My list as a Mentor Mom to recommend (maybe I’ll find and attach family pictures, later).
Maybe make into a book/blog):
Note: I never really thought of myself as a mentor until a church meeting last Sunday when I sat by mothers of preschoolers and elementary kids. My children are far from perfect and I am not done mothering them, yet, but these simple ideas/activities bring back good memories and were fun learning experiences. 3/26/2013
Winter time:
Make Snow Angels and Snow Forts and Snow Men or other creations like Snow puppies (with leashes)
Make Snow Ice cream (see recipe).
Play with water colors, playdoh (homemade clay) keep recipe taped inside cupboard, and bubbles.
Try making giant bubbles with clothes hangers or try making a square bubble (TEE HEE).
Practice spelling words with shaving cream or finger-paints.
Drive around to look at Christmas Lights.
Be in a Christmas pageant
Be the cheerleaders at a super bowl party
Ice skate or snow sled/toboggan
Indoor picnic/beach bash with beach towels and popsicles (have a Luau)
Have hot chocolate and marshmallows and warm cookies
Make cookies and deliver them by Christmas Caroling
Have a few feasts and parties with candles :
(Jesus Birthday cake, Thanksgiving, New Years bang pots and pans).
Make handmade Valentines. Read conversation heart candies.
Decorate for St Pat’s Day and Easter.
Use cotton balls for snow on a water cycle poster
Make a terrarium with wild plants and moss (possible worm or ant farm)
Chart the weather or the moon for a few weeks
Spring Time
Play & Dance in the rain (not thunder storms due to lightening, just drizzles) and then take a warm bath.
Plant seeds and water even if they don’t grow much. Then, plant bigger leafy seedlings as back up.
Have a sand box with soft sand and cups to make sand castles.
Play in a creek and try to catch crawdads
Collect some pretty or interesting rocks with fossils or arrow heads (FLR funny looking rocks)
Hike and look at wild flowers and bird watch (put out bird seed)
Put peeps in the microwave
Do the Mentos and diet coke mix as well as the volcano with baking soda and vinegar
Watch tad poles grow
Try to draw a plant life cycle
Put money coins in bank rolls.
Run and dance with the window curtains down in the moon light with loud music.
Play with hamsters/gerbils in the bath tub with no water.
Make Helmets from big cereal boxes for space travel.
Have a fashion show runway down the drive way with divas and feather boas.
Celebrate a graduation (Kindergarten or High school)
April fools tricks (nothing mean)
Have an indoor circus or zoo with stuffed animals (be the tour director).
Have a last indoor snow storm with packing foam peanuts.
Color Easter eggs and then have a hunt (with plastic eggs only).
Put Peeps or marshmallows in the microwave
Summer
Make a lemon-aide stand or sell treats for a baseball tournament
Tie dye a t shirt
Make corn starch goop (science polymer)
Hang out at a water park/pool/beach/creek
Go to a fair and look at or do 4H projects (bunnies/chickens/cows/sheep/pigs)
Camp at least once a year (Emergency camping trip compete with cooking and fire)
Go to Fourth of July parade or start one (pet parade with decorated bikes)
Have a block party with egg toss and balloon toss and capture the flag or flash light tag and carnival games like bean bag toss, choosing a duck, sack races, bottle toss
Catch bugs to keep in a jar and let them out the next morning before they die (lady bugs, caterpillars, lighting bugs)
Make a fort in the woods/Dig a hole
Make a tree swing
Put on a play (Three Little Pigs or Red Riding Hood)
Play cowboys and Indians (have the Indians win!)
Squirt gun war
Do fire crackers, sparklers and glow in the dark necklaces
Karaoke with air guitars
Watch for meteorites and talk about aliens. Find the big dipper, Orion, Milky Way.
Play hop scotch and draw on the sidewalk with colored chalk
Fall
Jump in a pile of leaves (more than a few times)
Dress up/trick or treat
Make a haunted house out of cardboard boxes with a display of spaghetti brains and grape eye balls (strobe light and fog if available)
Pretend you are a pirate
Go to high school football games & soccer games and cheer!
Have a cards night (go fish or crazy eights) or Pictionary/charades
Try to play hack e sack or with a paddle ball or punch ball
Eat some wild foods (Afghan, Island, exotic)
++++++++++
Any time of the year:
Play with Hot wheels, Legos, Barbie’s, Webkins, and Dress Up (both boys and girls)
Make a puppet stage out of cereal boxes and use finger puppets or puppets on straws to play out nursery rhymes like Jack and Jill or Little Bo Peep
Make toilet paper roll animals and puppets and play out fairy tales like Three Little Pigs
Make Styrofoam flowers out of pipe cleaners and egg cartons
Go bowling with liter soda pop bottles
Go out for ice cream or coffee (just dessert)
Build a rocket pack out of a box, paper towel tubes, suspenders, and aluminum foil-then fly
Fly one, two, or three kites at a time
Play touch tag on the slides of a play ground
Sing while you swing
Make a watercolor picture with tooth brush splatters or water guns
Buy some sparkly shoes (you could make them with glitter glue) or light up tennis shoes
Put those loopy loom ties on flip flops
Make adventure videos (Discovery Channel or History Channel in your back yard)-try camera tricks like disappearing, and point of view (holding a tree in your hand, scooting car on your bottom.
Wave at cars and tally how many folks wave back (drawing a chalk safety line near road and do NOT cross it or you lose major amounts of points)
Sing loud to Broadway show tunes
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Maybe make into a book/blog):
Note: I never really thought of myself as a mentor until a church meeting last Sunday when I sat by mothers of preschoolers and elementary kids. My children are far from perfect and I am not done mothering them, yet, but these simple ideas/activities bring back good memories and were fun learning experiences. 3/26/2013
Winter time:
Make Snow Angels and Snow Forts and Snow Men or other creations like Snow puppies (with leashes)
Make Snow Ice cream (see recipe).
Play with water colors, playdoh (homemade clay) keep recipe taped inside cupboard, and bubbles.
Try making giant bubbles with clothes hangers or try making a square bubble (TEE HEE).
Practice spelling words with shaving cream or finger-paints.
Drive around to look at Christmas Lights.
Be in a Christmas pageant
Be the cheerleaders at a super bowl party
Ice skate or snow sled/toboggan
Indoor picnic/beach bash with beach towels and popsicles (have a Luau)
Have hot chocolate and marshmallows and warm cookies
Make cookies and deliver them by Christmas Caroling
Have a few feasts and parties with candles :
(Jesus Birthday cake, Thanksgiving, New Years bang pots and pans).
Make handmade Valentines. Read conversation heart candies.
Decorate for St Pat’s Day and Easter.
Use cotton balls for snow on a water cycle poster
Make a terrarium with wild plants and moss (possible worm or ant farm)
Chart the weather or the moon for a few weeks
Spring Time
Play & Dance in the rain (not thunder storms due to lightening, just drizzles) and then take a warm bath.
Plant seeds and water even if they don’t grow much. Then, plant bigger leafy seedlings as back up.
Have a sand box with soft sand and cups to make sand castles.
Play in a creek and try to catch crawdads
Collect some pretty or interesting rocks with fossils or arrow heads (FLR funny looking rocks)
Hike and look at wild flowers and bird watch (put out bird seed)
Put peeps in the microwave
Do the Mentos and diet coke mix as well as the volcano with baking soda and vinegar
Watch tad poles grow
Try to draw a plant life cycle
Put money coins in bank rolls.
Run and dance with the window curtains down in the moon light with loud music.
Play with hamsters/gerbils in the bath tub with no water.
Make Helmets from big cereal boxes for space travel.
Have a fashion show runway down the drive way with divas and feather boas.
Celebrate a graduation (Kindergarten or High school)
April fools tricks (nothing mean)
Have an indoor circus or zoo with stuffed animals (be the tour director).
Have a last indoor snow storm with packing foam peanuts.
Color Easter eggs and then have a hunt (with plastic eggs only).
Put Peeps or marshmallows in the microwave
Summer
Make a lemon-aide stand or sell treats for a baseball tournament
Tie dye a t shirt
Make corn starch goop (science polymer)
Hang out at a water park/pool/beach/creek
Go to a fair and look at or do 4H projects (bunnies/chickens/cows/sheep/pigs)
Camp at least once a year (Emergency camping trip compete with cooking and fire)
Go to Fourth of July parade or start one (pet parade with decorated bikes)
Have a block party with egg toss and balloon toss and capture the flag or flash light tag and carnival games like bean bag toss, choosing a duck, sack races, bottle toss
Catch bugs to keep in a jar and let them out the next morning before they die (lady bugs, caterpillars, lighting bugs)
Make a fort in the woods/Dig a hole
Make a tree swing
Put on a play (Three Little Pigs or Red Riding Hood)
Play cowboys and Indians (have the Indians win!)
Squirt gun war
Do fire crackers, sparklers and glow in the dark necklaces
Karaoke with air guitars
Watch for meteorites and talk about aliens. Find the big dipper, Orion, Milky Way.
Play hop scotch and draw on the sidewalk with colored chalk
Fall
Jump in a pile of leaves (more than a few times)
Dress up/trick or treat
Make a haunted house out of cardboard boxes with a display of spaghetti brains and grape eye balls (strobe light and fog if available)
Pretend you are a pirate
Go to high school football games & soccer games and cheer!
Have a cards night (go fish or crazy eights) or Pictionary/charades
Try to play hack e sack or with a paddle ball or punch ball
Eat some wild foods (Afghan, Island, exotic)
++++++++++
Any time of the year:
Play with Hot wheels, Legos, Barbie’s, Webkins, and Dress Up (both boys and girls)
Make a puppet stage out of cereal boxes and use finger puppets or puppets on straws to play out nursery rhymes like Jack and Jill or Little Bo Peep
Make toilet paper roll animals and puppets and play out fairy tales like Three Little Pigs
Make Styrofoam flowers out of pipe cleaners and egg cartons
Go bowling with liter soda pop bottles
Go out for ice cream or coffee (just dessert)
Build a rocket pack out of a box, paper towel tubes, suspenders, and aluminum foil-then fly
Fly one, two, or three kites at a time
Play touch tag on the slides of a play ground
Sing while you swing
Make a watercolor picture with tooth brush splatters or water guns
Buy some sparkly shoes (you could make them with glitter glue) or light up tennis shoes
Put those loopy loom ties on flip flops
Make adventure videos (Discovery Channel or History Channel in your back yard)-try camera tricks like disappearing, and point of view (holding a tree in your hand, scooting car on your bottom.
Wave at cars and tally how many folks wave back (drawing a chalk safety line near road and do NOT cross it or you lose major amounts of points)
Sing loud to Broadway show tunes
+++++++++++++++++++++++