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It’s summertime, the kids are home and the house is rarely quiet. Even the most peacefully well-behaved kids have the occasional squabble and if you have the true unfortunate circumstance of rain, everyone is stuck together under too small a roof and likely driving you crazy.
When you reach this point, it’s not time to yell at the kids or flip on the video games to distract them. Instead, engage your children in something new that will help them stay motivated on the task at hand in hopes of ignoring each other. Perhaps they’ll even get along for a bit – stranger things have happened!
Movie Marathon
We don’t always want our children watching television for hours on end, but everything is okay in moderation, and what could be better than a movie marathon based on some favorite books? You have the natural option of Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, but there are some other decent movies made from books as well – Star Wars, Holes and Twilight all come to mind.
Depending on the age of your children and their interests, find a collection of movies you haven’t watched in a long time, or even better some they haven’t seen, and settle everyone down on a rainy day. It’s a rule that everyone wears pajamas or sweats and they have to eat popcorn and order pizza to eat out of the box. The movie marathon is a lot like a sleepover with friends, but instead you’re hanging out with family instead – a great bonding experience, even if everyone is unwilling initially.
Making Lanyards
Nothing works on the mind like busy hands. Letting everyone create their own lanyard is a great way to occupy a couple of hours and your kids can all work together in the kitchen or they can work in their own rooms with music playing if they’d rather and need the break from the others.
Creating lanyards is simple enough. There are kits available with the plastic strands you weave together or you can buy a few colors ahead of time. An inexpensive keychain fob makes a great starter and then your child can weave and twist the strands to her heart’s content. The end result is a fun gift for a friend or she can give it a place of honor on her backpack or bulletin board.
Paint and Organize
The idea of having your own dedicated space is intoxicating. Get creative with paint colors and offer your children a choice of a color to use in their room. You can all work together to paint each bedroom for the children. If you’re not allowed to paint your walls, you can use a fun fabric on the walls to create an accent wall or like true wall paper. Tack it up with thumbtacks or you can use fabric starch to fix the fabric to the wall by simply rolling it on.
If the thought of painting an entire room is overwhelming, go a bit smaller. A large bulletin board can be covered with your child’s fabric of choice and then hung in her room. This gives her a place to store treasures and lets her be a part of the decorating process. You might even be really creative and paint her door in a fun way or paint on a chalkboard on the wall to let her creativity and personality run free and wild!
Rebecca Garland is a professional freelance writer working hard to populate the internet with interesting, meaningful content. With advanced degrees in business and information science, she is also the mother of two and enjoys finding fun things to do with her family including crafts like lanyards or door hangings. You can learn more about Rebecca on her professional website.
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