Scroll down for an update on Caine
Maybe quiet is asking too much, but I would love your suggestions on how to keep 6 kids aged 4-10 gainfully employed. Caine’s mom, grandma and 3 brothers are staying with us while he is in the hospital, but his mom spends most of her time with Caine for understandable reasons. We don’t know how long they will be with us and I don’t want to plant everyone in front of the TV or video game console, so I would love to hear your ideas on what they can do indoors. Yes, indoors. The weather has been nasty. Yes, we’re spoiled and we call 40′s and 50′s in January “nasty weather.”
Here are my requirements:
- Easy. Must not require a lot of hand-on assistance. Remember, I also have a 2yo and a very demanding baby.
- Cheap. Must not require expensive or extensive supplies. We have lots of free paper, and I can spend a little on materials but not too much.
- Clean. Must not be too messy. I’m hesitant to try anything that involves glue or glitter.
- Entertaining. Must take longer than 30 seconds. :) An hour would be great. Even better if it holds their attention longer, but it can’t be too complicated or tedious.
- Quiet. Well, a girl can hope…
Here is what we’ve done so far:
- Paint! The kids got washable paints for Christmas and I already had a set of watercolors and lots of cheap brushes. They spent well over an hour producing various works of art, borrowing ideas from each other. I cut a large trash bag in half and taped it to the table, so cleanup was easy. I also made them all agree beforehand that they would do the cleanup themselves to my satisfaction or we would never paint again in my house. :)
- Paper airplanes! I didn’t think of this myself, but it was great! The paper was free, and the airplanes are relatively safe projectiles for indoor use. If they’re going to throw things in my house, I’m glad it’s paper. There is lots of room for creativity and extended play with minimal mess.
- Play store. I think that’s what they were doing, because I found handwritten “checks” and “money” on the makeshift desks when they were done. At any rate, they were quiet and occupied for quite a while. Our little ones also love to play school, although that might not hold the same charm for my nephews who attend private school.
Ideas I’d like to try:
- Breadmaking. I could give each child his/her own lump of dough to shape and bake.
- Paper plate masks. They could follow up by actually wearing the masks in their games.
- Hide & seek. Our kids have discovered some fun and fabulous hiding places in our new house, and the fun could start all over again with a few new players.
- Origami lessons. Kaitlyn feels confident she could keep them all engaged long enough to finish one or more simple shapes. Boats or hats would be a good start, or the Big Mouth Puppet that Becca demo’ed in a video tutorial so many years ago.
- Pop-ups. This is Kaitlyn’s idea, too. I think she wants to cut a very basic pop-up design (1 for each child) that the kids could then color in and play with.
- Play dough. We could try an edible recipe, or just do the traditional salt dough. Cooked recipes make an especially soft, pliant dough that is fun to work with. Messy, but it should clean up easily if we keep it away from the living room rugs.
What else would you suggest?
Update on Caine:
His oxygen was decreased from 12 liters/minute down to 6 liters yesterday, but his breathing became labored so he’s holding steady now at 7 liters. He will need to get down to 2 liters before they move him out of the PICU into the regular pediatric ward, but he’s well on his way.
Last night and today he became much more active and alert, and is very smiley for his mom.
He also enjoyed Grandma’s visit today.
We think he was getting very tired from working so hard to breathe, and is finally feeling better because he’s not expending so much energy just to stay alive. He is also receiving 2 ounces of mom’s milk every 2 hours via a tube, so he’s a much happier little man.
The next step is to decrease his oxygen enough to allow him to move to the pediatric ward and begin nursing again. Thanks again to all who are continuing to pray for this precious little boy.
I found it very entertaining for about 20-30 kids in that age range to make paper chain angels at our homeschool group’s Christmas party. You could just google for some templates. Then scissors, pencils and decorating stuff is all you need.
I also meant to add that I’ve been praying Caine, and I’m glad to see that he’s improving.
Nerf war.
Face painting.
My kids love to cut out snowflakes (and hearts). Don’t know if you want them all using scissors – and it can leave quite a mess of little paper snips, but my kids LOVE it. I often buy a big package of coffee filters and let them use those. They have also used cupcake paper. Quite often after cutting out dozens of snowflakes each, they will decorate with them or make up another game/use for them.
What about threading? My children enjoy this. You can get ready made cards or make your own with cereal packets. They draw a picture and then punch holes round the outline with a hole punch and thread wool in and out of the holes. It’s good practice for learning to sew, absorbing and the bigger ones can make more complex patterns and use a wool needle. Spare shoe laces work well for the younger ones as they are easier to bodge through the holes than plain wool. Get well soon Caine!
We have a couple of those “graduated difficulty” puzzles (that’s what I call em anyway, lol). Ya know, where there’s different sizes of pieces so that all ages can build the same puzzle. We built one together last year when we had several small and big children around for the holidays. It was “Alice in Wonderland”, very colorful (beautiful really) and engaging for all. We must have spent a day and a half at least on it. I just gave everyone some hot cocoa in a mug or a sippy depending on age and ability to keep it from spilling! We happily sipped and built the day away! Perhaps Big Lots would have some inexpensive puzzles like these you could pick up.
Also, we’re praying for Baby Caine. Poor little dude…..I hope he is well enough to come home soon!
Blessings to you all!
January is A A Milne’s birthday, we used to make cupcakes and invite our teddy’s bears to tea with us. Your husband came to one of our teas and had to introduce his teddy bear. Ask him if he remembers.
My kids like to play zoo with all the stuffed animals. They can make a sign for each animal telling what it is and where it’s native to – one of ours was “Tigers – Native to Ohio”.
Play Freeze Dance- play music and they move around till the music stops. Whoever moves is out. ( I know this isn’t quiet, but it does help get their energy out. Also, you can sit next to the cd player with baby.)
Create a Hot Wheel road with masking tape. They can use blocks to build stores, homes or road blocks.
Forts are always fun. Do you have flash lights? Create Constellations with old cans or cardboard tubes and paper.
Here are my ideas:
1. Cards. An older child could play Solitaire, or more than one could play Go Fish, War, etc. You could also buy a card game such as Uno or Sleeping Queens, but that’s more expensive.
2. Memory. You can play this with playing cards if you don’t have a memory set already.
3. Guessing games. Depending on how good at this the children are, you can make it harder or easier. (At my house, for example, we don’t require that questions be yes/no, because we think it makes the game less fun.)
4. Story telling. Everyone gets to put one thing in the story, and you (or one of your older daughters) weaves everything into one story.
5. Books. Can you bring a bunch of picture books from home?
How about writing and producing a play and/or a puppet show?
If you have paper, do you have much ink? Would they enjoy working on printable packs, like the ones from 1+1+1=1 or Confessions of a Homeschooler? I have a four and two year old and they love to do these packs. Twice, I’ve had another 4 year old come over and they all spent over a hour tracing and coloring.
Do you have any cardboard boxes? I saw a cool thing on Pinterest for making cardboard box mazes with boxes and duct tape.
How about legos or coloring or something similar while being read to?
With your free paper, you should make snowflakes and hang them up around the house. You could also tape pieces together and make paper houses. My children love that!!!
Take a big roll of masking tape and tape roads all over the floor and furniture. You could make parking lots, cities, etc. Get a box of matchbox cars out and let the kids play. Better yet, let the kids design and tape the roads– that will keep them busy even longer.
Hey Kim! I feel your struggle with keeping kiddos occupied…It has been a struggle for me too, since I was very much able to entertain myself for long periods of time (read, draw etc) and now have 4 energetic boys to do something with!
For Christmas this year, (with my dad’s help), we purchase a 2′x2′ board of plywood. After cutting into 4, 12″ pieces, my dad sanded them, primed/painted them, and attached ball swivel casters onto the four cornerso of each piece. The boys have had a ball rolling around on our floors! It keeps them busy like nothing else and is great for indoor, cold rainy weather! (and while this is an expense, the same thing at Walmart was $30…I think we paid about $12-15 each…) Another suggestion is to save ALL food-weight cardboard boxes (ceral, crackers, even milk cartons) and after you have a bunch of them, start cutting into furniture for “doll” houses…but remember to utilize the natural built-in corners of the boxes as your furniture shapes. Then paint/decorate and find some empty boxes to make “houses” out of…and paint the “carpet” and the “walls”…I’ve found that even boys like to make the stuff, even if they don’t “play” with it…Also, while browsing at a thrift store, I stumbled onto a 4′x8′ piece of flannel backed table cloth(vinyl)…It was in good shape, so I brought it home for less than $5 and proceeded(with mom’s help) to use sharpies to draw roads/city blocks etc…and then we used the paint we had on hand and painted it in with the roads big enough for them to run their cars on….twister is also good…. I also try to include them in cooking as much as possible…by the way, where are all your bigger kids?? I mean, I know Deanna is moved out, but I figured you still had an army of older sisters to help!!
52 pick up. : )
Card games like Go Fish and Old Maid or multiple deck Uno
Play houses from blankets and furniture
Have a picnic inside – get them to plan the menu and pack the lunch, then clean up
Teach them to finger knit and/or make fork flowers
Praying here as well.
On cold or rainy days, we do lots of laundry basket races. This meets all requirements except #5.
Basically big kids pull with a rope or push anyone little enough to fit into a basket around in circles, down the hallway, or wherever there are non carpeted floors. It can be loud, but I’m amazed at how long they will stay entertained with it!
Set up a daily schedule and have activity time, movie time, quiet time, snack time, read a book aloud, etc.
Also, give each day of the week a theme. Don’t get complicated, just something to give some structure. (Legos are a great creative activity, too)
Ask some of your older girls to take an hour or two and do a Pinterest activity.
Make it a surprise for the kids. Like…
Paint rocks
Bake cookies
Write cards
Dress-up
Self-portraits
Basic vocab in a foreign language
pipe cleaner animals
Aluminum foil ball/paper plate paddles
Library
Local nature center
Make a “bowling set”
Educational videos online
Scavenger Hunt (indoors or out)
Cut snowflakes
Board games and card games, also puzzles.
Find some big boxes (from a local shipping store maybe) and markers. You won’t hear from them for the rest of the day.
Your breadmaking idea gave me the idea to make the salt dough ornaments…for Valentine’s day? then they could paint them when they were dry. Praying Caine continues to improve.
How about creating play houses out of a couple big cardboard boxes? Cut holes for the windows, make a swinging door, and then let then go at it with color crayons. My kids made one a coulee years ago when grandpa mailed WAY too many Christmas gifts in a giant box. It kept them happy, (and quiet) for days decorating it and then they played house in it for months until we moved and had to leave it behind. You could find boxes for free from grocery stores, warehouse clubs, or even furniture stores probably.
Some favorite ideas that I didn’t see as I skimmed the comments above:
1. A large, shallow, plastic tub or even a cardboard box filled with (dry) rice or beans… an indoor ‘sandbox….’ of sorts… use matchbox cars, tractors, etc. (Obviously must be monitored to some extent, or this can become a tedious clean-up situation!)
2. Use masking or painters’ or freezer tape to create roads on the floors, complete with parking spaces, etc… for driving toy vehicles. Our kids have also used colored dominoes to make similar scenes for their vehicles.
3. Writing/drawing in shaving cream on the counters.
4. Making a ‘zoo’ with stuffed or plastic toy animals, feeding the animals crackers, charging admission, etc!
Best wishes!
A sensory bin us always a hit here, as is painting with food colored shaving cream on the shower walls (easy cleanup, just spray it down). My kids also like to wash everything with cleaning rags, and my 4 year old’s newest love is using her stamping kits from Christmas (they are made by Melissa & Doug).
If you’ve got paper to spare, my mom used to entertain us kids by having us build things out of it–rocket ships, cities, castles (all 3D) or 2D paper dolls, you name it. It’s a little easier if you have tape, glue, paper clips, or something else to do some fastening for you, and markers and scissors are nice, but in the end all you really need is paper, as you can fold it so it’ll hold itself. Toilet paper tubes and empty boxes are also good fun for this sort of thing, if you have any knocking around. Sometimes she’d give us a theme and sometimes she’d just set us loose. Other times she’d have us recreate things from stories we’d read. On one memorable occasion, we built a castle out of cereal boxes, toilet paper rolls, and paper, put a paper princess in a tower, and then cut out 2D catapults and dragons to destroy it.
My kids spend hours playing with card board, tape, pens, scissors, ect. They end up making up cages, airplanes, and forts. We currently have a cardboard basket ball hoop in our living room. So many great ideas already listed, I think some of these might be used on our next rainy day(which is in the forecast for tomorrow).
Praying for baby Caine,
~kelly
This would cost something, but they get great reviews for keeping kids occupied http://www.finditgames.com/ I think you could make your own tube relatively easily with a water or soda bottle some small objects around the house and rice. Good luck.
My crew likes to play what we call, “Baby Step Freeze Tag.” Every one takes the tiniest steps possible, once they are frozen, they can get free by someone waddling over, pulling on their shirt, and saying, “Waa, waa, waa.”
Also, We have wild animal hunts. We hide stuffed animals all over the house. The children take whatever guns they can find: nerf, laser, ping pong ball, marshmallow shooters and head out. Its handy if they have a “Big game bag” to put their captured animals in. We tell them hunters have to be quiet or they’ll scare the “Big Game” away. Best hunter, most animals in the “Big Game Bag” wins!
We have nine children 17-16 months. We spend a lot of time at doc appointments and procedures. So we have to keep children engaged all the time with these parameters in mind.
The newest thing that kept everyone (except our teenage boys) engaged was they wrote a play and set up stage on our covered back porch. The older girls (12 and 10) wrote the play and organized props and “play” practice. OUr house in smaller so they kept the “stage” set up on the porch. The mess was out there and it has kept them going back to it for days. We have a 6 and 3 yr old boys that were even kept busy! No money was paid out and I had little to no involvement! Other than telling them please dont take that outside……and them asking who they could invite to the actual play!
My heart goes out to the family and for Caine. You are precious to give them a place to stay and help with the children at home. That is huge when a mom needs to be with a sick child. It is always a big burden when the sick ones take all of your time and you feel as if the healthy ones are left behind. But when they are well taken care of and loved it means so much!
I remember being very entertained with this as a kid AND I’ve seen it entertain mine:
making a play!
mine are 4 and under so I got a big box and cut a very large hole in the front and a large hole in the bottom (it was rectangular and I had it horizontal) and showed them how to use their stuffed animals as puppets/characters.
they spent a half hour decorating the play house (taping pictures they colored to it, so they didn’t have to wait for paint or glue to dry before use). Then they spent a good hour or so in what they called their TV and they acted out a bunch of movies. Then I told sat my very morning sick self in front of their TV and they did all their movies for me.
When I was about 8 or so I used to LOVE making up plays involving my younger cousins and then having all the grown ups sit around after dinner and watch our show. It was hours of entertainment for us and we were very motivated because we had an actual audience. One that even took pictures, and sometimes asked for autographs.
That’s my idea – hope it helps
Boxes and markers. You won’t see those kids again for days.
Since the weather is “nasty” and you probably don’t have the benefit of snow to make it fun, you can have a snow day indoors.
* To have a snowball fight, have kids crumple used paper and have at it (not so quiet, but fun)
* To make a snowman, put all the scrap paper snowballs in three white trash bags and assemble and decorate
* To ice skate, step on paper plates and glide…you can add music and play freeze skate by having everyone freeze when the music stops
* To go sledding, older kids can pull younger ones around on a sheet
Glad to hear the little guy’s on the mend.
Keeping you all in prayer!
I haven’t been responsible for that many kids in awhile (just got two girls over here, so not since my babysitting days), but things that seem to entertain my girls for awhile or that I remember from back in the day or that I’ve seen online that looked cool –
you could do graham cracker houses, or make and decorate sugar cookies
-give baking soda, corn starch, vinegar, water, flour, shaving cream, food coloring etc. and let the kiddos experiment (this can get messy, but if you have them do it in the bathtub or kitchen, cleanup usually just involves a quick sweep or mop of the floor)
-paper bag puppets and then put on a puppet show
-make instruments out of boxes, bottles, etc. and put on a concert
-not sure whether you did it earlier, but we’re doing our gingerbread house this weekend since we were all sick over Christmas
-make pretzels, let the kids make whatever shapes they want
-moon sand – this can also be messy, but if you put down a bunch of sheets or table cloths or do this on sweep able floors, the cleanup isn’t so bad. It’s just flour mixed with baby oil until the flour gets as nice and clumpy as you want. It’s kind of like playing with wet sand. It kept my girls entertained for a long while.
-have them makeup and then play their own board games, maybe giving them a little help and inspiration from traditional board games (they could just make your standard go around the board game with their own characters if they wanted or make it much more complicated) – this could potentially take up a lot of time since they have to come up with the rules and ideas for the game, design the game, then explain the rules to each other and play all day
-paper towel/toilet paper tube art or animals (google “toilet paper roll art” and you’ll see some cool stuff)
-have them make their own roads and town using boxes, bottles, construction paper, etc., and drive cars down them. I also saw this on Pinterest http://pinterest.com/pin/247486941992577103/ for making cars and trucks out of bottles, so you could have them make their own cars and trucks to go down the road too.
- make stamps/prints by drawing into styrofoam with a pencil (http://pinterest.com/pin/247486941994216442/)
-I also used to love how you can draw with crayon and then when you paint over it with watercolors it doesn’t go over the crayon.
Hope everything goes well!!
Also, just noticed your little counter thing says you’re “51 weeks, 4 days pregnant.” Not sure whether that’s intentional and you leave it up all the time so we know how long it’s been since you were pregnant
I definitely agree with the gingerbread houses (graham cracker houses). We always have a lot of fun with those, and the older kids can have a lot of fun designing them. Littler ones have a hard time making them stand up, but if you had helpers or had them work in pairs it might be better. Also, we’ve found that pretzel sticks can be very helpful as supports.
Set up an obstacle course with chairs, couch cushions, and other items from your house. They could do it in teams or just race against their own time. You can vary the difficulty based on age and include things like having to soon around a bat several times before starting, or having to jump on one foot occasionally. And the bonus perk? Typically, after you set up the first set of challenges kids get pretty creative and will come up with several ideas on their own to set up.
Praying for Caine. Glad to hear he’s doing better.
My kids love playing with pipe cleaners and colanders. You could also use styrofoam pieces to stick the ends of the pipe cleaners into. Another idea is to put a couple ounces of viscous opaque liquid (tempura paint, unused body lotion/conditioner) into a gallon ziploc bag. Tape shut and let the kids create designs.
What about having the older kids read to the younger ones. You could even tape it and they could play it again for themselves later. They could then act the story out, do a craft or two that relates to the story, etc. I highly suggest The Mitten. They could then stitch a mitten together using cardboard and yarn and make all of the animals that end up stuffed in that mitten. Good luck.
Praying for Cain.
A friend once took all my kids and hers to a drive-in movie theater.
They got a box for each kid to decorate as a car, popped popcorn, and took their cars to the drive-in in the living room. It kept them entertained, even the bigger kids, for quite awhile.
If you have lots of extra time….buy a plain 200 count sheet from Walmart. Cut into 10×10 inch blocks. You can trace picture from coloring books on them with fabric markers or just let kids freehand pictures. Sew together, tie, bind, and voila, you have another blanket. My kids love to do this.
Paper snowflakes?
Making get-well cards for baby Caine, and encouraging cards for his parents?
legos, story time, hiding an object in the living room (littles get first chance to look for it), Adventures in Odyssey tapes, make a get well card for the baby, organized physical activity (stretching, jumping jacks, throwing a ball in a laundry basket), puzzles, 30 minute reading (or look at books) by themselves, listen to quiet, calming music…..
We love Ultimate Snap to entertain kids of various ages. Deal a regular deck of cards (or 2 or 3 if there are lots of players) evenly between players. As with the regular rules you have to ‘snap’ pairs as they show up but players also count 1-10 round the circle as they lay cards. If the number the player says matches the number on the card then that should be ‘snapped’ too. Good counting and number recognition for the littlies and counting is just disctracting enough that even adults don’t get bored too quickly – although come to think of it, it’s not always that quiet
So… this isn’t really an idea for quietly entertaining lots of young children, but I have been missing your regular posts. Apparently more than I even realized, since last night I dreamt that I went to visit you at your house. You were very kind and my husband and I (and a friend of mine) stayed overnight. My friend made veggie pizza muffins – which I’m pretty sure don’t even exist – but they were a big hit with all your kids. I’m kinda thinking my pregnancy hormones might have had a role to play as well
On a more serious note, I’m praying for your sweet nephew and am glad to hear he continues to improve. I hope you’re enjoying your littlest one (well, and your bigger ones, too) and look forward to when you feel up to posting again. God bless!
Okay, I’m wrong. They do exist: http://usmasala.blogspot.com/2012/07/veggie-pizza-muffins.html
So now you’ve got a task for the little ones – or, at the very least, a new snack for them! Eating usually keeps kids quiet, right?
Pipe cleaners (or whatever they call them now) – those fuzzy, bendy wires. Have them make animals or bugs or space aliens. Not free, but pretty cheap at Walmart.
Driveway chalk art – if it’s warm enough for you ;D
Load the oldest a camera that that takes video clips and have them produce a movie (Bible story, favorite fairy tale, whatever.)
And when they get antsy and wiggly… however old they are, that’s how many laps around the house, before they can come in. Or if that’s not enough, double it ;D
Julie
Oops. That was supposed to say “loan” not “load”.
Along the lines of finger painting and play dough – we used to play with shaving cream at the table as preschoolers through elementary. My mom would use a cheap can of shaving cream and write the first letter of our name on the table in front of each of us. Then you could try to mold the foam, or smear it on the table and draw in it with your fingers. It doesn’t sound like much, but it sure kept us entertained. The best part is you don’t have to worry about clothing stains, and when you wipe up the table afterwards it will be super clean!
Beth sounds right on the ball. I love her ideas.
So sorry to hear about Caine! Praying right now.
My vote for fun things to do inside is peanut butter play dough. It’s made with peanut butter and dry milk so it doubles as lunch!
The older kids can create a treasure hunt and have the littler kids do it. They hide pieces of paper that say “look in the ______” and put the next clue in that spot and the last spot has the “treasure” in it. I loved making these when I was a kid and I know little kids love to race to find the clues.
Among the more popular activities for my crowd: a value pack of felt pieces cut into letters and shapes to stick to a flannel sheet, $10 worth of puzzles/games bought at the thrift store can be used as originally intended or made into art projects or new games, the stray sock basket can be employed to make puppets or “skates” (you can add a little dish soap water and get a decent mop job, too LOL!), a skein of yarn can be chain stitched for hours (finger crochet), paper “fish” with paper clip mouths and magnets tied to the end of yarn (the fish can have letters and numbers for an educational game) and a mason jar full of stray buttons and small objects can become a game of I spy.
I hope you guys have a ton of fun and find out that sweet little guy is well enough to go home soon.
Have ice cube melting races! Everyone gets an ice cube, and the first one to melt it wins. You can put restrictions on it (Not in your mouth, only using your body etc.) or let them work as teams. Doesn’t last a long time, but it’s as close to free as it gets.
Ah, keeping children occupied. I find the best things are ones with zero cleanup. Games like tag, sardines, hide and seek (and hide and seek in the dark) I Spy, or having to find all the items on a list of things (hook up the big kids with a little one each) whatever that game is called.
Cards, absolutely. Dominoes. Building card houses. Twister. Using a roll of masking tape to make ‘roads’ all over the house for little cars to drive on. A few pieces of scrap wood, a bunch of nails and a hammer each for the older ones. ‘Painting’ with water and a brush on the fridge (with a towel on the floor). Ditto with ‘washing dishes’ with several lined up along the bath tub.
Children like fun cleaning, too. At least mine do. Swiffer cloths on their feet for ‘dusting races’. Anything vaguely competitive. Teams of two feeding each other a cracker with the feeder being blindfolded. ‘who can do X the fastest or slowest?’ (Ex. eat an apple without stopping chewing) Carrying rolled up socks balanced on their head for a race up the hallway.
Something that another teacher at our small-ish Christian school did with the kids in the after-school care program was “snowball fight.” Just crumple paper up into balls, divide the kiddos, (maybe even build a “fort” with pillows, cushions, etc.) and let them throw the paper balls. You can make it a competition if you count the snowballs at the end to see who scored the most “direct hits.” The kids loved it, and it’s relatively simple clean-up and pretty safe.
Stump Akinator at akinator.com! He’ll ask questions and figure out your character- any character in books, movies, history, etc., real or not, human or not.
I thought of you when I saw this. Perhaps the older kids could make the activities for the younger ones.
http://www.whenyourise.com/2013/01/bible-themed-quiet-bags-creation.html?m=1
Get a stack of magazines, catalogs, flyers, etc. anything with pictures. Set older kids to cut out pictures, and the younger ones to make collages out of them with glue sticks (might be venturing into messy here, but no messier than paint!).
Puppet shows: again, the bigs can entertain the littles with this, and have fun coming up with plots together. Don’t need puppets, any toys will do!
Got any board games?
playsilks? shall I send you a few for review?
Sarah, I emailed you.
Blow up some balloons. See how long everyone can keep them off the ground. If they are a little older, divide into 2 teams. Sit everyone on the floor and put up a net (or string) and have them play “indoor volleyball” with the balloon as the ball. The older kids have to keep their bottoms on the floor. This is not always quiet but it will use up lots of energy without making a mess. Bring out the Legos. Ask them to build the most fabulous car or house or spaceship or animal. I can handle noise better than mess. I think this is why God gave me my boys first and then my girls.
My older girls 7 and 5 love it when I draw them up a scanvenger hunt. Very simple things, but a little bit tricky at the same time. EG: a picture of my car number plate, a tap (they have to figure out which tap), a brick in the fence, a blemish on the wall, a flower on a bush. It way take 10 minutes of your own time but it is worth it. I just draw simple sketches with a pencil and then give them the sheet (to share) and a marker and they have to find the object, tick it off and write where they found it. We don outdoor ones for nice days and indoor ones for wet days