Goal: Keep two 7-year-old boys happily entertained for 2.5 hours
Actual goal: Do as little of the entertaining as possible
Bonus: Have something to send home with the other little boy
Bonus: Play into Thanksgiving/autumn/Veterans theme
Available resources:
- bag of autumn-colors M&Ms
- empty cardboard egg carton
- empty paper towel tube
- the great outdoors
- common art supplies (crayons, paper, scissors)
- common kitchen supplies (sugar, flour, food coloring)
- about 20 minutes of parental motivation/energy
- coffee
Minutes until other little boy arrives: 13
Appealing ideas so far: Zero
Wait, one appealing idea: “Send boys outside to play; sit in kitchen with book, coffee, and bag of M&Ms.”
I fully support letting the kids have too much screen time.
Google “veterans day printable coloring pages”. Find some you think the boys would like, print them off, and enjoy the 10 minutes they will spend coloring. The reward for finishing is a small bowl of M&Ms. The rest of the M&Ms are for the coloring supervisor.
Make some autumn M&M cookies for yourself while the kids are crafting and only promise tp share afyer they clean up.
Let the kids pick a craft from
https://www.google.com/search?q=thanksgiving+egg+carton+crafts&safe=images&client=ms-android-att-us&hl=en-US&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=-mJiVIC1M4ProATu74LQBA&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAg&biw=360&bih=615#safe=images&hl=en-US&tbm=isch&q=boy+egg+carton+crafts
Let them play outside for an hour or so. Once they’ve burned up a satisfactory amount of energy, put out some craft supplies and let them go to town. (Less parental involvement than there would be with a structured project.) Then tell them they have to help you clean up the mess or they won’t get any M&Ms. (It’s a win-win situation! Either less mess for you to clean up or more M&Ms for you to eat.)
Or just turn on a movie and have them watch it while you make cookies. You can even send a few home with the other boy and…neglect to tell the parents he didn’t help make them.
Print up one of those outdoors scavenger hunt lists and send them outside. Offer M & M’s for each number of things collected. If they finish early – cut the egg carton in half and give them both one half each. Have them create a fall vignette by gluing all the crap to the egg carton side.
Corn starch + water = physics experiment. You can even let them make this mess in the bathtub.
http://littleshop.physics.colostate.edu/Try%20At%20Home/goorecipeone.htm
Send them outside and give them 45 min to an hour to hunt for as many different kinds/colors of leaves as they can find. Have them do leaf rubbings and collages when they come back inside. Bake M&M cookies while they’re crafting.
It’s a little late in the day for my idea; so feel free to save it for next time. Send them out to the great outdoors and relax. Believe me, they would much rather be outside playing than be stuck inside working on crafts. Or at least, that’s the way it worked with mine.
Too late for input, but what did you end up doing?
It’s been a long time since I organized any kind of activity for a playdate. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad one.