rainy-day activites with a HIGHLY ACTIVE 4-year-old!!! (newborn, game, clothes)
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Thank you all so much for the great ideas! Penguin, My son loves Team Oomizoomi too and recently asked to be enrolled in the science enrichment at school, but it's more $$ than we can afford on top of the writing enrichment and tuition, for goodness' sake so these activities will appeal to his love of science. Fort is something we can do as soon as buy our own home which will be in the near future.
You can do an indoor fort by getting a small card table and covering it with a sheet or blanket.
1. LEGOS - since you have a younger child, you may want to use duplos which are bigger. Build things to play with.
2. Get a large box (from some appliance - usually stores will part with them). Have him make this into anything his imagination can think of. We have had houses, a boat, a plane, a car. He can marker or paint the outside to make what he wants and it can be changed if you staple construction paper over the box so you can tear it off when he wants to change.
3. On the order of the science experiments - make a volcano. You can use clay or playdough and shape it and let it dry. Leave the top open. Pour in a bit of baking soda, some red food coloring and then pour in vinegar and watch it explode.
4. Get some magnifying glasses and go on a hunt to find really small stuff to look at. Draw pictures of what you find.
5. Get some magnets. Go on a metal hunt. What things will the magnet attract? What will it not attract? Again you can draw pictures of the results.
My daughter was not a total chatterbox, but there were times when she wanted to chatter endlessly when I had a work deadline to meet (single mother working from home). We had a stereo CD/Radio/Cassette tape player which came with a microphone. And grandparents who lived in England. I would have my daughter make a tape for her Granny - she'd chatter into that microphone forever, telling stories, singing songs, asking questions. And I got my work done.
If you don't already have a CD/Cassette player in the attic, you can probably acquire one really cheaply at a thrift store. And if you don't have relatives/friends to send the tape to, you can have him put together his own 'radio show'.
When my boys were that age they loved LEGOS, the regular size ones. In fact they never really got into the Duplo sized ones. We had a huge tub and they just sat there. But the LEGO sets... LOVED them. Still do and they are 16 and 11. But don't tell my 16 year old I just told the whole world he still plays with LEGO's. lol
Hula-Hoops. Great indoor physical activity that wears them out.
Does he have a Wii? I was never big on video games, but I have to admit I absolutely love the Wii. We live in rainy Oregon with long cold muddy winters... Our kids love boxing and bowling and golf and the dancing games on the Wii. There are tons of games for the Wii that keeps them active. The snowboarding game is fun and I hear the skateboarding games are really fun, too. XBox has similar games now but we haven't tried those out yet.
OK you might think this is dumb but when my kids were little I used to let them hammer nails into an old tree stump. Brainless, sounds stupid... but oh man they loved that. lol I actually got that idea from the Montessori school our oldest attended at the time.
Jumping rope is another thing you can do inside.
They have electronic drum kits now with headphones!! Love them!! CostCo usually has a set of these around Christmastime.
Have him help you wash all the windows in the house, or sweep, or vacuum with a small handheld dustbuster type vacuum, dust with a feather duster, scrub the bathtub and sinks... I used to give my kids baby wipes and tell them to clean all the doorknobs in the house. They actually thought it was fun and would fight over who got to do that chore. (Maybe I have weird kids? )
OK you might think this is dumb but when my kids were little I used to let them hammer nails into an old tree stump. Brainless, sounds stupid... but oh man they loved that. lol I actually got that idea from the Montessori school our oldest attended at the time.
You can also hammer golf tees into styrofoam which works better for the 2 year old. It's easier for the child to get the tee to go in and they won't have the problem with sharp nails.
Another idea - get some contact paper and tape it down with the sticky side up and let the kids walk across it in bare feet.
Or tape it to the table sticky side up and cut out various shapes and pictures and make a collage by sticking them down to the contact paper.
You can also paint with magnets - put a piece of paper in a flat container, dump a bit of paint on the paper, place metal objects on the paper and use magnets underneath to move the metal around and make a painting.
You can also paint with cars - tape paper to the table and use small cars with different striated wheels dipped in paint to make a painting. You can make a track by moving all the way around the table doing this.
All of these activities sound like great suggestions. I'd also like to add that it may calm him to have some sort of written or visual daily schedule. We used to use a small whiteboard. That way he can see what is coming for the day. Alternate activities where you will directly play with him with those where you will be around but also doing what you need to do. That way, he gains independent play skills and you get time to do other things. A schedule will also mean you'll have less stress in constantly having to come up with something.
When my dd was young we would bake cookies, she loved the Wiggles and that program gets them up and dancing and singing, we'd do building blocks also a lot of times I would put a fun CD in the stereo and we would dance around the house.
Hehehehe--that was my son! Non-stop talking. We joined a children museum: priceless! Forts, painting, building toys (there is so much more than legos out there! Check out Fat Brain Toys. I love their site and order from them every year for both birthdays and Christmas).
However, what I wish I had and what I will be getting soon is a video camera. You need a table as a puppet stage and puppets of some kind (actual puppets, paper bag puppets, paper figures on sticks, etc.). Also a tripod or other sturdy set up for the camera. Now press the record button and walk away so that your son can make a "movie" for his grandparents! If that is too much work, you can have him start making video "postcards" for his grandparents or other family. That way he gets to talk and talk and talk. And you don't have to respond!
Other ideas:
Make an obstacle course, especially if you have a cleaned-out garage or a basement.
Hide and Go Seek with stuffed animals (you hide the animals, he seeks them).
Paper Scrap Collage: have him cut paper as much as he wants in all sorts of colors, then have him glue it on a piece of paper in the shape of a picture (i.e. an apple tree).
Balloons. No plan needed. Just blow up a balloon or two and he will take care of the rest.
Educational computer games.
You or Daddy could start working out (yoga, pilates, sit ups, push-ups) and your son will most likely join in.
Library
Seek-n-find books
Bowling: you could buy a set or make one out of empty soda bottles with a little sand in them and a sturdy, but soft ball. Line it up down a hallway and mark off where the pins are suppose to go with painters' tape so he can set it up himself each time.
My very best idea: invite a friend over!
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