Mum in the making: Friday Five: Activities for the little ones during the haze

Hello! We've been having really bad air the past few days over here in Singapore, and we've been keeping the boys indoors just to be on the safe side. I've not found enough energy to think up of new activities to keep the boys occupied, so we've just been reading lots and lots of books (and Junior J has been working off some of his energy by pretending he is a flying dinosaur, and taking flying leaps off the bed while wearing a blanket). However, here's sharing some activities that we've done, that might be handy in keeping little hands busy while they are coped up at home:

:: Read "The Enormous Crocodile" by Roald Dahl together. Then make the characters in the book using recycled materials! (Click on the links for making the crocodile, Roly Poly bird and Trunky the elephant.)

:: Construct a town in 5 minutes: Roll out a piece of mahjong paper, draw a couple of roads on it and let the kids add their own houses and other landmarks!

:: Take out the Bible (or volume of Bible stories) and re-enact the story of Jonah. And while you're at it, try making a whale shark out of paper plates...

... or get your child to gather all the toy animals in the house, and act out the story of Noah, and end it off with a little bit of artwork.

:: Write a letter or note to a friend, and decorate the envelopes using homemade foam stamps. Perhaps they could be posted during a grocery run, and would probably be a welcome surprise!

:: Do a dinosaur dig at home. Try printing and cutting up pictures of dinosaur skeletons and burying them in sand for the kids to excavate. Then they can also learn how difficult it is trying to sort out and piece together the different skeletons!

On hot days, you could try freezing some toy dinosaurs in a clean milk carton filled with water, and let the kids have a go at digging the dinos out with all sorts of tools!