We are having some very special visitors soon, and I've been preparing for their arrival for quite some time now. Two of my brother and sister-in-law's children will be staying with us for a whole week on "vacation." We don't have children of our own, so it's always exciting to have them stay with us. It gives us an excuse to go the library and the park, swim, bake cookies, and watch kid movies.
My nephew visited a couple of months ago, and unfortunately, he got extremely bored while he was here. It rained almost all week, and he is not a stay-inside-for-five-whole-days type of kid.
Needless to say, I'm determined to make this trip more enjoyable. I've been preparing welcome buckets for them and coming up with free and cheap activities we can do.
I've also been searching all over Pinterest for some ideas on keeping them entertained. I came across this idea for bedtime passes, and it got me thinking. The idea is that you can give your child a bedtime pass, and he/she may get up to go potty, eat a snack, get a hug, etc. as long as he/she has a pass. No more passes, no more getting out of bed without consequences (ex. take away one pass from the next night). I thought it was a great idea! Little Mister (age 5) usually does a good job of staying in bed (although his excuses lately have been highly unbelievable... "I smell monster..." "I can't lay down because my back won't move..." etc.), but Little Miss (2) is a frequent offender of getting out of bed. Since my nephew is older, he will just get one pass. My niece will get two. I'm eager to try them out!
I wanted to have some "fun" passes, too, so I made some for trips to the library, a movie, an ice cream cone, and a bedtime snack. They will get two library passes each and just one of the rest. I'm hoping this will help with the boredom. It'll also give them something to look forward to.
If you're interested in trying out your own passes, here is a set I created just for you! The images are all public domain and were copied from openclipart.org. They have a great collection of clip art, and I'd suggest searching their site for images if there are more activies you'd like to create passes for. I kept mine very simple as my nephew and niece won't be able to read them, but the options are endless for older kids. Here's hoping this solves our boredom and makes for a fun week!
Little Mister is going to use BOTH library passes the same day. Then try to talk Little Miss into giving him hers since she has to go with you anyway. He's a tricksy one. ;D
ReplyDelete-Little Mommy