To my mind, there are two great ways to spend rainy days with kids: tucked away indoors with an excess of books and quilts, or navigating the drippy wilderness looking for foul-weather creatures. My family’s wilderness happens to be an urban landscape, but if one looks closely, there’s still a wealth of wildlife to be found. Specifically, a wealth of snails.
Call me a tomboy. Call me a geek. Call me Ishmael, I don’t care. Just don’t call me squeamish. I took my five-year-old and my iPhone on an epic snail hunt this weekend, and I do mean epic; I made over fifty short videos of the snails and other creepy creatures we encountered during our walk! After some judicious editing, I was able to piece the best clips together into a brief video montage of our sticking, slipping, skittering finds.
The following video includes a few facts about snails, instructions for a simple snail terrarium, and some very exciting close-up footage of a snail eating and sliming its way up the glass – you can see the muscles in its foot rippling as it goes!
I am not exaggerating one single bit when I tell you that masking tape saved my sanity as a parent. As we continue Cabin Fever Week here at GeekMom, take a tip from me: get tape. For some reason, my kids thought it was a great treat to have unlimited access to tape. Regular old masking tape will work fine, but for extra excitement, consider colored masking tape or patterned Japanese masking tape. Truly, your kids will think you rock. Now, got tape? Get busy:
Gather a collection of recycled items like egg cartons, small boxes, cardboard tubes, and tissue boxes, then let your kids go to town building sculptures. Use the tape to hold together the recycled items and to decorate the creations. If your kids haven’t been exposed to open-ended art projects like this, you might have to offer some ideas – Rockets! Robots! Cars! Flowers! – but remind them that anything goes.
Show the kids how to cut colored tape into squares and use them to make a mess-free mosaic.
Let them use the tape to draw a “picture” directly onto the glass slider or refrigerator. It’s masking tape. It will come off.
Just don’t leave it there for a long period of time or in the hot sun (though if there is hot sun to worry about, you’re probably not suffering through much cabin fever).
Dust off their bikes and let them get it ready for Spring! Alternatively, let them cover binders, worn-out toys, or even an old pair of shoes. The novelty of altering these objects will thrill them and gain you at least an hour’s worth of whine-free time.
Pull out some cardboard, bubble wrap, and yarn and let the kids use tape to create a costume. Of course, once the kids have a costume, they’ll want to put on a play, extending your whine-free time indefinitely (score!).
Use tape to create a roadway for Matchbox cars or other vehicles. This can traverse the entire house, over carpet, tile, or linoleum.
Have your child create an abstract design out of tape on the back of a cookie sheet. When it’s complete, pull out a piece of plain paper and some crayons and let her take a rubbing of the design.
Make stickers. Stick tape to waxed paper in a solid pattern and then trace cookie cutter shapes onto the tape and cut out. Carefully peel the tape shape off of the waxed paper and use it as you would a sticker.
Cover recycled candy tins with tape and glue on decorations like buttons, gems, and ribbon to make tiny treasure boxes.
Turn the tape into bracelets or headbands by putting two lengths of tape together, sticky sides facing. Decorate one side with more tape and then punch holes in each end. Overlap the holes and secure with a brad to complete the loop.
My kids are beyond the age of playing with toy cars, but wow. If I had had some of this roadway tape when they were little, it would have kept them busy for days. Simply unroll the tape, stick it to your floor, and viola! You’re all set to race. It’s available in the USA through Sleek Identity ($18 includes play car).