Wednesday, April 1, 2009

7 Kids and 8 Hours

A friend is in Texas this week. She asked if I could watch her four kids tomorrow and Monday so that dad can still go to work. Of course, I said that would be fine...and then I panicked.

So, I've been trying to figure out what to do with seven kids ages 2 through 12 for eight hours. It's spring break so at least I don't have to worry about getting everyone's schooling done. Neither do I think eight hours of free play is a good idea either. That's way too much time to wreck a house!

Well, my kids and I hit JoAnn's Fabrics to hunt through their kids section for some kind of easy and not too messy crafts. We came home with three ideas...

1. Shrinky Dinks -- We found Shrinky Dink plastic. Each kid will get a sheet of their own. I'll print clip art if they need to trace something. Then they draw and color. Afterwards, I'll shrink them and we can thread them onto ribbon for a one of a kind necklace.

2. Magic Nuudles -- These colorful cornstarch packing peanuts can be used to build all kinds of things...just add a little bit of water. When you are done, just soak them in a sinkful of water and they dissolve completely. I bought one bag of pastel colors and one bag of bold colors.

3. Wooden Masks -- These are masks made from balsa wood and are held in front of the face with a super-sized popsicle stick. They are printed with a black outline shape that the kids can paint. We have a frog, monkey, zebra, ladybug, flower, princess, and others to choose from. I can't find a link to show you but I'll take photos after we've done them.

4. Soda-Can Bowling -- I also collected enough clean, empty soda cans so we can bowl in the kitchen.

I also talked to the dad to get some movie ideas. This family has different tv limitations than we do so I didn't trust myself to pick an acceptable movie. We have two movies to watch now; one for tomorrow and one for Monday. They are Space Buddies and Snow Buddies.

Of course, we have the Wii as well. I'm thinking we could have a Mario Kart tournament and some other tournaments. My goal is not to let them spend the entire day on the Wii.

So, between all these things and some old-fashion free play time, we'll make it through the two days.

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4 Comments:

David said...

Wow, you are brave. Maybe you are trying to pop early from the stress. I hope it goes well for you. Keep us posted on Twitter. :)

Suswan said...

Planning ahead! What a novel idea! I admire and respect you. I hope all involved have a lot of fun.

The Four Week Vegan said...

Sounds like lots of fun! Is the weather nice enough to play outside too? Have fun!

Deb said...

What an adventure! Hopefully the forecast is correct and we get sunshine and dry weather together so ya'll can head outside for a while.