Ever wonder what to do on a rainy day or on one of those extremely HOT summer days when it’s too hot to even be outside and you’ve had it with the constant drone of the TV? Don’t be left wondering again; make sure you have your activity box in order and ready to go!
Take an open basket or bin and create your own activity box to pull from the next time your kids are home-bound for whatever the reason! I suggest an open top rather than a closed box so it’s easy to grab, grab the kids, and spot something fast. If you have to dig through it, you won’t use it (says the mom who used to have it in a close-topped box).
This is our activity box. This is a box I’ve put together from a mix of gifts over the years or random Dollar Tree finds or Target dollar bin pick-ups. I break this bin out for those times when we find ourselves at home because we’re burned out from out-of-the-house-over-scheduling or we’re home-bound because of weather or illness. It’s neatly packed with a variety of art and science activities, some single-use and some that can last a bit longer. Depending on T’s mood, we’re usually lucky enough to find something in here to keep busy for an hour or so, give or take.
Does T want to color but doesn’t want to get into his usual set of activity books? Check. Does he want to play with a new sticker book? Check. Does T want to make a tornado? Check.
Tornado Tube is the greenish-blue gizmo holding these two 1-liter bottles together. I provided my own used bottles. We have a lot of those around here.
The science part to Tornado Tube. I read this to T after we got started. I should have read it with him beforehand so I knew about filling the bottles properly (oops!). And it seems someone got him this from Lakeshore Learning also (not a bad $2.49 spent… thanks gifter!).
Wait, what?! You’re probably thinking that making tornadoes is all these kids do all day long in the house and that’s the last thing that they need help creating, but I’m not talking about anything uncontrolled here. The other day, I found a “Tornado Tube” gizmo that I’d forgotten we’d received around the holidays. There was a hitch though: It required two 2-liter bottles. Well, I had a few 1-liter bottles hanging around, so while we might not spin up any super-twisters with that size, it still might do the trick.
T gets ready to make a tornado. No wonder he looks so happy!
I also thought why not amp up this tornado with some color. I was thinking we’d watch the colors mix as the tornado started to spin, but what I failed to realize was that to get the thing going one side had to be empty (thus the science part of this experiment… always read the instructions first, RMT’ers!). It was OK, as T still had fun making orange from the red and yellow water anyway.
T gets ready to flip the tornado over and get it started.
T shakes the top bottle in a circular motion to get the vortex of the tornado started. Notice the frozen cocktails in the background; as I said above, we’re never short on one-liter bottles around here.
T watches the water vortex from the top to the bottom bottle.
A tornado in a bottle! I think we have our science fair project for next year. Yes, that’s right, Kindergarteners are welcome to submit science projects… this isn’t the K class we remember, RMT’ers!
T really liked playing with the tornado on and off all day the other weekend. We’ve emptied the bottles and shelved the Tornado Tube for the time being, but you never know when a storm will be brewing next… a brainstorm for ideas of what to do, that is.
What tricks do you have up your sleeve – or stashed up in the closet – for rainy or really hot days, RMT’ers?
Real Mom Time (RMT) 