Recently some may have seen on my facebook status that we're cutting waaaaaay back on tv in the Elliott house. What was surprising (as well as an answer to prayer) is that it was James' idea. If I've learned anything over these ten years of marriage it's that I can't force James to do what I want (no matter how right I am) - and if I try, it goes very poorly, to say the least! So he had this great idea and I was totally on board with it.
So we've been fairly sucessful with the cutting back of the tv viewing. It's been a treat instead of an entree! From day one I knew that we'd need to figure out SOMETHING to fill the time that we spent watching tv. So I made a list. It's a list of stuff for kids to do that doesn't not involve a screen - and, honestly, that I don't necessarily have to be involved in myself. I was telling a couple mom friends about this list and they wanted a copy for their house. I suppose that's not too surprising - I know nothing stumps me more than when Corrie constantly comes up to me asking to watch tv and I tell her to go do something else and she says "What am I supposed to do? There's nothing to do! It's boring here!" And so, after I smack her around to buy time to think of something for her to do . . . . I came up with the list.
I thought I'd post the list up here so that anyone that may be interested would know how to entertain my kids when you watch them for free . . . or for your own kids. Whatever. Some things are specific to us Elliotts so I'll either tweek it for the general masses or provide an explanation. Here we go!
- Moon Dough (or play dough).
- Coloring
- Read
- Barbies
- Board Game
- Go Outside
- Daddy's Toys (James sells action figures on ebay and sometimes lets the kids play with his inventory.)
- Blocks
- Stuffed Animals (I don't know about your kids, but mine can be pretty imaginative with their stuffed animals)
- Laptop (They have one of those from the toy section that has activities on it - I guess it's a screen - oh well)
- Plastic Food Toys
- Picnic (I give them their lunch boxes with a snack and drink in them and they take a blanket somewhere - inside or out)
- Make a Fort (like with sheets over the kitchen table or on the bunkbed)
- Viewmaster
- Sidewalk Chalk
- Cut Grass (we give them child safety scissors and they literally cut the grass by hand - they get about a square foot done per hour)
- Spirograph
- Listen to Music (she has a cd player in her room)
- Superheros (includes playing with their superhero toys or dressing up and acting like superheros)
- Dress ups
- Dry Erase Board
- Look in the Art Cabinet (only works if you're a craft supplies nut like me and have an entire cabinet of craft crap)
- Make up Stories
- Take a Walk
- Exercise (Corrie likes to put a walking dvd in a do it sometimes - she's weird)
- Cut up Cards (I save cards I get in the mail for the kids to cut up - sorry if this offends anyone that's sent me a card - I save the ones that have sentimental messages . . .)
- Measure Stuff (they both like to play with our tape measure)
- Take Pictures (Corrie got a camera for her birthday - or your kids can use yours if they're old enough to not throw it or drool on it)
- Chores (she has a reward chart for voluntarily doing certain chores so I thought this could be a legitimate idea of something for her to do)
- Magnets (we have a ton on the fridge and we have those magnet toy sets where you can dress people up and stuff)
- Train Set
- Paint Nails
- Balloons (I have a bag of balloons that I'll blow one up for each of them every once in a while - cheap and awesome toy)
- Hide n Seek
- Musical Chairs
- Play School
- Copy Artwork (we have a bunch of art books as well as cheap art prints on our walls - Corrie's shown a lot of aptitude for making her own renditions)
- Write a Letter (Snail Mail! To a grandparent, aunt/uncle, cousin, friend)
- Big Paper Roll (we have a big roll of paper that I cut off enough to cover the coffee table and tape it underneath the ends and let them "color on the table")
- Cards in the white box (I have a box FULL of kid cards - abc's, numbers, sight words, go fish, and tons more)
- ABC Bingo/Time Bingo (I think I got these sets at the dollar section of Target - I do whoever wins get two pieces of candy and everyone else gets one)
- Bible Verse (read it, copy it, memorize it)
- Dance Party (put on music in kids room, let them dress up for a party and dance around)
- Seashells (we have a good number of shells from my parents and our trip and they like to "organize" them)
- Bible Study (something we'd do as a family with a book my dad got us for Christmas - or could just read a Psalm or something together)
- Leaf Reliefs (where you put paper over a leaf and color over it and it makes the indentation)
- Make a Superhero (Corrie has a special notebook where she invents superheros. ex: Pizza Man - he has breadstick nunchucks and superspeed and peperoni discs to throw . . .)
- Puppet Show (they can make puppets, which Corrie's done, and we also have finger puppets that I got from Ikea)
- Fashion Show (she can dress herself up or her Barbies and take pictures of the outfits - it's a combo of taking pictures and playing dress up/Barbies)
- Store (aka "The Walmart Game" - get out the Monopoly money and some random things from around the house to put in the store and buy and sell stuff.)
- Make a Band (we have the $1 recorders you get from Walmart, a crappy keyboard, a fisher price guitar, a harmonica, use whattcha got! I make them stay in their room for this one - it's really loud)
I have 51 items because it happened to fill up two columns of a standard piece of notebook paper almost perfectly. I'm sure I'll come up with more ideas - like the next time I'm bored!
In case it's not obvious, the theme of the pictures is "kids doing things besides watching tv."
