How to Entertain Yourself and Your Kids During a Yard Sale!

Are you the Yard Sale Queen of the World? Always find 100 things to sell and more and could write a book on yard sales, then you already know one truth. It is the good old hurry-up-and-wait game. There are times you can be forced to sit for hours, twitteling your thumbs while waiting for your browsers to show up. You don't want to walk away and appear rude should someone wander in on your display, but neither can you keep your eyes open while staring at the blade of grass sway peacefully in the wind for another moment. Sounds familiar? If that is the case for you, you also know the impatience your kids feel as they run in and out and demand your attention. Don't despair, here are a few fun to do Ideas while keeping watch at your very own yard sale and keep your kids entertained at the same time.

Create some fun little craft items you can sale to kids!
Kids are always looking at yard sales for little things they can buy and if you have the talent and patience, not to mention nothing better to do, why not pull out some beads and string and create some fun and cheap necklaces and bracelets for the girls. If you are thrifty and look in the right places you can get big buckets of beads for under $10.00. String isn't very expensive either and you can indulge in your creative vein while creating something sellable. Have a little basket sitting ready to toss the bracelets in. You can sell one bracelet for 25 cents or a necklace for 50 cents. You will break even, maybe even make a small profit and have successfully kept your hands busy. This is a very simple project and even kids as young as 5 Years old can easily get it done.
Didn't sell them due to lack of customers? No worries, you have hands on Trick or Treat items or fun little Christmas Stocking Stuffers for the little ones.

You can also make little Goggle Eye Stones for the boys. Just find some pretty colored stones, preferably flat in your Yard around the Area and purchase different sized google eyes and glue at the local craft store. Wash and dry the stones and then add little google eyes to the various stones. If you want to go all the way out, you can draw little mouth or faces on them or add a little tuff of hair made our of unraveled wool. Fun, easy and it will keep you busy. Just like with the Bracelets and Necklaces for the girls you can always sell them super cheap or give them away later.

Make "Magazine Ad" special occasion Cards!
All you need is some glue, scissors, cardstock, old magazines, some glitter, colored pens and some imagination. Form a seating circle with your kids on a blanket or big pillows on the ground and to go to town. If you are like me you have stacks of old magazines, catalogs and more around the house. Why not make something cute out of the colorful images in those. Find what you like and then cut them out. You can use as much of the picture as you want and then just glue it to the cardstock. Make sure you have the cardstock folded and cut to the desired size. Either do the cutting yourself or let the older kids do the cutting out. Everybody gets to help pick out the photos!

Add some fun glitter and writing or sketches and voila you have a brand new, one of a kind special occasion card nobody can purchase anywhere else. Keep them for yourself or sell them to your customers.

Crochet some pot holders!
If you know how to crochet it shouldn't take you very long to do so. If you don't know, this is the perfect time to learn. Grab yourself a book, some wool and a needle and off you go. This is a great time to help your little girls or boys to learn this craft as well. You can give them something creative and fun to do and perhaps you could hint that you would just love one for Christmas. By the time you are done with the sale you may just have a perfect little Pot Holder for your kitchen.

Make a plague for your Home!
If you are artistically inclined and know how to draw, paint or sketch, why not get some precut wooden plagues and either draw some pretty designs or wood burn it in. This a better suited a bit older kids, but I have had my kids wood burning with me sitting close by and monitoring from age 8 on up. If you have a boy and a girl you can handle it the way I did. I made it a family project. We decided what went on the plague. I drew the outlines, my daughter painted it in with quick drying paint and my son burned the outlines into the wood. This is a unique and fun craft to do and makes great decorations as well as gifts for those you love.

Gather the neighbor hood kids and play Mother Goose!
If you are the sociable type and have a lot of stories to tell, why not invite the little ones from the neighborhood and play Mother Goose. You can sit in a comfortable chair while telling the little ones with their big eyes about made up characters. Your kids can help you act out the Stories or you can challenge them to create little stories of their own. Kids love to be in the center of attention, you may just start a little theater group and just find the Parents grateful enough to buy something as well.

Practice your Photography!
Break out your Camera and look at the world through an Artistic Eye. Why not see what you can find. You will be surprised what the world can look like through the camera lens when you are not in a hurry! Get a cheap digital camera and teach your kids how to take photos or encourage them to surprise you with their silliest costumes, faces etc. You take the photo and later Grandma and Grandpa or Daddy get to vote who won. That person gets to choose Dinner and a movie!

Or you can always take the trusty option of getting out a book and take turns reading stories to each other.