game for practicing spelling
  

Fun stuff to do with kids

• decorate bikes and wagons and have a parade
• do the same thing, but invite all the neighbor kids to join in
• catch butterflies and let them go
• make a teepee out of blankets
• write in a journal
• play charades
• make up a story by drawing pictures
• make up a new Sunday comic
• cut pictures from old magazines and write a story
• do a secret service for a neighbor
  

Fun stuff to do with kids

• use a bucket of water and some paint brushes to paint the sidewalk, the house,the cars, and anything else you can think of
• start a journal or scrapbook documenting your summertime fun
• start a nature diary
• play kick the can
• start a bug collection
• read books to neighborhood kids
• find shapes in the clouds
• glue noodles into a design on a paper
• play hopscotch
• play jacks
  

Fun stuff to do with kids

• make spinners
• make fish out of ribbons
• make a lapbook
• go on an audition, who knows what talent you might discover in your child (or in you!)
• lots of places have horse-drawn carriage rides, go for one of those
• hold hands
• give hugs
• give kisses
• come up with a way to say "I love you" in secret code, that only the two of you will know
• jump rope
• check out a joke book from the library, and take turns reading it to each other