OS things to do with children. CHEAP

FunkyFairy

What about Glup.

Mix cornflour and water together you can add food colouring to if you wish.

The children will have hours of fun. Is it a solid or is it liquid.

toozie_2

Persuade the kids to eat lots of fruit. Save the seeds/pips, and plant them, labeling the pots of compost, just watch them grow, with the kids watering.

We had a 2 foot grapefruit plant....until it caught greenfly!
The apple, orange and lemon seeds did quite well, but not the melons!

astep70uk

My son (3 and a half) likes to put pieces of newspaper around the living room, pretending they're stepping stones. The carpet is shark or crocodile infested water, and the rug (beige colour) is sand, which is 'safe'. The coffee table is his pirate ship, where he sits with his telescope (empty kitchen roll tube) and looks out for islands, then he shouts 'land ahoy!'

Another 'game' he likes to play is waterfalls. He gets one of my kitchen rolls and rolls it down the stairs to resemble a waterfall. He then gets his 3 plastic fish from the bath and plays with them in his pretend waterfall.
He has a great imagination and it doesn't cost a penny!!

Rebob

Collect forms etc from the post office and play post office, filling in forms etc, kitchen scales to weigh the parcels.

Take them to a museum as most now have free entry.

Visit the library.

Have a picnic, can be at home on the lounge carpet if the weather is cold.

Mrsbojangles_2

Awww wicked thread!

We play "Cafe" first we bake some cakes and make some sarnies, then we take it in turns to be the customer, cafe worker etc, we use real money, so it gets the kids thinking and learning about how much change to give etc, they can also get creative with the sarnies!

Go to the park and feed the ducks.

Make videos, if you have a vid cam and your kids are a bit older mine are 10 & 6 we let them make their own documentaries, or they do their own news programme, hours of fun for them and some lovely memories for us to keep.

Sock matching competition, this helps with the chores too and if you give a little prize its amazing how involved the kids want to get! Who ever matches up the most socks in a given time wins!

Skintmama

For those who like to wield the scissors and the glue!

Cut out lots of little pictures from magazines, catalogues or flower/seed brochures.
Use PVA to stick onto an empty cocoa tub. The kind that is like foil lined cardboard.
When all is stuck down and smooth and dry, dilute PVA and paint it all over. Dries clear and seals the lot.
You can cut a slot in the lid to make a money box, leave the lid as is or just use lidless as a pencil pot. Makes great pressies. I have one still in perfect order made 10years ago.
Lends itself to themed pictures to suit the recipient.

Pink.

I have three children.....15, 12 and 5, and the thing they all really enjoy most is cooking and baking.

If you can manage it, let your children join you in the kitchen....that's when we talk and laugh most and I feel that they are learning life skills too.

Pink

Sarahsaver

these are OS things I do with my kids:
WALK to town to go to the market with the 'granny bag' (shopping trolley)
cooking
looking after the hens (they inexplicably love to scrape chicken poo and make compost)
gardening
sweeping
play dough
dressing up (usually involves my sons becoming little girls;)
walks in the rain with wellies on where they HAVE to splash in puddles
Mud walks - yes the same as the rain but with added MUD
shut the front room curtains turn the light off, watch a dvd and pretend we are at the cinema
sorting things for the charity shop
doing puzzles
playing board games (many of which are saved from my childhood or from the charity shop)
looking at mail order catalogues not necessarily buying anything
youngest son (4) has already developed an OS attitude to pop music on telly. He saw the !!!!!cat dolls on tv yesterday 'don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me...' and he piped up 'but they're not hot mummy' ROTFLMAO

toozie_2

Collecting shells, drift wood and unusual pebbles from the beach for the 'seaside' corner of our garden.

Aries

My Grandson would spend hours playing inside a large cardboard box with windows cut out,and door.
My cushions found their way inside and some plastic cups.
He had hours of fun and it cost nothing.