Indoor fun

Rice Play

2010

Rice play is a different version of water play or playing in a sandbox. It’s great for any age. Even I find it calming to play with! It is a good activity for those times when you are stuck inside and not as messy (for me) as water play. I don’t know about anybody else, but when my kids play with the water it is all over the place!

Here is what you need:

Floor covering (sheet, blanket, plastic table cloth, etc.) – something to catch the rice when it falls out of the bucket, so you can clean it up easier.
Container of some sort (plastic tub, box with plastic lining, etc). I used a 34 qt container, because that is all I had.
5 to 10 lbs of long grain rice. (The long grain is easier to clean up)
Play cups, spoons, and a couple handfuls of any small random toys
A container or bag to store it in after you are done to save for another day.

Directions:

Poor it all into the container and have fun! The kids usually get creative on their own, but here are a few suggestions: pretend the rice is food and put on plates, in cups, etc., sprinkle, or play hide ‘n seek. I found that I could teach phrases that I take for granted like sprinkle, pack, pour and pair them with the action. It was easier to do with rice than with other things. Supervision is needed. They seem to forget to hold the rice over the bucket without reminders.

My son working on his sprinkling technique!

I used a 34 qt container because that is all I had. A friend came over while we were playing, so I know this size works for 3 kids and will most likely work well with 4 kids at a time. I also only used a 5 lb bag of rice and it worked nice, but I think I am going to add more next time so we can actually hide stuff in it.

Filed Under: All Ages, Indoor fun Tagged With: Fun

The Best Pizza is Made at Home!

2010

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We love homemade pizza here in our house and the kids love to help us make it! We will make it for birthdays, friends, movie night or anything else we can find an excuse to make it for. This dough recipe is the best I have found. There is no waiting for the dough to rise. Just make it, roll it, top it and bake it! Here is what you need… (p.s. this is the same dough recipe I used to make the Heart Shaped Calzones)

Ingredients Needed:

(Dough)

1 pkg. active yeast (about 2.5 tsp.)
1 c. warm water
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 T. oil
2.5 c. flour
1 pizza pan or Jelly Roll pan – pre-greased

*Note: I will make 1.5x this recipe for 1 Jelly Roll pan/cookie sheet size pizza

(Pizza Toppings)

Pizza Sauce (I use Hunt’s Mushrooms or Garlic and Herb canned spaghetti sauce – 1 26.5 oz can will make 2 to 3 Jelly Roll pan/cookie sheet size pizzas)
Any favorite toppings: sausage, pepperoni, peppers and tomatoes are our favorites
Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Directions for Mixing the Dough

(Preheat oven to 425 degrees.) Dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in remaining ingredients. Beat well with spoon or fork, if not using a mixer. You may need to add a little more flour depending on your elevation. I will add everything, but the last 1/2 cup and then I’ll keep adding until it is just sticky enough that the dough does not stay on my fingers. Let rest 5 minutes. Mix dough and place on pre-greased cookie sheet.

Directions for Making the Pizza

If you do not have a rolling pin, a sturdy glass or cup will work just as well. A rolling pin usually has a hard time on a Jelly Roll pan anyways.

Separate the dough into 2 balls for 2 mini pizzas or 1.5x the dough recipe to have a full pizza with a good crust. Some children will need assistance putting enough pressure on the cup to actually roll it out.

First bring the sauce out. I put some sauce on the center of their pizza and then I let them spread it out on their own. It was hard for me to let them do it because I was afraid of the mess, but they did well. Then, I let the kids put on their own toppings of meat and veggies on their pizzas. If they did not put any veggies on it, that was ok with me, but I wanted to give them the option…and of course, tasting does happen, too! Next, add the cheese and then you are ready to bake.

Bake in the oven on 420 Degrees for 20 minutes

(or until the crust/cheese is starting to brown.)

And just so you can see what a large pizza will look like…

YUM!!! It is seriously so good!

Try it and let me know what you think! It’s a simple meal to make, takes less than 20 minutes to put together and so much fun, too!

Filed Under: All Ages, Cooking with Kids, Food Projects, Indoor fun, Kid Friendly Recipes Tagged With: Recipes

My Favorite Playdough

2010

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This is my favorite playdough recipe. It is really easy to work with and best of all it doesn’t smell like salt playdough. I can not stand the smell and texture of other salt dough recipes I have worked with. I love the idea of adding a little scented oil. The first time I made it, I didn’t have any scented oil, so I used Mint Extract and that worked pretty good, too. Another time I made it, I used jello which also made it smell good, but it didn’t allow you to be as creative with the coloring.

This recipe should make enough for 1 child or equivalent to 2 “Play-doh” containers. I made a double recipe for the pictures and I let me son help with everything, but the actual cooking portion.

Needed:

1 Cup Warm Water
1 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Salt
4 teaspoons Vegetable Oil
2 teaspoons Cream of Tarter
Food Coloring
(Optional) Scented Oil of Choice

Other alternatives: use a small box of Jello instead of Food Coloring and Scented Oil

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients in a pan and stir together. (hint: I would add the water first and then everything else so the powder ingredients are not stuck to the side of the pan.) Cook on a medium heat on the stove, stirring regularly until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the pan. Keep cooking it until then, it will begin to not stick to the sides, so be patient. Once the dough is doing this, remove it from the pan and place on a hard surface.

It will be really warm, so an adult may have to do the initial kneading. This is when you will add the food coloring, if you didn’t use the Jello. I put plastic sandwich bags on the kids hands and once I worked the food coloring in a couple kneads then I let the kids do the rest. The plastic bags kept the kids hands from getting colored. Knead the color in well and then have fun! Store in an air tight container. If it gets dry at all, add a little water and knead it.

Filed Under: All Ages, Indoor fun, Kid Friendly Recipes Tagged With: Fun

Food Castles

2010

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(Don’t forget the GIVEAWAY below)

Playing with your food was never so fun! And if your kids are like mine, they like to play with their food! I discovered this by accident (See below)

I left the peanut butter out after making lunch by accident and my son went to wash his hands….next thing I know there is art work being made on the counter. But I discovered they liked to spread peanut butter.

My son likes to call these “food castles” or “marshmallow castles,” whatever we happen to make it out of, since he gets to stack all his food up. It’s a great snack time activity because they will snack while they work on those fine motor skills. It seems so simple but the kids really seem to enjoy it.

What you need:

Some sort of cup for a base. I used some yogurt cups. You can also use a disposable cup and if it is too tall, just cut it down.
A disposable plate to glue the cup on
Plastic knife of popsicle stick for spreading
Glue or some sort of sticky substance. I used a hot glue gun, but I guess you could use peanut butter or something else that would hold down the cup if you didn’t have anything else available.
Some sort of substance for the food to stick to. i.e. frosting, peanut butter, yogurt, pudding frosting. I used crunchy peanut butter because I already had it on hand.
Toppings. Whatever you have will work! I used marshmallows, craisins, sprinkles, and apple bits.

Directions

To begin, it helps if you have everything ready to go before you begin and I would not put it all with in reach of the kids until you are ready for it. My kids would not leave me alone while I was trying to put everything together and glue the cup to the plate, so I let them help me! I gave each of them their own plate with an apple slice and a plastic knife to help me cut the apples.

Step 1: Glue the cup to the plate. I used a hot glue gun. You do not need much glue. I discovered that I didn’t even have to go completely around the cup (my glue gun was being stubborn!). I just had a little bit of glue on each side and it was very sturdy.

Step 2: Start spreading. I gave each child a bowl with some peanut butter in it and a plastic knife. Younger ages may require more help when it comes to the spreading. My son is almost 4 and I just had to help him by holding his hand on the knife the first few spreads and then he caught on. My daughter is 27 months and if my son wasn’t there for her to watch she would have had a hard time. So, I probably would have put all the PB on first if she was by herself and then let her decorate it.

After spreading

Step 3: Bring your “decorations” over and let them go to town on decorating. It’s fun and a little messy and, of course, tasting is okay!

Step 4: You are finished. Eat and enjoy!

Filed Under: All Ages, Food Projects, Indoor fun Tagged With: Fun

Colored Noodles

2010

2 Comments

Colored noodles are a great thing to have on hand. You can make a variety of craft projects with them and best of all the kids can help you make them, too.

Ingredients Needed:

1 package dry noodles
Vinegar (1 tsp or less per bag)
Liquid food coloring (5 drops per bag)
Plastic bags (ziploc type)
Measuring cup (medicine size) or spoon

For this project I had everything laid out a head of time because once my children knew what they were supposed to do, it went very fast. I used a small measuring cup (the kind that usually come with children’s liquid medicine) to measure the vinegar. The little cup is easier for the little ones to hold and pour than a spoon. I also used snack size bags to mix everything up in.

Directions:

Add noodles to plastic bag (about a handful or two). Add at the most 1 tsp vinegar to the bag. Less is more since you do not want to get the noodles too wet. Then add 5 drops of liquid food coloring to the bag. Seal the bag and shake until it is evenly distributed. Then open the bag up and let it air dry over night. Most of my bags were dry by the next morning.

I let my children choose which noodles they wanted to put in their bags

Shaking the bags up.

Here are the bags air drying. As you can see, the children picked the colors and we made a lot of green!

Overall, it was a very easy project and we had no big messes, which is a major plus!

Filed Under: All Ages, Indoor fun, Kid Friendly Recipes, Noodles Tagged With: Fun

Paper Airplanes

2010

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For this activity we invited some friends over to join in on the fun. It made me laugh to find out that they were just as excited as my kids were to make some paper airplanes! It’s great for all ages. We did it with a handful of children ages 2-4.

*On a side note: My mom called me to let me know that my 13 yr old sister, who thought this was kind of lame and for little kids, ended up playing with these paper airplanes for 3 hours Friday night with 3 of her friends and had a blast! They ended up naming them and having all sorts of competitions. I guess this really is for all ages! It is seriously a great flying plane!

Supplies Needed:

Paper
Tape
Crayons (optional)

First, we had to add a little color before we started folding. Notice how the boys were all about getting it done as fast as possible. The girls were a little more detailed oriented when it came to coloring!

Once that is done, the folding begins. Each step has a number next to the picture to make it a little easier to follow. I also colored the back side of the paper green, so you can tell which side is which while we are folding.

Let’s begin:

Step 1: Lay paper on a flat surface.

Step 2: Fold the paper length wise in half.

Step 3: Open the paper up again. Take one corner and fold it in towards the center line.

Step 4: Do the same to the opposite corner.

Step 5: Flip the paper over.

Step 6: Pull the new corner, just created in and in line with the center line

Step 7: Do the same to the opposite corner.

Step 8: This is what it should look like right now when it is folded in half.

Now this next part is a little tricky, so much sure you follow the pictures.

Step 9.1: I put 2 red dots on the paper. See them? On the next fold, you will bring the red dots together by bringing the edge on the bottom up. Basically folding it in half on the one side.

Step 9.2: I guess to make it easier on me I flipped it around and I didn’t notice it until now. Sorry! This picture is folding the edge (that was previously pictured in 9.1 on the bottom) to line up with the opposite edge.

Step 10: Flip the plane over and do the same to the other side.

Step 11: This is what your plane should look like from the side when your hand is holding the fold. Now you want to put a little piece of tape on the bottom going over the fold . Somewhere near my thumb is fine.

Step 12: You also want to put a piece of tap on the top holding the two sides together. About where the red line is.

And now you can have some fun! We did!

Getting ready to have a throwing competition!

And they are off!

Paper airplanes are super simple and my children really seem to enjoy them. I am so glad I made a tutorial because this plane is so easy to fly. I hope you enjoy it!