Keeping the Kiddos Busy

Don't throw away toilet paper rolls! Like tin cans and glass jars , toilet paper rolls can keep children busy for hours.  So many things can be done with them.  You can fill them up with candies or other treats and then wrap them as party favors or small gifts. If you have pets like rabbits, hamsters, or guinea pigs, you can use toilet paper rolls to make toys for them to keep them stimulated. With other art materials and a bit of imagination, you can transform toilet paper rolls into cars, animals, and other objects.  If you have several of them, you can make a model city. You can decorate them into fancy napkin holders. Etc., etc. Some more ideas of things you can do with toilet paper rolls can be found here , here , and here .  You will find many more if you search online. As with the other activities in this blog, the only limits are safety and your imagination!

In this blog, I previously featured learning sign language as a possible lockdown activity for kids and even adults. On May 23, the De La Salle College of St. Benilde (DLS-CSB) announced that starting Saturday, May 30, 2020, it will be offering free sign language lessons via Facebook Live. The first session will be from 4:00-4:30. The lessons are free, but participants are encouraged to donate to DLS-CSB's #SignForSigns fundraising campaign for the benefit of  deaf students who are stranded in dormitories, indigent deaf scholars who need to return to their provinces after the extended lockdown is lifted, and faculty who are on a “no work, no pay” scheme. (Source: ABS-CBN News )  A minimum donation of P350 will give you access to an online Filipino Sign Language learning kit. Sign language is a skill that will enable you to be part of the silent but wonderful worlds of deaf people. This lockdown has taught us the value of making connections with others, and learning sign

A list poem is just that: a poem that consists of a list of things about a given subject. A list poem does not have to have regular rhythm and rhyme, but it can.  Writing one is easy: choose a topic, write a list of things related to the topic, then fix the the wording until it sounds just right as a poem. You can add introductory and concluding lines if you want, as well as refrains. One popular example of a list poem is the song My Favorite Things  from Sound of Music . Here are other examples , just to illustrate how easy it is to write good list poems. Indeed, who would have thought that a list could be poetic? But it can! Now, it's your turn to try writing list poems.

Papier mache is easy to make.  All you need are old newspapers, water, and flour or glue.  And you can make a lot of things with it:  masks, vases, bowls, animal models, jewelry, etc.  When it is dry, you can paint and varnish it. Here are some instructions on how to make papier mache, and here are a lot of projects you can do with it.  Children may need help with big projects such as those that involve chicken wire frames, but there are many small projects that are easy enough for children to do. After you have some experience doing some of the projects in those websites, you can experiment with some of your own.

If you have a garden or a backyard or even just a few indoor plants, you and your children can gather a few leaves.  There are so many activities you can do with them. Just from among the activities that were featured in this blog, you can make leaf rubbings , leaf prints , or negative leaf prints using the splatter painting technique . Then, you can also press them and make projects with them. Just insert them between the pages of an old telephone directory, put some heavy books or other heavy items on top of the directory for weight, and leave the leaves alone for a few days.  When they are already dry, you can use them to decorate cards, book marks, or other items.  Or you can simply make pretty pictures with them. Another thing you can do with pressed leaves is to make an herbarium. "Herbarium" is just a fancy name for a leaf scrap book.  Just mount  the leaves on one sheet of paper each and write descriptions of each plant, and then bind the sheets.  You can al

(Photo credit:  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Head_silhouette.svg) Silhouette art looks simple but dramatic.  And you can easily make silhouette profiles of your friends and family members.   You will first need a sheet of paper that is big enough to accommodate the side-view shadow of your subject: manila paper, construction paper, the backside of old gift wrappers, etc.  Tape the paper on a wall, light a lamp or a flashlight, and have your subject sit between the paper and the lamp or flashlight.  Station the subject so that the light casts the shadow of his or her profile on the paper.  While your subject sits, trace the outline of her shadow with a pen or crayon. Cut out the profile.  You can either trace it on a white sheet of paper and then color it a dark color, or trace it on good-quality, dark-colored paper, cut that out, and mount it on a sheet of white paper.  You can add any decorations you want (like borders), then frame or hang your work.   Yo