Morning folks, find the coffee cups.

box forts rule! :D

Absolutely – we always seem to have a couple of computer boxes around, though I have to admit that when we once got a freezer, the kids that that thing set up with windows and doors and made me rustle around in the scrap box so that they could ‘make’ curtains for it. They played in that thing for weeks.

http://icanhascheezburger.com/2009/09/16/funny-pictures-see-mah-fort/

Morning Toby, everybody

1)dress ups
2)old jewelry
3)board games
4)sofa forts
5)baking cookies

good fun, entertained me for hours and hours :)

that has to be a picture from your childhood

Aloha, Toby…! I’m unable to think at this juncture… It’s 3 AM here atop frigid Mauna Kea and I still have another 3 hours to go, fortunately, only one more hour outside in the cold…! I will take a coffee though…! ;-)

our version of sofa forts was draping old curtains or sheets over chairs…we had to be in real desperation territory for my mom to allow us to do that..

(glug..glug..glug) There you go, CT..and take a cinnamon bun while you’re at it. :)

1. Hundreds of picture books and chapter books
2. Hundreds of wooden blocks
3. Hundreds of legos
4. Board Games
5. Deck of cards

Mahalo…! *g*

Only slightly snarky: sit down with them and have them dictate a letter to Obama and their Congresscritters. You can write and offer suggestions.

Other “writing” ideas: to kids in the hospital; to troops overseas.

You can figure out the exact addresses later.

One of my aunts from the UK had this really fantastic book called The White Magic book which fascinated us for hours – it was one of those things where there were pictures on a page and depending on what your interpretation of it was, at the bottom, it would say “if you see xxx, go to page yyy” or “if you see xxx, turn the book upside down and go to page zzz” I wish I could find a copy of that.

Oh that is a great idea!!! When our son was young, he was a rather poor reader and we used to do an all family activity where everyone had to write something – a poem, a fairy tale, a silly advert and read it out loud to everyone after Sunday lunch. The kids still talk about what fun that was – it also helped his reading and writing a LOT.

it’s amazing how long a deck of cards can entertain. a versatile “toy” to be sure

Is this it?

I am a former English teacher.

In our family we also have a bunch of old “journals” I kept from when the kids were little. I bought one of those “week-on-a-page” engagement calendars from Sierra Club, etc., and would write up funny, exciting, etc. things they did and said — the things you SAY you’re going to remember/should write down.

Now, at 22 and 24, the kids go crazy re-reading them and laughing.

For good, cheap collections of stories and poetry, Dover Books can’t be beat. Best ‘read out loud’ poetry we found for the kids (and this was when they were between 6 and 12) was a Dover ed. of Robert Service’s Yukon poetry. The kids really got into The Cremation of Sam Magee…

YES!!!!! Thank you so much!

Good Morning All.

You could make houses out of card tables with blankets thrown over them.

We kids would make up “talent” shows. And I use the term loosely.

Have a scavenger hunt with items hidden all over the house.

Hide-and-seek. (Of course,this only works if you have a big house, if not, see the hint above)

And, like others have mentioned, a deck of cards and books are endless sources of entertainment (and learning a thing or two–card games teach analytical skills).

ooo, all great ideas!! We also have a couple of books of old kids songs and when things got really bad (we once lost the power completely which meant no heat so we closed off all the rooms except the livingroom, started up the fireplace and all slept together), we sat in the dark, sang songs, told ghost stories, told the kids stories that we’d been told by our parents and grandparents about when they were teeny and so on. That was one cold night.

One time (my kids were a little older 10-12-ish) I came home and they had a fort built in the basement with their mattresses, sheets, blankets and whatever else they could find, and were underneath their creation playing a video game which they hooked up to the stereo while they were taping their game play on the VCR. How they got all that down from the second floor and hooked all that up I will never know (and it’s probably better I don’t know). :-)

Just have to say, the picture of the kid in the box made me smile. When I was a little kid, my parents would coax us to be good in church with the offer of stopping at the local store to garbage pick a big box. If we were really good we each got one. THE BEST TOY EVER!

Blanket Fort, Recreate Stonehenge with books and build up from there, -10 windchill send the kids outside nothing tires a kid out like playing outside in that weather a little hot food and then send them to sleep, Bake a cake that always gets little kids attention, tell them a story,

There is also doing things like teaching the kids (and we did this with my son when he was less than 5) to do things like: hand sew, knit, basic carpentry (what my son could do with a hammer, nails and scrap lumber was amazing). Anyone with an old (tube type) radio in the attic or basement could work with a younger child to take it apart, clean it, and put it back together again. Kids can actually do a lot more than we give them credit for – but some things do need a little bit of adult input.

But at least they weren’t ‘meeching’ (as my Scottish mom used to say) around whining, “Maaaa, we’re bored”.

Now, that’s what I call making lemonade out of lemons!

I love that story. And I love that you told stories…truly a missing part of our society now, eh?

If I had all of my grandkids here at once (shudder), they could do what they’ve done in the past — put on a “show.” The girls (ages 7, 9, and 11) sing and dance, and the boys (13 & 16) play their guitars, which they ALWAYS bring along when they visit.

The younger two girls play for hours with the Fisher Price Little People and the houses, farm, airport, etc. that belonged to their mom. I also have board games (including chess) and cards for the older ones.

And of course unless the power is out, the oldest boys will be playing Worlds of Warcraft (?) on my laptop. If their parents are here, there will be multiple laptops!

That is what cardboard boxes were invented FOR!

If you lack power or whatever to cook with, you can always go with ‘no bakes’.

Mornin’ Ms Toby. Although I generally have managed to avoid being responsible for children of pretty much any age, one of the most effective things for playing?

A deck of cards. Solitaire (as I can teach a couple of games) War. Five hundred Rummy. Or even flicking the cards into a hat.

(When I did substitute teaching, I was fortunate enough to mainly deal with 7th and 8th graders with one day each of 5th and 6th graders. Because I sub’d the 7th and 8th graders for an extended time (the principal of the school had cancer so the 8th grade home room teacher became acting principal), they got used to me and responded. This was before I entered the USAF and after I got out and was back in that area again, I ran into a couple of them out at a bar one night. They remembered me and said I was the best substitute they ever had. I thanked them for the kind words and thought “I hope to hell it was because I helped you learn a little bit and not because you felt like you got over on me”)

On time on one of the campuses I lived on the sculpture students made temporary out door sculpture one summer. One sculptor made a labyrinth out of cardboard boxes. I was still a kid and had great fun playing with that sculpture.

:D

Speaking of games – anyone know a source to set up games when you have nothing? Like the only game I can think of right at the moment is ‘battleship; – that you can set up on a piece of paper. I know there must be others out there that could be set up on paper or a big sheet of cardboard or something. If I had kids at my house right now and no power (well, the laptop batteries would last for a while but …), that is what I would have to do..like.
checkers with bottle caps
ideas?

Any of you who are owned by a cat know that any cardboard box also belongs to the feline in residence!

In my case, I found out later that this particular teacher required subs a LOT…from mental exhaustion. I spent the rest of that one day with that kid’s hand firmly gripped in mine. He never went anyplace where I was not next to the poor little mite. I also found out from another teacher that his parents had no interest in trying to find out what the issue was or how to help him; he was small for his age and I think he’d been bullied a lot so the only way he could cope was to be super aggressive and took umbrage at everything. But it was very tough to teach like that – by the end of the day I felt 100 years old.

Ditto for paper grocery bags. Our cats always laid immediate claim to those.

Good Morning,,,when my grandson was quite small, we spent a very long time in his basement where we took a very long trip to Alaska…there was alot to see and talk about while we were trying to keep warm….It was great fun; he had a wonderful imagination and had been exposed to maps.

Parcheesi you might not be totally accurate in spaces …but the jist

Good Morning Toby and Firedogs,

something left over from Girl Scout days

Oobleck !!!
okay, a simple cornstarch and water solution – fun for all ages

lots you can do with it

*art whoring*

http://tw3k.net/current_work/

1) jigsaw puzzles
2) cribbage and other card games like hearts or poker (played for toothpicks)
3) board games
4) yarn, knitting needles, crochet hooks
5) crayons and watercolors…and swipe paper from the computer printer
6) lots of books and magazines
7) old family photos in albums and boxes

If you lack power then its time for another game provided you have a fireplace find whatever you can burn.
I made barbecued ribs in the fire place once my little brother and sister insisted burned the outside the inside was raw we had power though so I nuked it.
My other brother thought the ribs were great no need to nuke them…he got food poisoning.

ooo, maps and atlases, that’s another great idea. Kids don’t get nearly enough exposure to that and if you have an old book, it’s even better.

you’ve been busy :)

At the time for me, I was also working as a janitor in another elementary school (the two towns actually were considered a district). At the school where I was a janitor, they also used me as a teacher’s aide at recess because I’d been to college (albeit without a degree at that point). And there was a 2nd grader that was hyper-active and when the 2nd grade teacher couldn’t take it anymore, I’d get a call to take Stephen to another room and work one-on-one with him..

The biggest reinforcement for me was realizing that I could be a teacher but would work best if teaching the 7th and 8th graders

been trying to be :)

A nice game of throwing snowballs at icicles hanging from the gutters. Rake the leaves and burn them or just start a bonfire boys like fire.

Ah geez. How could I forget my own situation.

When I was 7, I had a lung disease and part of the treatment included not being allowed to run and play hard. My father worked for the state highway department and we always had large amounts of state highway road maps around. I would take a map and a pencil, start with my hometown and take all sorts of “trips” all around the state.

You might not have standard road maps around but I betcha have an old road atlas or two around.

Yes boys DO like building fires – the bigger the better. Why is that?

We have a huge bag of old road maps around from all of our trips – we never throw anything away.

Don’t know but it will keep them distracted.

Bright color choice on the tree it kind of pops out at you I like it:)

why thank you! :>

Well there ya go. I learned so many of the small town names in Kentucky, just by playing with the maps and taking those ‘trips.’ Places like Possum Trot, Hell’s Half Acre and so on. (I already knew where Oddville, Kelat, and Sunrise were as they were in my home county)

In real life, it also helped that we would go for long drives around the state as well over the years, so I knew about the towns like Paris, London, Berlin, Warsaw, Glasgow, Cuba, and Egypt so I could find ways to get to these towns other than the normal route.

Art crayons, clay, pencil paper I can’t believe we didn’t think of that sooner.

Nice work. Love the colors.

I had to do a double take of one of the paintings–one looked like the base was a nuclear reactor and a tree was coming out of the top. I realized that it was just my imagination going after the second look, but then I thought…wow, what a statement THAT would be if a tree was growing out of the top of a reactor!

Ah..old family pictures — actually, I’ve found that kids, from about 4-5 on, find old family photos totally engrossing, especially if you can identify the people in the photo and have a story about them. That’s how I learned all my stories about my Mom and Dad’s families. Unfortunately, we have too many photos that are from the late 1800s that did not have any identifiers put on them, so they are hard to use, but we found the photos just fascinating. My mom had one of her grandmother and the story of THAT lady, who buried three husbands and died at the age of 55 was fantastic. We’ve since found out that she had three husbands that WE knew about. She was..active.

morning, all. Just got back from walking in the snow with a camera.

I was the youngest of three, we played all sorts of imaginative scenarios, I remember that toy cowboys were constant, capes and sticks also.
when for one reason or another I was entertaining myself, blunt scissors and magazines were a part of my childhood, but mostly I read.

You know, I’m sure someone has done, in a Gazetteer or something, whole listings of every London, Paris, Glasgow, Moscow, etc. in the US. You can probably go all over the world by staying inside the US.

Name all the local towns named after more famous places and try and ad a fact about that place.

paper, rock, scissors!

We also drove a bit, as my mom worked as a home demonstrator for TP&L (TX Power & Light) and people were getting electric stoves and needed to learn how to use them. Wink, and Fink, TX are still favorites.

Wow, funny you say that, I just ‘saw’ that for the first time last night :D

That shot is actually a detail.

In Upstate NY in the 19th Century, there was a fashion to rename places after famous people, so we have: Cincinnatus, Virgil, Homer, etc. We also have Rome, Utica, Ithaca, Syracuse(which was originally called Salina because of the salt up there that was repackaged, sent down the Erie Canal and Ohio River to Cincinnati and came back as salt pork).

we used to color in paper lace.

very fun! What’s the recipe?

Syracuse

Mother born in Paris, TX, and my mom’s family is from Arcadia, LA, suburb of Homer.

I’ve used it as a straight line a couple of times, stating, “I’ve been to Paris, London, Berlin, etc” wait a couple of beats then add, “and never left the state of Kentucky.”

And in a lot of the northeast and mid-Atlantic states, a game can be to match the town/city in the US with it’s Old World counterpart.

hahaha…well, there is also Homer, Alaska. We have Paris, and Paris Center, NY. Edinburgh, PA.

A slight variation on the game

Woodstock Illinois a historic rock concert, where they filmed Ground Hog day, where Snoopy’s bird friend lives
Which of these statements are true?

yep – I think someone actually did a trip where they covered every Buffalo and Springfield in the US.

Wait a minute. I used to play outside when the temp was near or at zero. I’d argue that it is not too coldto go outside. Although, admittedly they may not want to.

I just got 2 new boxes of old photos from my 83-year-old mom. Some of the pics aren’t labeled but most of them are. They all remind me of stories. The unlabeled ones are fun to make stories up.

Ah yes, I lived in beautiful downtown Rome, NY for almost 6 years. Had to go to Utica for the mall shopping experience and seemed to have a level of dread when leaving sunny Utica and hitting the cloud/rain/lake-effect snow line halfway back to Rome (and they are 20 miles apart with the cloud line being an almost ‘perfect’ demarcation between the 2)

(1) a drop leaf table, tunnel, fort, etc.

(2) watching the snow fall, counting the flakes.

(3) filling the tub, floating paper boats you made together.

(4) telling a pass the word story, each adding to the context.

(5) singing a round, while walking around on tip toes….

Forget his name, but there is/was a columnist in the Utica Observer-Dispatch who liked to track down all the other Uticas around the country and write about them

Well, Woodstock the concert was NOT held in Woodstock, NY (that’s near me and has literally a 90-degree turn in the middle of town), it was held in Bethel.
Snoopy’s bird friend is named Woodstock.
and I have no idea where Ground Hog Day was filmed.

wow! because of the comments about maps, I saw the first few as maps and then it just kept getting better and better. Wonderful work!

1/3 cup water to 2/3 cup Cornstarch – food coloring optional :D

I was sick also and had to be “still” for quite sometime. My sister would even share her paperdolls that were good for long periods….I do not even know if we have paper dolls anymore!

Good lesson to label photos – which could be another activity

That is true – but name three kids you know who own snow pants, snow suits or proper jackets? We had them for the kids so that they could work out in the barn and not be too uncomfortable..but how many kids have snow pants to play in now? Being cold and wet is an Rx to get sick. (and Aunt Toby’s Rx for that is: hustle ‘em inside, hot bath or shower, dress ‘em up real warm. fill them full of hot soup, hot cocoa, etc. and keep them warm inside and out) But you are right – if it’s really cold but not windy, I’d dress the kids up warm and send them out to play for a while.

My mother was also born in Paris, TX..along time ago. But they moved to be nearer Bonham!! Ive spent a lot of time up that way.

and I have no idea where Ground Hog Day was filmed.

Woodstock illinois

I highly recommend clearing out a space, putting up a tent, and working with pillows, sleeping bags, flashlights, and cushions. It adds a whole new dimension of pretend to reading, snacks, listening to music, and drawing.

My little one has a boo boo on her eye so she goes in a box with a blanket over it. . . .arf!

Punxsutawney, PA

Indoor Camping!! My fav because of the access to a bathroom with hot water.

And, ahem, of course the “gateway drug’ to doing family trees, which we know is a permanent addiction.

Morning kids. The Peanut had her first sleepover last night — she and her friend are up, still in jammies, crammed into a single chair watching Bugs Bunny cartoons. I’m having childhood flashbacks. LOL

Interesting. Us second generation Parisians. My mother left Paris at an early age, as her father had gotten into a partnership that went sour in a hardware store there, they left with just about the clothes on their backs, and she grew up in Arcadia. but she moved back here to N.TX. when my father did the land surveying to buy up what is now Lake Texoma, and they bought a house which she returned to and I came back about twelve years ago, as she was getting unreliable and needed some one to watch after her.

Very good to hear from you. Pleasant relaxed indoor activities with peaceful kids to you.

Wow, Are we glad to see you? I hope all is well…

Morning Christy :)

Crumbs on the floor?? Hey, good morning, Christy! It’s cold here – you too?

((((Christy)))) good to see you!!

So how did you entertain the little ‘uns at the sleepover?

Oooh, I thought of something else we used to do–

This only works if you have an unbroken flight of stairs–we took our pillows and sat on them, and went down the stairs like you do with sleds on a hill.

and for my two oldest boyz – who lived to blow sh* up !

vinegar and baking soda ‘rockets’ – (requires close supervision)

on rainy days, simply packing a bathtub boat with baking powder would make it behave like a submarine

Yeah. There were a lot of compromises over that year for me. I loved to play baseball and we played a lot during recess so the compromise was “you can catch and hit but someone has to run for you if you hit the ball” so I’d play catcher and someone would cue up to run for me when it was my at bat.

And I read. A lot. (got way above grade level with that one)

I still feel the impact of that year as I am quite willing to just sit and be and watch the clouds roll by.

Well, it is pouring the snow down here today and cold as all get out, so we’ll definitely be inside. I went out to fill the bird feeders this morning and thought my hands my freeze permanently to the feeder lid for a minute there. Brrrrrr…

But we have to go out tomorrow. We are getting a new puppy for The Peanut — an early birthday present of a little Westie puppy that she’s decided to name Roxie. It’s a cutie patootie and fiesty. *g*

these days they’d make you wear helmets. :-(

snow forts!!!!111

Good morning, Christy.

Definitely crumbs on the floor. Our doxie is thrilled. The girls made a gingerbread house last night out of a kit that I had gotten for the holidays and then forgot about — found it yesterday where I had stashed it in the laundry room to bring out for a snow day. Voila! Instant child fun, let me tell you.

fun :D i hadn’t thought of them in terms of topo :)

ah, in our house it was a range mangey looking clay volcano that someone had done for a science project but the vinegar and soda was the same deal.

No for some reason they pretended Woodstock was Punxsutawney, PA.

I used to have a jungle gym in room. big enough for a two blanket fort with a hammock!

Hi Christy!!

*waving*

ooo, another fab idea! Who says gingerbread architecture is only for Christmas??? I know a local lady who does major churches for fund raisers every year – a couple of years ago, she did St. Basil’s Cathedral from Moscow. As long as you have the basic ingredients and some cardboard in the house, this is a project that could keep kids going for hours (as long as they don’t eat too much of the Necco wafers for the roof tiles – then it’s just tooooo much sugar!).

Things are going well. Am feeling a bit better, but still really, really exhausted — it’s like I cannot get caught up on sleep for some reason. Welcome to lupus, I suppose, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

Jane and I are speaking at Children’s Day at the WV legislature mid-February, talking about political organizing in the digital age. It will be lovely to see her. (For anyone who is interested, here is a link to info about the day.)

We have snow, I just took a quick walk in it with a camera. Of course, last week it went to the 70′s.

Roxie, as in ‘Chicago’?

funny, we were just talking about mom’s hometowns, and of course my mom’s is the town where Bonnie and Clyde were shot down, Arcadia, LA

Punxsutawney Phil. Everyone ready for spring?

When my niece was little and had her first slumber party, my sister and I dressed up like clowns. We had lots of activities…like Twister, etc., but the big deal for the girls was we were going to stay up till MIDNIGHT! by about 11:15 they were all snoozed out.

:D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBHt8DVu9LY&feature=PlayList&p=C69B22A3773B1483&index=4

Wow, I have LOTS of family photos in albums in an upstairs closet. I should get those out next time they visit!!

I’ll try not to take offense…especially if it’s a nice dog.

Aunt Roxie

Thinking I wasn’t paying much attention, I just never forget that Groundhog day is Punxsutawney. Love the name.

heck yeah! i had a plastic baby mattress that zooomed down the stairs :D

Good Morning Sleepover Mom – how good to see you here !

“feisty” ? try ‘diabolical’ they’re so damn smart. believe Norske has a pair. actually very loving, and will be a great companion for your Peanut

Did they rename the groundhog? Woodstock Wilbur instead of Punxatawney Phil?

that is the gateway to charcoal, sulphur and saltpeter :>

why doesn’t this surprise me *g*

The funny thing is, I have no idea where she got the name because she doesn’t know anyone named Roxie. *g* She must have heard it somewhere but, for the life of me, I have no idea where. It’s a mystery!

But a very, very cute puppy dog.

Good question I think Bill Murray the star might still live in Illinois.

sheepishly raises hand – guilty !

Yep. Last spring, the DH and I were in the UK for a family reunion and everyone brought their photos and the old family Bible, etc. and he took photos of everything. We all huddled around and tried to identify photos for each other – we all had a hoot. My first introduction of ‘who we are’ came through family photos and it’s been a lifelong work for me. I managed to dig up some younger cousins on Facebook a couple of years ago and met up with one of them in New York – she has the same chin as the rest of us do.

No doubt.

Did I say very cute? Roxie the westie looks like this…

How big do they get? Bigger than your Doxie?

I work with a woman who has Lupus…do you know anything about the new drug that is s’posed to have some promise? She is a nurse so keeps up with alot of stuff.

The CHS/Jane presentation sounds great….good luck.

oh i dunno, >:]

Hey Toby, have you begun paging through your “seed porn” catalogs, yet? I’m obsessed with finding a perfect slicing tomato variety this year…

Christy!

so very good to “see” you in the threads. i think of you often and hope you and your peanut are well.

Yep. Those were the good old days of hardwood floors (and stairs), so we zoomed down them! We were entertained for hours.

Sigh. Terminal cuteness.

and when our kids were younger – simply taking things out of the cupboard and turning the dining table in to a “store” – was good for an hour or two – giving them real money to spend always made the game last longer

a kitchen apron and a muffin tin as cash register – and Bam !

Yes, I do — it’s still in trial stages but looking very promising. My rheum pays close attention to that, too.

Good morning and hugs to you, Christy? Do you still have your wiener dog (daschund) too?

PA also has Maxatawny Mike

Heh – oh bay-bee YEAH! Though for me, the ‘perfect slicing tomato’ is going to have to be something like Striped German because Rodale found that this was the only tomato that made it through the late blight last year.
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-5633-striped-german-og.aspx

My only requirement for tomatoes this year is “Won’t keel over and die.”

We do — she’s 13 and moving a wee bit more slowly, but still frisky even at her age.

I just want to tell you how much I have missed your common sense and your ongoing commentary on the political events. We’ve missed your POV, for sure.

Backup in case of cloudy day, no doubt.

oh noes! the cute dog from kiril!
http://www.hulu.com/kirill

We are doing really well, thanks. Good to see you, too. :)

Oh yeah, plastic (unflocked) air mattresses are great on the carpeted stairs, fly right along. Be prepared for bruises, but it’s a good thing. Don’t have air mattresses? wrap pillows as boogiecheck mentions at (100) in a heavy plastic trash bag.

Too bad (or very good) that there’s a wall immediately at the bottom of our stairs or my kids would be sliding every chance they got. Keeps the big kids very happy.

My dad tells a story about when he and his 2 sibs were kids they lived in a big house (it’s now a funeral home) and when his mom waxed the hardwood floor, their job was to put on thick wool socks and skate around to buff it.

Amen

Terriers = incredible cuteness + personality. A lethal combination. :)

Squee !

oldnslow has discovered the breed through a tv commercial – however, we are enjoying a full on ‘empty nest’ swoon . . . must resist the cuteness

FTW! Works on well packed sledding hills too :D

Of course – isn’t it every kid’s job to do floor buffing in socks? My sister and I had that job in the diningroom of our house too.

I bought my kids some of those slippers which are mop heads; just spray them with a little EndDust and let them slip and slide around the hardwood or tile floors. Works like a charm until you ask them to dustmop the corners…

Open Question for anyone: Do kids want to play with US or would they rather play with their own? If it’s a question of ‘play by myself’ vs ‘playing with an adult’ would they rather interact with an adult?

nah. We had wall to wall carpet and I hated vacuuming. still do

I don’t have kids yet. Do having kids stop one from being a kid or enhance the mind frame?

Can’t speak for all of them, but with mine it can be both depending on mood. Sometimes, she wants to be on top of me at all times and sometimes I am utterly unwanted. But she wants to play cards with me pretty much any time — we’re in a games are awesome phase at the moment.

My daughter says her two girls are fascinated by old family photos. I MUST remember that next time they visit. My ex spent a lot of time one winter going through our collection of photos and making albums for me and the kids (we’ve been divorced for 20 years and he remarried long ago). Somehow he wound up with the photos in boxes after we split, and made albums. I appreciate them — never would have had the patience. I’ve hauled them out a time or two to refresh my memory about something (like a washer and dryer in the kitchen in one house that I had totally forgotten about).

our experience with 5 says – depends on the child,(and frankly, the adult) they’re all wired differently

Hmmm. My guess is that it is a matter of variety. Too much of any of those 3 choices would get boring…especially under our original hypothetical situation of being snowed in.

Shhhh…not too loud or the big kid will stop making crepes and want to go outside and hit the slope in our yard with the air mattress.

Cooking is also very good busy work — ask kids what they think they can make with just a fire in the fireplace or gas stove or a grill, let them plan power-out meals. Last time we had a lengthy power outage I made hobo dinners in the fireplace; they loved it. But you might want to plan ahead for this. I consider it part of emergency planning, have a few fire-safe bricks and a grill I can set up in my fireplace in event of a protracted power outage.

Had to de-lurk. Christy, so glad to ‘see’ you here. Been wondering how you and the family were doing. This is so nice! All the best to you!

Back to catch up on the thread.

Well, with us (and the DH grew up as one of 6, so he had a lot of experience)it seemed like more of a ‘wanting to share stuff that we did when we were kids’ or ‘wanting to do stuff that we didn’t get to do when we were kids’ things. But we found that sometimes they wanted to be alone and sometimes if we came up with stuff, they were all about doing it with us. On the other hand, anything that had the odor of ‘work’ didn’t work out.

heh :)

I think kids really have a hunger to know who they are, where they come from, who came before. and if you have any ‘interesting’ people in the family (I have a great uncle who was murdered in a Turkish bath – I found out later he was a minor gangster), it’s even better. Kids LOVE that.

You remind me that as a child I used to go over to play Chinese Checkers with an elderly neighbor – a retired teacher – and did it without any urging from anyone

Okay gang, was lovely to type at all of you, but my pancake-making skills have been begged and I must go and make a stack o’ pancakes for hungry munchkins. (And husbands, too, I would wager.)

<3 and the very best to you and yours :D

Stay Warm….

Thanks for stopping by! Wonderful to see you!

A big hug

I’d say ‘enhance’ – if you already have a child like, playful streak. although a lot of us experience a hyper-vigilant phase with that first one (driving home from the hospital in the bike lane with your flashers on :D) but it eventually fades -

We’d go (be put) outside on the really cold days too. 20 minutes outside could probably eat up more than hour by the time you got into long underwear, two pair of pants, extra shirt, etc., then got unbundled and comfortable with hot chocolate.

I’ve always liked to raw creativity of kids in the studio. I also liked being able to hand the child back :D

Big hugs!

My kids and my now-adult stepson say that the best fun they’ve had is when they’ve played with us — and particularly when we “break” a rule.

Like snowball fights. Kids aren’t supposed to act out aggressively against adults, right? So it’s a lot more fun when they can whack an authority figure like mom or dad with a big sloppy snowball. It’s worth getting smacked with counter-offensive snowball when they can get on on a parent. Exhausting, too.

Occasionally — especially when anal-retentive dad is not home — we will have an indoor squirt gun fight. Must be agreed to in advance (or as soon as the first weapon is brandished) that nothing which can be damaged by water will be hit (not the paintings, not the silk pillows in the living room…).

Exhausting good, clean fun. Especially when you can get them to mop up the floor afterward.

Yeah, there is a secret barn burner in all us boyz. Recalling the Texas Aggie bonfires. and .. er.. Hiroshima?

and before I head out . . .

Toby, Dakine, Loo Hoo, and any other Teachers here and lurking

I think there should be a National Teachers Day !

Dang it…! Christy was here and gone…! ;-)

Lovely to see you, CHS.

You might consider putting hungry daddy on the pancake-making detail next time. The daddy here inherited the job when the kids were the same age as Peanut; he would make them animal pancakes, pouring batter into goofy shapes.

Only problem now that the kids are tweens/teens is that these things have become rituals. The daddy doesn’t want to give it up although the kids have moved on (see crepe-making teen above). Fair warning.

OK – folks, this has been fantastic, but I’ve got to go tend to something out in the barn now – everyone — stay warm out there, ok?

7) old family photos in albums and boxes

Old photos are great. For kids, even just a few years old is ancient. We’d regularly have “movie night,” watching our “old” vacation movies.

Mornin’, Aunt Toby, pups

What to do with kids deposited at Chez SD? Tigers should be able to keep them occupied.

hit her up and say hello and FB :D

SD, Cheers….off to find some breakfast. Later.

Toby, thank you so much for this wonderful thread. Much needed.

Have a great week, All.

Srsly?? a minor gangster rubbed out in a steam bath? how interesting!!

Apparently I had a great-great-aunt who was a moll for the Purple Gang in Detroit, only recently discovered during some genealogical work. When an uncle asked one of his aunts about Auntie So-and-So, she dumped a whole bunch of info nobody had ever heard before, how she drove a cab (probably helpful running guns/booze) and had a heavy metal bracelet she would wrap around her knuckles when she thought there was going to be trouble. Fascinating.

It might be helpful to have a recording device during discussions about photos; I know in hindsight I wish I had recorded things which came out while going through photo collections.

For those of u with small children, enjoy every moment u can with them. Take it from one who knows they are truly God’s gifts to us. My best times and most joyous moments are the one’s I spent with my kids when they were very young. They’re young adults now and I pray daily I’ll live long enough to see my grandkids for the same reason.

Make a tent out of chairs and sheets or blankets and form a secret club. Provide snacks.

Make homemade playdough out of flour, salt and water. Food coloring if you have any. Make a model of Pokemon World or your neighborhood, trees, cars and all.

Paper and scissors? Make paper snowflakes and put them up all over the house.

At my house, there is all kinds of wool, yarn and fiber tools. Teach them to knit or crochet or spin. Make spindles out of old CD’s. Or pencils and potatoes.

Cook something! Kids love to cook and eat. If they’re old enough to read, they can read the recipe to each other. They can play with the measuring cups and spoons. Depending on your supplies this can go on for a long time.

Play the make up a story game where one person starts and then the next one takes over. Depending on the age of the kids, this will involve a lot of scatological humor but you must take it in stride! Kids love their fart jokes!

I pretty much think many of us don’t outgrow that. For along time I have thought the best humor came around the 3rd grade.

This has been one of the most fun Pull Up a Chair columns in a while…and i don’t even have kids! Thanks TobyWollin!

With my two older kids, I tried to head this problem off at the pass, a bit, through a combination of not introducing television or movies or computer games for the first several years of their lives (not all that difficult: we don’t have cable, are not gamers, and don’t watch much TV ourselves) and cultivating a very relaxed attitude toward “housekeeping” (so I did not feel the need to constantly distract them with TV to get them “out from underfoot” so I could “get something done,” and also so the kids’ play could be wild and unfettered… :^) )

Up until the kids were about 4, we did tons of adult-directed craft projects (craftycrow is a tremendous, tremendous resource) and also involved the kids more in kitchen activities, etc. At about age 4 to 4.5, self-directed imaginary play began to be their primary interest.

Now that they are 5, they spend long hours in imaginary games sometimes involving small toys (such as playmobil) and sometimes involving massive re-arrangements of their furniture and mattresses. They still enjoy cooking and art projects but are now so much more into their imaginary play that I generally wait for them to ask to bake or do a project rather than suggesting it. That part has been hard for me because I do miss the daily play with paints, glue, glitter, and the like. :^)

The little guy, at 18 months, divides his time between running with the big dogs and shadowing me. He’s having a whole different experience but I hope it’s leading to the same result — a happy, contented, creative kid.

very nice to see you!

Thank goodness late blight does not winter over in the soil. even so, i bought blight resistant seed this year.

(((((Redd!))))

I was a bit of an odd kid, I guess. At around 2 or 3 yrs., my mom used to loosen one screw on the bottom hinge of a door next to the kitchen and give me a screwdriver…I’d spend literally HOURS screwing out, then back in. She had all the time in the world to do whatever housework she needed to do, and knew that I where I was, and that I was safe. I just had a penchant for keeping myself interested and occupied in whatever I was doing. These days, it seems, if you give a kid a screwdriver, he’ll try to stick it in an electrical socket or stab his little sister with it (must be the water or the Franken-food that’s robbed kids of any good sense LOL). Just kidding.

I have no kids yet, so, hypothetically….

Since you’ve allowed us in this scenario to have electrical power, I have a keyboard. Most kids tend to head straight for keyboards and bang away (that’s why headphones are a must, especially when they find the annoying DJ sounds on it). Coloring books were always a favorite of mine when I was a kid (I still have the urge to pick up a crayon when I see one). Drumsticks, and a nice, quiet rubber pad to play on. Sketching books, board games, making tents with a huge blanket, and “cooking out” on the stove….dogs and beans maybe.

My poor, bored kids! I think I need to read more of everyone else’s suggestions fast before I have a mutiny on my hands!