If you want something simple that kids love and keeps them entertained for a nice long time do a mural painting. I was honestly shocked at how much kids loved this activity. Part of the great thing about being on the Board of Directors for the Des Moines Children's Museum is that I can bring my ideas to life on a larger scale, for more people/kids to enjoy. On this particular Friday, daycare closed early so that I could run one of our events, a Family Pajama Dance Party. Of course, I did a run through of the party's activities with daycare beforehand.
Everyone wore their jammies, we painted (I skipped the shaving cream paint for daycare since I wasn't confident it wouldn't get eaten), had a "hot" chocolate party, danced to Disney music, and did a snowman craft. Yes, Friday was exhausting as I went from daycare to the Museum and worked 14 hours straight. Yes, it's likely the reason I ended up sick later on in the weekend. But it was still a great day all around!
The kids took this painting very seriously. I don't know if it was because the paper was up on the wall when they're used to painting with the paper being flat on a table, but they really loved painting this way.
The "hot" chocolate party included chocolate almond milk (cold because nearly every child I've ever met doesn't actually drink their hot chocolate hot, they wait until it's cooled off), graham crackers, and marshmallows to put into the "hot" chocolate. Most of the kids just ate their marshmallows and didn't put them into their hot chocolate. It's always a highlight when the kids get to use "the breakable little cups" (also known as our espresso cups).
Foam snowmen shapes, glue, and beads with the instructions being "first, don't eat the beads. Second, glue them onto the snowman to make your snowman."
Being the littest at daycare has its benefits. Such as doing your own painting while others rest.
We had such a busy morning that everyone crashed for naps.
I had to find time to be mom too in between daycaring and Museum-ing. I was thrilled when the youngest brought home her science project. She fought hard for it too...beating out her two other science group members for keeping rights.
At the Museum, our Family Pajama Dance Party included dancing with bubbles, an experiment (that I didn't do at daycare, we chose to do the craft instead), "hot" chocolate bar, and a shaving cream glue paint mural. The mural was a favorite, with many kids spending the entire three hours of the event painting.
