Rainy Day Boredom Busters

 Since the weather outside doesn’t seem to be improving I thought I’d repost my 10 minute boredom busters for you to try out!

 If you’re looking for something longer why not check out my previous post of ten free things 10 Free Family Things

1 -  Cress Shapes.

One for the younger members of the family -  

Put about ten sheets of kitchen roll on top of each other and soak them on a plate.

Place some cutters on the sheets and sprinkle inside the cutters with cress or mustard seeds.

Carefully lift up shapes and water the towel (not the seeds) every day and in a couple of days you should have some lovely cressy shapes.

2 - Food Games.

Place a selection of food on to a tray and blindfold your kids.

See if they can guess the flavours

3 – Make a cardboard slide

 Some of those big boxes left after Christmas? Flatten the largest you have and race cars, barbies and balls down!  

 

4 – Make some sparkly beads.

Normally one for the girls but with the right colours the boys love it to!

Get some sticky back plastic and cut it as long a drinking straw and width should be slightly longer than your middle finger.

Peel the backing off (place sticky side up) and place the straw at the bottom of it.   

Chuck glitter, tinsel, tissue paper etc all over it (leaving about about 1.5cm at the top)

Roll up straw over the glittery mess and seal with the unmarked bit.

Cut up into little tubes and you have some lovely beads to string or play with.

5 – Make some salt dough.

SALT DOUGH RECIPE:
2 cups of Plain Flour
1 cup of table salt
1 cup of water

OPTIONAL
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil (makes it a little easier to knead)
1 tablespoon of wallpaper paste (gives the mixture more elasticity)
1 tablespoon of lemon juice (makes the finished product harder

You can then use things like a sieve to make hair or leaves to leave a pattern. Leave in the air to dry and paint them when completely dry!

6 – Tray game.

Ok i did get this from Charlie & Lola but it is a good game.

Pop a load of objects (clothes pegs, shoe, spoon etc) on to a tray. Let them look at the train for a minute then see who can remember the most.

 7 – Marzipan animals.

Put a block of marzipan into a mixing bowl and add a drop or two of your favourite food colouring and roll it round till marzipan is coloured.

Roll into different size balls and pinch together to make different animals!

 

8 – Crayon muffins.

Great if you lots of bits of broken wax crayons as in my house!

Pre heat over to about 150

Pop some liners into a muffin tray.

Take the paper liners off the crayons and pop them into the cases.

Chuck in the oven and immediately turn it off.

The wax should then melt as the oven cools!

9 – Water fun.

Place a towel on kitchen floor or outside and pop out on it a range of bowls and spoons and objects. Measuring jugs etc etc. See what floats and how much water you fit into different objects.

If outside chuck a couple of drops of food colouring into to make coloured water.

10 – Worm collecting & Wormery

If like it has been the past week raining nonstop chuck on your willies grab a bucket and spade and go and collect some fat wiggly worms!

In fact here is info from the BBC explaining how to make your own womery!

What you will need

a large, clean, glass jar

moist soil

sand

earthworms

old leaves

vegetable peelings, tea leaves, overripe grapes

some black paper and a cool, dark cupboard

Step-by-step guide

1 Ask your children to cover their work surface with newspaper. They will need to wash their large jar carefully so that it doesn't smash. You may want to help younger children with this.

2 Help your child to put a layer of sand at the bottom of the jar, about 1cm (0.4in) deep.

3 Add a thick layer of soil, then add another thin layer of sand, then another thick layer of soil. Ensure there is about 5cm (2in) of space at the top.

4 Now for the fun part! Ask your children to go and find some worms. Before they put them in their jar, ensure they have a good look at them. Can they tell which end is which? How? Can they guess how a worm moves? Can they see the hairs on the worms skin?

5 They need to put the worms in their jar, then add some old leaves, vegetable peelings, tea leaves and overripe fruit if you have any.

6 Then they can put the lid on - with a couple of holes in the top - place black paper around the jar and put it into a cool, dark cupboard. Leave it for about a couple of weeks and then observe what the worms are doing.

7 What has happened to the vegetable peelings?

8 What patterns have the worms made in the earth?