Colored pencils for glorious drawings
Remember when you were young -- single-digit ages -- and woke up early in the morning, before your parents? If your parents were like mine, they valued their sleep, and they asked you to find quiet ways to occupy yourselves before waking them. Our activity of choice was "art lessons," in which a 5-year-old me taught my then 2-year-old brother draw. Or scribble. Activities like these, which require minimal equipment and can entertain young children for long periods, are valuable. If parents can teach their kids ahead of time keep busy in their bedrooms, parents may find themselves actually enjoying some peace and quiet at home. So, parents, teach these games to your kids!
Instructions
Build a fort in your bedroom
1. Clear off a space on the floor, large enough for you (and any other guests in your fort) to sit on.
2. Put a comfy blanket or towel on that now-clear space. This will be the floor of .
3. Use three couch cushions to form three walls in the shape of a U. If you don't have pieces of furniture to lean the cushions against, place blocks or a stack of books behind the cushions to support them.
4. Drape a blanket over the tops of the three cushions: this is the "roof" of your fort.
5. Support your structure: Place heavy objects (books, or anything else) at the corners of the fort to keep the cushions from falling.
6. Bring more cushions or pillows inside to sit on if there's room. Invite your dolls or stuffed animals. You can also drape a second blanket over the front of the fort, to add to the sense of privacy and intrigue. If you do that, make sure to bring a flashlight inside with you.
For the more artistically inclined bedroom dwellers
7. Make artwork to decorate your bedroom walls. You can draw with markers, crayons or colored pencils, and then hang your creation on the wall. Maybe you want to depict the landscape you wish you could see from your window. Maybe pure abstract is more your style. Maybe you want to write your name in brilliantly bright and huge letters. Be careful not to actually draw ON the walls, and have fun.
8. Make drawing a game if you have a friend (or sibling) with you. Each of you draws an animal or human face or head on the top third of a piece of paper. Fold the paper over so that the head no longer shows, but a hint of the neck peeks out from underneath the fold. Pass the paper to your companion (this works with more than two people also). Your companion then draws a torso--of whomever or whatever the imagination desires--on the middle third of the paper, and then again folds over the paper so that only a hint of the torso is showing. The paper gets passed again, and another person draws legs and feet. Unfold the papers and meet the crazy creatures you've concocted.
9. Make paper dolls. Draw people of whatever size you want, and then cut them out. Draw on cardboard or heavier paper if you have it. Next, on more lightweight paper, draw clothing that would "fit" these people; also draw inch-long rectangles at the edge of the clothing, in at least four spots. Cut out the clothing, including the rectangles. These rectangles are tabs that you'll fold to keep the clothing on your dolls.
Dance Party
10. Prepare to release energy. This is only a good idea if you're not trying to stay quiet for any reason.
11. Sing, or play music, and just move your body in whatever way feels right. Repeat the same moves over and over to perfect them, or just let loose and jump around.
12. Jump on your bed--the best dance move of all. But do so at your own risk.
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