The holidays are over and despite the fact that half a toy store threw up in my house, the kids are both desperate for something to do (and I’m desperate for them to do something other than removing all the books from the shelf, dumping the dress-up clothes on the floor and leaving miscellaneous piles of small, plastic things.)
With the gray, icy grip of winter limiting our outdoor time, I’ve found myself surfing the Web for creative ways to entertain (and maybe even educate) the girls until the warm, spring breezes come our way.
Pinterest is a gold mine for parents of children young and old in search of simple, but innovative fun. I loved this do-it-yourself laser maze created using crepe paper for older kids and the bubble-wrap run for crawlers and toddlers is ingenious!
I also came across several bookmark-worthy sites to revisit during the worst of our winter doldrums. Check them out the next time your little ones start coming down with cabin fever:
(Indoor foot volleyball)
This site – brought to you by the ever-magical folks at Disney – features kid-friendly recipes, crafts and activities. I happened upon it one day while Googling ideas for how to use the cardboard toilet paper and paper towel tubes I’d been collecting. I found this post on 30 cardboard tube crafts (the magnetized marble run is now on my to-do list). There are also plenty of Disney movie-related printable activities, coloring pages and crafts (like DIY mouse ears and snowflake hair barrettes inspired by the movie “Frozen”). But even if movie and show tie-ins aren’t your thing, you can still find non-commercial ways to entertain your kids like bottle-cap shuffleboard or indoor foot volleyball.