Keeping The Monsters Happy

I sort of truly hate it when I assume the mantel of Knowledgeable Motherhood, since I'm somewhat gormless in real life and right now my kids are keeping busy by watching Rolie Polie Olie. But whatever: here's a list of things to do with kids during the summer, especially older toddler-preschool aged kids, since I've always found that keeping them happy during summer days can be a bit trickier. So here you go - my big list of ideas:
1. Cut out paper dolls.
2. If it's raining outside, have the kids really quickly scribble with some watercolours on paper and then dash the paper outside to be rained on. Afterwards, you can see what the rain did to your paintings.
3. Make homemade popsicles.
4. Very little kids can be amused for ages with a sheet of dollar store stickers and a piece of construction paper.
5. Make potato prints - very, very fun.
6. Save your grocery store fliers and let the kids cut out the food pictures to make collages. "Healthy food" is a big one at our house; slightly older kids can do four food group collages.
7. Fingerpainting is lots of fun outside and making your own fingerpaint will make you feel like a genius.
8. Make a little puddle of paint on a big piece of paper and let your little guy drive his little cars through the paint to make attractive car-tire paintings.
9. Line a shoebox with a piece of paper and dip some marbles in paint. Plunk them in the box, put the lid on and twirl everything around.
10. Make an on-going little car city from well-rinsed out milk cartons (covered in construction paper and decorated) and boxes.
11. Read Blueberries for Sal and make blueberry muffins.
12. String Cheerios or Froot Loops on string licorice to make lovely, lovely jewelry.
13. Make blanket forts. You can also make them outside on the clothesline.
14. Make fairy houses.
15. Make a batch of cupcakes. When they're cool, give the kids several bowls of icing in different colours and some tubes of icing for piping, and lots of different bowls of candy for decorating. We do this about once a summer and it's always a huge hit, as you may imagine.
16. Fill the old baby tub with water and see what floats and what sinks.
17. Make ice blocks (old diaper wipe boxes are great molds). Add food colouring and small plastic toys and coins. You can put the ice blocks in the wading pool or if you make enough of them, they can build with them.
18. Fill up the old baby tub (again!) and bath all the dolls. Wash their clothes and hang them on the porch to dry.
19. Or have a little car wash.
20. Give the kids a bucket of water and clean house painting brushes and let them paint the car, the house or the fence.
21. Get a giant fridge box and let it hang out inside for a while. The kids can haul pillows and books inside for a lovely playhouse (especially if you cut out doors and windows) or you can get energetic and make it into a spaceship. My husband crafted one into a pirate ship once, but he's extra crafty.
22. Make paper plate masks.
23. Teach them how to make paper fans and then have them fan you while you loll about.
24. Make a bracelet from a loop of construction paper and put double sided tape on the outside. Then when you go for a walk, you and your child can look for treasures to decorate their bracelet.
25. Make a tricycle obstacle course.
26. A bunch of playdough, some cookie cutters, a plastic rolling pin and some paper lunch bags = their very own bakery.
27. Get some felt and make attractive doll (or stuffed animal or action figure) clothing. Vests are always stylish, and there's nothing more timeless than a kicky poncho.

What do YOU do to keep little kids busy in the summer?