Title: “Family Fun Box”
Exhibitor: Andrea Colvin
Description: In response to my children asking to spend time with me
playing games, etc., I came up with the Family Fun Box.
Our box is cardboard and has six drawers. The children
decorated it and wrote a day of the week on the front of
each drawer. While they are at school I put something in
the appropriate drawer for us to do together when they get
home. The children love to race to the box after school
and spend sometimes 20 minutes to an hour with my full
attention. I find they are less whiney and needy later. On
Saturdays we include dad. Grandmothers, aunts, etc., could
also do this by having a special box ready when the
children come to visit.
How To’s:
Tips and a list of ideas that we have
had fun with
Some
ideas for the Family Fun Box
Tips
and a list of ideas that we have had fun with:
Don’t do a craft project more than once a week. They can be
expensive and time consuming.
Try not only recipes for desserts but for dinners too. Kids are
more likely to eat a new food if they help prepare it. (see #12 below)
Have stamped and addressed envelopes for letters to family
members handy at all times. There will be days you’ll forget to
prepare something for the box and these envelopes can be quickly
tossed in. (see #3 below)
If something is too big to fit in the box, put only a piece of it in or
write a note on a 3 x 5 card.
When you are “finding out about…” (see #13 below), don’t try to
learn everything. For example, if you want to learn about Nigeria, choose three points of interest- what they eat, a game they play and how natives paint their faces. Then get eye liner and paint each others faces like those you saw in the pictures.
If your children argue or lose interest, stop. Don’t make it painful
for anyone to spend time together.
Some
ideas for the Family Fun Box:
1. Make your own postcards
2. Send postcards to primary teachers
3. Write a letter to a family member
4. Make birthday cards to use throughout the year
5. Sidewalk chalk the driveway
6. Penguin race – put a tape ball on top of your feet, race from one line to another without dropping your ball, by taking small steps or hopping
7. Make paper – dry it on a window
8. Kitchen science experiments
9. Origami
10. Give all your children a facial
11. Act out nursery rhymes or a favorite story
12. Try a new recipe – go shopping first and have ingredients ready
13. Find out about . . . anything: animal, country, toy, object, holiday; go to the
library first to get books on your subject, choose only a couple points of interest to discuss
14. Go on a micro hike – go to a park and closely examine a small area of the ground on your hands and knees. You’ll find some interesting things
15. Make seasonal decorations – Christmas napkin rings, birthday goody bags, Easter placemats, centerpieces, etc.
16. Go to a park and let each child take some pictures, get the film developed at
a 1-hour place
17. Scrapbook the pictures the kids took at the park
18. Play marbles
19. Play jacks
20. Make lemonade from scratch
21. Make an obstacle course in the backyard
22. Do rubbings with paper and crayons on leaves, coins, paper clips, etc.
23. Make your own Bingo cards with stamps
24. Make mud pies
25. Make sticker pictures
26. Play “beep” – someone starts a story, says “beep” and the next person adds on, then says “beep”. Everyone gets to help make up the story.
27. Paint flower pots
28. Plant seeds or beans or small plants in the painted flower pots
29. Make pinwheels and blow them with wind or a fan
30. Make thumbprint pictures
31. Play button toss – make a scoreboard from a poster board, toss buttons from
a certain line onto the board
32. Write a “stream of consciousness” poem – someone says a word, the next person says the first word they think of after hearing the word, it continues until you have a list of about 20 words; then you write a poem with those words.
33. Play indoor bowling with plastic cups and whatever size ball you want
34. Make an Eskimo village with egg shells, draw on the shells to make them look like igloos. Pretend a snow monster comes through and smashes all the igloos
35. Use brown grocery sacks and make cowboy vests
36. Have a Teddy Bear picnic
37. Have relay races
38. Guess household smells while blindfolded
39. Dress in each others clothes and have a dance
40. Get newsprint from a newspaper company and draw life-size pictures of yourselves
41. Make newspaper hats and play pirate
42. Plan a trip to the North Pole – each person can bring three things they think are most important
43. Make a milk carton birdfeeder – cut a one gallon milk jug in half and punch four holes in the sides to put string through. Hang the birdfeeder in a tree with seeds or bread in it.
44. Make a ”Welcome Home from Work Dad” poster
45. Have everyone gather three things: like their favorite storybook, their favorite shirt and something that is their favorite color. Talk about why they are favorites. You may learn something new about them.
46. Play tangle – stand in a circle and everyone join hands across the circle with two other people. Without letting go of hands untangle yourselves so you are standing, holding hands side by side. (Some of you may be standing with their backs to the circle. That is okay.)
47. Go to a park and sit in a circle. Close your eyes and each person describe a sound they hear.
48. Crafts
49. Use a toy doctor bag and “save” each other
50. Make musical instruments and have a concert – completely paper mache burned out lightbulbs, when they are dry hit them against the edge of a table to break the bulb; the broken glass makes the sound of a maraca; then paint.
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FamilyFun.com
365 Days of Creative Play, Sheila Ellison & Judith Gray, Sourcebooks, 1995
365 Days of Afterschool Activities, Sheila Ellison & Judith Gray, Sourcebooks, 1995
52 Amazing Science Experiments, Lynn Gordon, Chronicle Books
52 Brain Tickling Activities for Kids, Lynn Gordon, Chronicle Books
(These last two entries are decks of cards.)