Kids Activity Jar

There are bigger problems in the world, I know, but one of my Mom challenges right now is stir-craziness that leads to tv watching. Luke's not much of an independent player and there are times that I think I am actually losing my mind playing with the same toddler toys over and over again. I have told friends that Luke's Christmas presents were sort of presents to myself because they would be providing some variety to my daily experience. I'm trying to roll out simple solutions to battle the boredom and to cut back on our tv watching. If you don't have kids, today's idea may still be of interest, so stick with me (pun intended -- you'll see).

The Activity Jar 

This is #20 from my 21 for 2021 list and it's as basic as it gets, but it’s working. Get yourself a jar (we’re using a finished applesauce jar [plastic for when Luke runs away with the jar]), a pen, and some jumbo craft sticks. Write down a simple activity you can do with your kid(s) or they can do on their own on each stick. And voila, you have an Activity Jar. We are going to focus on kids’ activities here, but you could apply this to:

• Grown up activities
• Cleaning or organizational activities to tackle
• Shows to watch
• Restaurants to order from
• People to call or write a note to
• Prompts to journal about

The key for our kids’ activity jar is simple, like no to minimal setup required for the activity! How this helps:

• Is one response to when your kid is screaming to “watch a show” — suggest, “let’s pick a stick"
• Redirects attention to toys that you haven’t been playing with
• Reminds you to integrate some educational fun into your days
• Can be a fun item to have on the counter or shelf if you take some time to decorate the jar or pick a fun container
• Allows you to display a list of what you did that day with your kids*

This last one is really important to me. There are days when I feel like we’ve completed absolutely nothing and that the day was a parenting wash. It’s great to be able to look back at what things we did and to be able to ask Luke which sticks he remembers completing. So, we got a pocket chart from the Dollar Tree to display our completed sticks on a bulletin board. 

​We’ve been at this for a few weeks and we generally only do one or two sticks each weekday as transitional activities. We were even able to use a stick when we were leaving Luke with a babysitter, my Dad <3, to avoid the normal departure meltdown. I keep a running list of sticks I’ve made in my phone so I don’t accidentally make duplicates and so that I can jot down ideas as they come to mind. Here’s what we’ve got:

• Find 3 sheep anywhere in the house
• Do 100 jumps on the trampoline
• Do 10 jumping jacks
• Read a Curious George story
• Write a letter with a picture to a friend
• Play grocery store
• Make paper airplanes
• Dance to New Light by John Mayer
• Play doctor check up
• Paint with watercolors
• Build a dog house with magnetic tiles
• Build a castle with magnetic tiles
• Read a story with a silly , really fast voice
• Make silly faces in the mirror
• Find 3 cows anywhere in the house
• Draw a picture of a train
• Draw a picture of something that starts with L
• Look at a photo album
• Do a numbers puzzle
• Do a letters puzzle

Some of these are really specific to our family, but others I’m sure you could adopt right away. Again, I will mention, NO to MINIMAL setup — don’t make this hard for yourself or the babysitter. We will be looking forward to adding activities for warmer weather and for things that the kids can do together as JJ gets more mobile too. Happy activity-ing!