During inclement weather, school vacation, or when children are sick, parents may be confined to the house with their children for days.  While entertaining the children is often challenging, this enforced confinement also presents an opportunity for parents to spend quality time with their children and to foster skills and confidence in different areas.  We hope that this article will be a useful resource for activities.  The material was compiled through interviews with women who teach preschool or run playgroups.  The activities listed were collected mainly for children in the three to six year age range.  Most provide children with useful hand eye coordination, sensory integration, and/or hand strengthening exercises.

General Tips

• Keep the activity as simple as possible.  Children under age five may be quite contented with a little coloring, cutting, and gluing.
• Think about cleanup in advance: make sure that the “good” furniture, nice tablecloths, and fragile items are out of the way, use drop cloths (save old tablecloths for this), and dress everyone in their worst.  Leave the cleanup for afterwards; don’t constantly try to maintain a clean area.
• Many activities are more fun when other children are present.  Parents may wish to take turns hosting each other’s children.
• Get on the floor and play with toys; the children will want to join in.
• Use garage sales to stock of all types.  Keep some out of sight for a rainy day. (Clean any item purchased at garage sales and check for breaks.
• Alternate active/standing activities with quiet/sit down activities through the day.

 

Baking/Cooking

Food preparation appeals to children and adults.  The results are immediate and so is the gratification.  Popular items to bake are challos, pretzels, chocolate chip cookies, brownies, roll out sugar cookies, and cupcakes.  A major advantage of the sugar cookies and cup cakes is that they may also be decorated, with many varieties of sprinkles, with icing, or small candies.  When lollipop sticks are baked into thick sugar cookies, cookies are transformed into lollipops.  A package of small black and whites may be decorated to look like faces.  The black becomes the yarmulke/hair; edible markers may be used on the white part for the rest of the face.  A healthier option is to create snowmen by coating purchased corn thins with cream cheese and using vegetables and/or fruit by the foot or licorice for the details.

 

Cooking is more challenging, since it involves peeling and chopping.  However, this is a useful life skill for children.  Children as young as age four may learn to peel.  Making vegetable soup is a natural, especially for inclement weather.  After the younger children peel, the older children may cut the veggies.

Arts and Crafts 

• Cutting & Pasting Scissors, paper, and glue allow children to cut shapes and glue them together.  The artwork becomes more interesting if a variety of papers and colors are used.  Paper snowflakes, created by folding paper and making small cuts at the folds, are fun and easy.

• Play dough (keep in mind it’s chometz) It may be rolled using cylindrical blocks and cut with plastic knives.  It is best played away from carpeted floors, since it usually sticks in the carpet.  Goop is a slimier version, useful for children with sensory integration challenges.

• Painting Paper may be taped to the wall, to provide children an excellent finger strengthening exercise.  Finger painting may be done in the bathtub, using the tub and tiled walls as canvas.  When the painting is finished, clean up is another activity, using spray bottles filled with water.  Marble painting (not for under 3 year olds) is another variation on painting.  It involves putting the paper to be painted inside a washtub, dipping marbles into tempura paints (preferably not the washable type), putting the marbles into the washtub, and shaking the washtub.

• Unscented shaving cream sprayed liberally on a surface provides children with something to mold into 3-D shapes.  It is easily cleaned up with dry paper towel.

• Beading  It is easier to string beads on a stiffer “string”, like pipe cleaners.

(Make sure the beads are not a choking hazard)  Cheerios or Fruit Loops may also be used.

• Pipe Cleaners  Wick Stix and Bendaroos are variations on the pipe cleaner idea, but are easier to work with, more colorful, and lack sharp ends.

• Collages, Mobiles  Collages may be created using discarded wrapping paper, ribbons, foil, etc.  Mobiles may be assembled by attaching pictures to wire hangers.  Themes drawn from Parsha, an upcoming Yom Tov, or nature add meaning to the artwork.

• Free-Form Creativity  Popsicle sticks, cotton balls, and fun foam are all inexpensive items that lend themselves to free form creativity.

• Rubbings  Rub unwrapped crayons on paper over a variety of textured surfaces.  The paper may be presented later to another family member to guess which surfaces were rubbed.

Games/Puzzles

Some popular board games for young children include Candyland, Memory, and Quirkle.  Card games include Pilot, Catch the Match, Where’s Waldo, I Spy and Finders/Keepers.  Various block toys for very young children include Duplo and Mega Blocks.  Floor puzzles, large puzzles that are assembled on the floor, are suitable for younger children.  It is also entertaining to create one’s own puzzles by drawing on cardboard and cutting the picture into pieces; an older child may create the puzzle for a younger child to assemble.

Another entertainment is to blindfold a child and have him/her try to identify objects by touch, or, if edible, by taste.  Children may be intrigued to categorize foods by sweet, salty, sour, or bitter.  A group of children may enjoy pin the tail on the donkey or put the shamash in the menorah, perhaps after creating the donkey or the menorah.

Physical Exercise

It is particularly challenging to provide the children with physical exercise when they are cooped up in the house.  Wheelbarrow walking, somersaults, jumping jacks, and running in place get kids moving.  These activities may be more stimulating if someone records how long a child is able to sustain them.  If there is room in the house for a circular run (living room/kitchen/ dining room), a parent may have the children run, hop, and jump in sequence all in the same direction.

Exercise CDs (eg Morah Music CDs) guide children through calisthenics.  Children may also enjoy dancing to lively music.  Singing the Hokie Pokie is a great way to get even the youngest children to move their right hand, left hand, right foot in and out and shake it around…   “If you’re happy and you know it…” is also fun.  A parent may also play music while the children move around and have everyone freeze when the music stops.

Another option, assuming that the house has a good-sized room, is timed relay races.  These work better if there are a few children around the same age.  Children may race across the room by hopping on one foot, jumping with their feet in a bag, carrying something etc.  Cushions and toys may also be arranged into an obstacle course including tunnels and bridges.  Parents may also decide, just for this one day, to allow biking in the basement if it is roomy enough.

Music

March the children through the house, each one beating on his/her own musical instrument.  If there aren’t enough toy instruments, spoons and pots and lids make splendid substitutes.  Blasting music with a strong tempo makes the experience more exciting.  Have the children stop their instruments when the music stops.  Little children also enjoy standing on short chairs while playing their instruments: they become a band.

Imaginative Play

Little children adore playing with their parents’ things:  kitchen stuff, safe tools, clothing, etc.  Once in awhile, allow the children free range with items we usually take away from them.  Parents may supervise by participating in the play.

Playing house with the kids may turn into an instructive experience for the parents as they watch their children mirroring them.  Building tents or tunnels out of sheets, cardboard boxes (which may also be decorated), and furniture utilize engineering skills and encourage imaginative play.  Children and parents may also enjoy creating puppets out of paper bags (lunch bags) and using them for role playing.

Media

Sometimes, the only way to keep everyone sane is to play an audio CD or to let the children watch a video.  Different families have different policies about entertainment media; it is appropriate to inform parents of play dates before allowing someone else’s child to listen/watch a CD/DVD.  It is advisable for parents to research before purchasing a CD/DVD.  Apart from hashkafa issues, parents need to think about how scary their young children may find the experience.  Some children may have trouble sleeping after hearing a scary story that other children greatly enjoy.   Good sources of information include the childrens’ teachers/playgroup Moros, friends, and the Rav or Rebbetzin.

Indoors Outside the House

Sometimes, parents have the option of taking the children out.  This often involves spending money.  Some parents may also be concerned about exposing their children to arcade games.  While games for younger children may be wholesome, games for older children may involve violence.  Exploring a mall may provide an outlet for little children to stretch their legs.

 

Libraries are another indoor option.  Many have story hours for toddlers and/or preschoolers.  They often have toys and puzzles to play with, aside from the book collection.  T

Making Lemonade Out of Lemons

A day or a week cooped up in the house is not just a challenge, but an opportunity.  When parents take the time and trouble to engage with their children in enjoyable activities, children learn an important life lesson—good experiences may be squeezed even from unpleasant circumstances.