Olivia and I have officially been diagnosed with a case of the January Blahs and we've got it bad. This is probably my least favorite time of year - too much yucky cold inversion to go play outside and Christmas has sapped my creativity. I have officially banned the word "bored" from our house because of overuse. "Mom I'm bored!" "Mom I'm bored!" "Mom I'm bored!" at least twenty times a day for the last week and of course nothing I suggest does the trick. I would love, love, LOVE all of your fabulous indoor/no friends to play with suggestions for your kids. Give me all of your creative fixes for bored, lonely kids please. She used to be so great at just playing on her own and finding things to do, but then she became social and now home and mom just don't do it for her. (On Saturday after she got tired of me and we couldn't get a hold of a friend she dramatically flopped onto the floor and sighed "nothing in my life is fun except for friends!" How sad is that?! Am I really so terrible to be around and such a failure at stimulating my kid?!)
Olivia has officially settled into kindergarten and I feel like (no - I KNOW) that she's ready for a little something extra. We tried karate for awhile (which she begged me all summer to take) but the class was huge with too many big kids and she only lasted two months before the anxiety just got the better of her. So now we are back to ballet. Just a small community ed class with nine other little girls and the first class yesterday evening went great so hopefully that will help her out of the Blahs a little. I've also found a Girl Scout troop in our community that we're going to get involved in and that should be good for her to branch out a little, make some new friends, and have some sort of fun or service activity once a week. I've never liked the philosophy of overbooking kids - trying to make them "well rounded" with a million different activities. But right now while she's only in school half day and doesn't have siblings close enough in age to really play with I am in desperate need here for ways to keep her busy!
So here is your challenge all of my fabulously creative and wonderful mommy friends. Send me some suggestions my way for ways to cure our January Blahs!
4 comments:
I am the absolute worst person to ask for advice. I can never think of anything to do with my kids at home...thus the tv junkies I've created. So if you come up with anything good, let me know! And of course, you can always come play with us or vice versa!
I saw a cute idea of taking wide colored tape (I've seen it at Michaels) and making hopscotch on the floor with it! It was pretty cute.
Let's see... well, recently I had a tea party with my girls (you can read about it on my blog). Emma likes cooking quite a bit as well, so anything where I involve her in the kitchen is really fun for her. You could write letters/draw pictures for grandparents or friends and send them off. Does she like reading books? sometimes my kids will really just love sitting down on the couch with me and reading through a stack of picture books. In the evening, we've even started reading a children's novel (like Charlottte's Web) to Emma before bedtime. And (even though it's not much better than tv) Emma loves to play on the computer... there's great free kids games on Pbs.com, disney.com, and nick.com. Good luck! I hope you get some good ideas for other people because I need some new material too! :)
we like to "pretend" camp in the basement. Set up the tent and sleeping bags and pretend to fish or have a fire and marshmallows... but Kyler is big into pretending. We do a lot of crafts... have you seen that no time for flashcards blog? It has lots of ideas there is also one called feathered nest... you can probably good those names or I can send the link. But emily you are a creative mom, one of the best I know :) I know you guys have tons of fun! I sure miss you. Next time we are in UT I have got to see you!
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