The Counselor Mom: Indoor Fun

I've realized that life in Texas with kids has consisted of A LOT of indoor playtime. From the ridiculously hot summers, not to mention the West Nile Virus scares this past summer, to the freezing cold winters, there's not a whole lot of days we can spend outdoors. Texas goes from days and days of 32 degree weather in the Winter, with maybe a week of 70 degrees in the Spring, and then 6 months of 100+ degrees in the Summer and even into the Fall.

So, with our crazy extreme weather, we are forced to find places that have indoor fun like Pump it Up jump houses, and indoor playgrounds. But for the most part, we are forced to stay at home and come up with things to entertain our active climbing Spidermans and running-around-the-house Dora the Explorers.

Besides investing in an almost full sized play kitchen, rocking horse, play slide and activity tables for my active toddler, I've found a few fun indoor activities that can entertain your active preschoolers that won't break the bank. Plus they are great at fostering their creativity:

1) My fave so far is the indoor hop scotch! Just grab some construction paper, put numbers on it, then tape a pattern onto your floor (kitchen tile is easiest). Here's a great example (credit:redtri.com)

2) Box fun! What better way to foster creativity than getting an old box and let them decorate it. Make a fort, a castle, a grocery cart, or even get smaller ones to decorate and build a large tower. Here's an awesome photo of one I found on Pinterest where you can make a indoor city and have your child inside of it with all of his cars and toys:

3) Make an Alphabet book. You can get old magazines and have your child find each letter of the alphabet and a picture that starts with that letter, or if they're older, they can take pictures of objects around the house and make their own home book. Then just punch holes in them and keep them together with Metal Book Rings.

4) I used to love to make Play Dough with the kids I would babysit, a super fun and quick recipe that kids will love to help make and then play with. And hopefully their attention span will last a little longer playing with this play dough vs. the store bought kind:

3 cups flour
1.5 cups salt
6 tsp. cream of tarter
3 tbsp. oil
3 cups water

Pour all ingredients into a large pot. Stir constantly over medium heat until a dough ball forms by pulling away from the sides. Knead dough until the texture matches play dough (1-2 minutes). Also add some food coloring to make different colors. Store in plastic container. Should last for at least 3 months.

5) There are also a few activity books with a ton of ideas in them at good prices. There's the Toddler's Busy Book for 9.99$ on Amazon:
The Toddler's Busy Book: 365 Creative Games and Activities to Keep Your 1 1/2- to 3-Year-Old Busy