Fall Break Fun

Fall Break is coming our way this week. I am so looking forward to sleeping in....

Here's some fun ideas to keep you busy during your Fall Break, or day off, or vacation, whatever.

For little ones
http://www.storylineonline.net/
This website is so cool. It's presented by the Screen Actors Guild and has several celebs reading favorite children's books.

Barnes and Noble has an online story time too. Visit http://www.bn.com/
Don't forget Library visits for a more hands on experience.

Halloween Lantern
* One mason jar, with lid and band
* One glow stick
Break the stick and pour the liquid in the jar. Put on the lid and shake for about 1 minute. You will have a glowing lantern to spook up your porch.

Spider Hunt
Write the letters on the alphabet on cut out spiders, or orange plastic ring spiders. Hide them and let the kids search. When all the pieces are found let the critters find all the words they can spell with the letters they've found. Fun way to work on spelling and phonics, or just get some energy out.

Spooky Oreo Bats
Place a sucker stick in the bottom of an Oreo. Dip into melted chocolate and secure bat wings (either cut out of licorice or paper). Let dry and enjoy. Here's an example from Our Best Bites.



For Older Kids
Check out http://www.extension.usu.edu/
This is Utah State University's website and there's tons of stuff to learn about. There's a searchable index if you know what you want to learn about. Great resource for parents and kids.

"Bored" (yes, I know board) games are always fun. You can also make up your own rules to a board game you already own. We do this a lot, in part because I get bored playing the same way and having to explain "why" to little folks. Clue would be super fun this time of year.

Fly's Up
This is the old school football game of toss and catch. My kids LOVE this game. Instead of just plain old toss the football and everyone tries to catch it, we mix it up. If you catch the ball you get points--say 100 per catch. The first one to 500 gets to be the tosser. That's pretty basic. However you can take it one step further and do the last one to 500 has to do something as a penalty--run around the block screaming something funny, or jog in a circle for 30 seconds. You can make this into Truth or Dare or Minute to Win It, depending on the age/abilities of the kids. Be creative.

Dress Up movie day. Have each person dress up as their favorite character in a movie, and watch the show together. I love the Neil Simon movie "Murder By Death." It would probably go over kids' heads with the witty humor, but teens may get it, and any adult worth his weight would definitely appreciate the sarcasm.

Upside down Dinner
Let everyone pick one ingredient and figure out what to make for dinner using those ingredients. There can be lots of lead way in this. For example, mom can choose chicken and the kids can pick items to go in a chicken soup, casserole or side dish. Use http://www.allrecipes.com/ or http://www.kraftrecipes.com/ for ideas. You can type in what you have and the search will return recipe ideas.