Monday, April 14, 2008

Et tu Brute? Momma Monday?

Tag and I am it! My Friend Heather has brought a new and fun dimension via Erin to my little blog universe, the Momma Monday Post.

Rainy days are a mixed blessing in our home. While the adventurous mommy I can be (though it has been awhile) would bundle the kids up and take them out into the weather, this activity is getting a little dicey with three kids. Someone is always cranky. I say stomp through every puddle of muddy, sandy water you can find. Run, be free, yuck it up! Then I have to do the laundry.

One of my favorite things to do with the kids, and I say my favorite because I haven’t asked the kids if they find this as fun as I do, is to give the kids warm, bubbly baths, put on our soft, snuggly pajamas, get our blankets, popcorn and watch movies. The reason I love this so much is that all the kids climb into my lap or sit on either side of me and snuggle. No matter how bad the day is, these kids as Emmakat says “makes my heart bigger”.

Run and scream
Our house has a unique feature of circular path through the living room and hallway. It is simple; I am the assigned the role of tiger, monster, lion, dinosaur (sharp tooth with tail I might add) or any growling figure will do. The kids scream, giggle, hide, and run recklessly through the house. How else am I supposed to exercise? You can amend this activity with a vacuum cleaner. For some odd reason the kids love to play tag with the vacuum cleaner but the same tiring effect occurs, running and screaming equals good nap time. Again how else am I supposed to clean?

Building blocks and giants galore
We have these huge locking type blocks and we will build towers of many colors only to have the kids pretend they are wrecking balls or giants knocking over the towers. It is fun but it is short lived fun because someone is always crabby.

Crayons, play dough, and more
All of these things work great. I have narrowed it down to a bucket of crayons, color pencils and markers. My husband brings home huge pieces of paper, large enough to have the kids lay down so we can trace their bodies, hands, feet. I laugh when they ask me to lie down on the floor, I just tell them “Sweet Pea, there just isn’t a piece of paper that big in the world”.

I love play dough, roll it, squeeze it, and pound it. The little kids for their birthday got this cool play dough set with tools and this wonderful little mommy helper a play dough pig. This little guy has a nose which pigs up play dough anywhere. I L – O – V – E the play dough pig,

Now depending how messy you want to get, you should try mixing corn starch and water. This stuff is cool, it is squishy and wet but when you pull your hands out the stuff is instantly dry and powdery on your hands. It is a nice tactile activity.

Books, books, and more books
The kids love to read, I love to read, so it makes for a nice relationship. We have some book/toys which help my oldest (not my husband as stated in the previous post although I wonder?) learn how to read and write. I also got her a dry erase board to use because we never have enough paper around. So this board cuts down on the amount of paper used and puts the surface in a different position for their little hands. She uses it all the time and the cool thing is you can take tape and mark out lines to practice the sizing of her upper and lowercase letters.

The computer also provides some fun time too. There are some websites, like starfall which work on phonetic activities with pictures and stories. Then there are always the Sprout, Disney, Nick jr. and Noggin to keep the kids busy. It is like the vegetables, I try to sneak in the important stuff with fun when I can. Sometimes the kids are on to me, so it goes back to the running and screaming fun.

Crafts
Well I am not a crafty mom but I once tried to make robots out of paper grocery bags. I cut holes out for the arms and faces. This will last until the bag rips but with three robots chasing each other the odds are considerably higher for destruction.

Anyway, there it is a rainy Momma Monday actually on Monday instead of Wednesday or Thursday.

2 comments:

  1. I can hear the screaming that ensues as they run their "track"! Can Sarah come over for one of those days - and a bath? :)

    ReplyDelete

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