Creative Ideas for Parents and Educators #4

Children can become easily bored this time of year and lack proper exercise due to being confined indoors. There are many uses for blue painter's tape and creating fun indoor activities for your children can now be added to the list.

If you aren't familiar with the painter's tape, it looks just like blue masking tape and comes in a variety of widths and stickiness levels. It can stick to walls, floors and fabrics without leaving behind a residue. The tape costs about five dollars a roll at hardware stores and will last the entire winter and beyond if used in moderation.

One activity that will get your children's energy up is to use he tape to create an indoor track. First find an area in your home that provides enough space to allow the children to run around in an organized way. After finding an appropriate spot simply use the tape on the floor to create an enclosed track. The kids are then allowed to run in the house but only on the track. If they run outside of the track they will lose their privileges, however you will find this rarely happens. The kids become so excited to be running in the house that they listen and follow directions consistently.

For some variety you can try playing "freeze run" by stopping and starting music for the kids while they are running. Alternately you can have the kids try running the track in different ways such as skipping, hopping and jumping.

Creating an indoor track is especially beneficial for children with excess energy any time of year and can provide hours of exhausting fun.

Another fun activity is to use the tape to mark your child's long jump. Mark the floor with a piece of tape labeled "start". Have your child stand at the starting point and try to jump as far as he or she can then mark the jump with a piece of blue tape with the child's name and the date written on it. Your child can try to beat his or her record whenever they want and can even measure the distance and keep a log.

One other thing to do with blue painter's tape is to allow children to decorate with it. Provide the children with some of the tape and allow them to use it to make designs on the wall. Hey can create anything they want to then enjoy pulling the tape off the wall. Younger kids especially enjoy removing the tape.

Painter's tape can even be used to create a fort or hiding spot. Children use long pieces of tape as "beams" connecting table to floor then attach sheets of paper to the sticky side of the tape to make the walls. This activity can keep children occupied for a long time. Be sure to reuse or recycle the paper!

Once you introduce blue painter's tape o your children they will surely come up with a bunch of ideas on their own. If you think outside the box and use what you have laying around the house you can create nonstop fun these cold winter months!