“Whiny Wednesdays” is a weekly series that focuses on giving caregivers fun ideas to do locally. The result being that Whiny Days are no more! We are always looking for guest posters for this series, please email us if you’re interested. talk@newburyport-today.com.
I needed to find a kid~friendly activity that would suit little ones and big ones. Not the easiest of tasks. When summer is here, I’m juggling kids of all ages in the backyard. My mother would bring out peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a pitcher of lemonade to the picnic table to make all of us happy and then say; “Now you kids go play!”. We would take off and wouldn’t be seen or heard from again until dinnertime. For some reason, that doesn’t work so well for me.
As the end of summer approaches, the “I’m bored!”statement comes from my older son, while “Play with me Mommy!” from my girls. It’s not always easy to entertain the both spectrums of my kids — my eight year old and my three year olds. Even though my son is willing to join in the toddler playgroup that we often have going on here, he is not eager to make it a ritual.
Luckily, the ages of neighborhood kids range between 3 to 10 so there is often something fun going on somewhere in the ‘hood’ for everyone. I’ve decided to raise the bar for myself and I’m determined to spread the joy for all of us and find a way to have FUN together! Hmmm… what can we all do and have fun? Tye Dye! Hmmm … even better? Tye Dye made easy! With some spray bottles from the dollar store and boxes of Rit dye, I created six bottles of colors. A box of rubber bands, a tub of various size marbles, (even superballs work), some contact paper for the brave, and voila — I have elaborate fun staring me in the face.
Everyone is going to tye dye a shirt. … Or pillowcases, or socks, or even their underwear. It is a perfect activity for every age and every skill level. I invited the neighborhood crew over to the backyard and had the older kids begin twisting, rubber banding, and adding marbles to their pre-dyed shirts. For the little kids, I had them just lay their shirt on a plastic tray and let them randomly spray the dye at their garment. By the time they were done, (believe me, they did not loose interest at all), the older kids were ready to dye their shirts. A picnic table with snacks and drinks, the driveway full of sidewalk chalk, balls and riding toys kept the little kids entertained while the big kids jumped in to make their creation come alive.
Everyone was content! Even the parents! All of the shirts hung off the tree to dry and you could see how amazed each of the kids were. I did it! I pulled it off! Everyone had fun. No arguing, no whining, no complaining. Just good old fashion fun. Minimal mess to boot! I wiped down the trays, stored the bottles and supplies away and voila — I have happy kids staring me in the face.
