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Encouraging Heroes. You can be one too.

Do you have a lazy weekend with the kids planned? With summer fast approaching there will be plenty of days of the kids complaining, “Mom, I’m bored!” and “There’s nothing to do!” With ample time on their hands, children often run the household, whether parents want to believe it or not. Ed Young should know, he has four children himself and is a pastor full-time. “The kids slowly become the center of the family universe…the children become Kid CEOs and the parents become the supporting staff,” author Young said on edyoung.com.

But with these fun activities you can get the control back. All these projects are easy on the budget and offer hour after hour of endless fun.

Rainbow Bubble Snakes

This project takes the fun of bubbles up a level. All you need is an empty water bottle, duct tape, a sock, dish soap and food coloring.

Directions: Cut the bottom of the water bottle off. Slide the sock over the bottom of the bottle and use duct tape to secure the sock to the bottle. If you don’t have duct tape, rubber bands work as well. Pour the dish soap into a shallow container with a small amount of water and mix. Dip the sock covered bubble blower into the solution. Drop some food coloring onto the sock and gently blow.

Personalized Magnets

Have you run out of magnets to display your child’s fantastic pieces of art? With this activity, you can make dozens of glass magnets for under $5 dollars!

Directions: For this project you will need scrapbook paper, scissors, a pen, glass marbles, a hot glue gun, small magnets and some Mod Podge. Your local craft store will have a variety of scrapbook paper for you to chose from, as well as the Mod Podge. But don’t spend $5-$10 on the marbles; you can get a whole bag from the dollar store.

Trace your marble onto your scrapbook paper and cut out the shape just inside the lines. use the Mod Podge to adhere the paper (right side down) onto the marble. Allow to dry, then hot glue small magnets to the back.

T-Shirt Scarf

Dig through your Goodwill donation bag for a shirt that doesn’t fit you anymore. Why? Because an old t-shirt makes the perfect infinity scarf.

Directions: Take your t-shirt and lay it flat. Use a pair of scissors and cut one-inch strips along the bottom of the shirt. Next, cut the shirt where the sleeves end as you will not be needing the top half of the shirt. Once you have your piece of material, pull on the strips, slightly elongating them. Repeat this until you have stretched every strip.

Thread Obstacle Course

This is a guaranteed hit with your kids (and you)! Simply thread some string or yarn down a hallway to make dozens of diagonal, vertical and horizontal lines. Then have the kids play super spy while they crawl, climb and walk through the maze without touching the string. If they do, it’s back to the beginning!

Lesley Morrow
Lesley is a stay-at-home mom, activist and theatre director. She loves being busy and writing about all her adventures.

Earnest Parenting: help for parents who want to keep kids occupied.

Image courtesy of Greencolander via Creative Commons license, some rights reserved.