Help! Need ideas!

[little_O]

I am baby sitting my nephew and niece today. They are 5 and 3. At this point of my pregnancy I am not coping with the chaos and noise! Ahh!

So I am trying to NOT to be psycho aunty and crack up all the time. I am also trying to prevent me locking myself in my room

What can I do to play with the kids and amuse them? I don't know what they would like to do. It's 40 degrees today so I can't really walk too far with them and their car seats didn't get left behind.

How do you amuse your kids? Please help!

[Frangipani Lou]

Games? Cooking, playing in the bath, drawing, cutting and pasting.

Have you asked them what they'd like to do?

[~Hestia~]

Chuck a blanket over your table for an instant cubby.

[MrsFabuloso]

Playing in the bath, with some food colouring and bubbles in it.
'Washing' dishes.
Playing with rice and containers (put down a big sheet and give them some rice and funnels, spoons, containers)
Drawing
Playdough
Watch a movie with popcorn
Simple board games or card games
Lego/traintracks/block building (If you have some)
Hairdressers/ paint nails (if their mum doesn't mind, and you don't mind ending up with painted toes as well as the nails!)
Cubby house with sheets and pillows over the dining table or lounge
Write a story with them and get them to illustrate it
Tea set with water in it and some small nibbles like biscuits, sandwiches taht they can make themselves
Cooking simple things cookies, make fruit kebabs, make sandwiches, plain biscuits with icing and sprinkles, fairy bread

[Jaycee]

Some great ideas already, have you got a plastic pool and a shaded area to set it up? Half an hour outside every now and then will be great fun for them. If you don't, even letting them run under the sprinkler for 10 minutes won't do them any harm and may tire them out for an afternoon nap

[Teeki]

Water is definitely a hit with my DD today! This morning we went to the library so when we got home she spent a while just reading her new books. But since then I've put a big tub of water on the kitchen floor for her, with towels underneath, and given her measuring cups and things from the bath. She's still loving it

I find the things that keep her most occupied are new things, so if she hasn't done craft in a while I'll get her a pile of new scraps - felt, stickers, stamps etc and dump it all on her table with paper, crayons and a glue stick. She sits there and makes things for ages. She loves to dance too, so The Wiggles are a big hit here. She also loves face paint (we have a make up paint kit thing) and having her toenails painted, but this won't take long. Unless you're good with paint and came make them into characters so they can go play.

[chody47]

I'm hearing you with not wanting to be outside in this heat today!

I def recommend some sort of water play - even if its just some buckets and then smaller containers to scoop it into.

Christmas cooking?

Watch tv or a movie. Don't feel guilty about this - you're amazing to watch the kids this close to popping!

You may find that they are entertained for quite some time playing with whatever toys you have ok your house, even if they are too 'young' for them. Kids always love toys that aren't their own!

Maybe they'd like to make mum and dad a Christmas card or draw them a picture? Alternatively, you could print some Christmas colouring pages off the Internet if you have a printer...

[AnyDream]

Duplo. Put together a basic structure like a few trees (jungle) and get out the other toys (teddies, whatever) to "play" in the jungle/have a picnic/whatever.

Playdoh + few other random items they have not playdohed with before (eg, spoons, plastic toys, etc) - roll the dough out & show them how to press the things in to make a "picture".

I second anything else with water play or bubbles - you can set up in the kitchen in a tub on a table if it's too hot to go outside.

Print out some Christmas pictures & do coloring & cutting. Stick then to a small paper plate. Loop some ribbon through the top, and voila - Christmas deco!

[onthefly]

What do they want to do? Kids that age tend to amuse themselves pretty well. Maybe just point them in the direction of things they can play with or craft stuff or something?

[myturn]

What did you decide to do???

[little_O]

Well we all survived!

Thanks for all the suggestions. They ended up playing with dd's toys (you're right the baby toys didn't bother them), then abc2 got a work out and then we played "adventurers" around the house.

I really like the water ideas. We just had workman outside so it's very dusty and I foresaw a mud bath if I introduced water today lol!

Thinking of investing in those mini pool things though. I think when I have to babysit again that would be a winner.


Thanks for all the suggestions. My brain was just not functioning and not coping with crazy kids running around!

[squeezles]

pinterest has lots of good ideas for kid activities!