Fun can be cheap ;)

Fun doesn't have to break the bank...
here are just 3 ideas we have started to experiment with and use in our house! More posts of more things are to come, of course...afterall, thats what LifeCreated is about ;)

Living in Arizona for the past 2 years, we have figured out a way to have fun at home/indoors when it is so hot outside, or when the budget is tight.

Maybe these 3 ideas can help you when you have an hour to kill or some kiddos to entertain.

1) Sensory box!--I put mine on the porch for us to play with outside...cool evenings or mornings are perfect for this...today alone, it kept Noel for about an hour!!

Find a tote of any size you wish and fill it with different textural items...let your toddler go crazy just exploring everything in the tub. My 2 year old, Noel, has a fascination with pouring, so she could sit and pour beans from one cup to another forever if I let her.
We just put this together today, so I have yet to fill the box up completely the way I like. Even with just a few things in the box, Noel spent quite a while pouring shaking the beans around.

Here are some things you can use:
Box (I used a flat rate shipping box I had laying around= FREE!)
Cups and scoops
 Funnels
 Pinto beans
 Lentils
 Rice (might be more messy)
Different shaped pasta
 Large wooden beads

I plan on hiding little things in the box for discovery also...little trinkets, etc.

Head over to the dollar store and see what you can find for your box!!

2) Painting with water...what couldnt be better on a warm, boredom-filled day.
Give your kids a cup of water and a paint brush and let them go at it, painting away at the ground.
This is a free project that not only gets them outside, but has no mess!!

Practice drawing shapes or letters...my two year old knows all of her letters, but we also practice the sounds of those letters...she knows almost all of those too!

Today, we practiced spelling out her name...

3) Tape on the ground

I couldnt figure out a good way to take a picture of my tape on the ground, but the name should be pretty self-explanatory without one...
all I did was take a roll of blue painters tape.. you could use any tape, but maksing and painters tape do come off of carpet really easily...and taped a long 10 foot line in the middle of my living room.

Noel really loves to practice walking on it with "airplane arms" during the week, so she is ready to go on the real balance beam in her gymanstics class.

Other games you can play with the line are jumping side to side from one end of the line to another, walking backwards on the line, doing forward rolls on the line, and "hopping like a bunny" down the line...Noel loves to do them all.
...this is what Hope did while were having all of the fun...

I hope you try these at your house, with your kids.