Friday, July 20, 2012

Tablecloth Play Mat - Simple Summer.


I found myself with ten children to entertain, yesterday - my youngest four, four visitors from Oregon (here along with their parents, the adult supervision, and leadership for the youth group combining with ours, this week), and two of A's friends (11 year olds) thrown in just for fun.

Luckily, I'd seen a great idea for a do-it-yourself play mat, over at All For the Boys, that combined nicely with the color-your-own tablecloth concept we've had fun with at birthday parties in the past, and was super easy to set up.






All I had to do was cover the table with a few pieces of butcher's paper, paper side up, tossed out a few toys - dinosaurs, soldiers, cars, penguins, and the like - whatever I could snatch with ease on a pass through of the children's rooms, with an assortment of washable markers, and crayons.

To get things going, I drew a quick, winding road around the toys.  The children took it from there...


...keeping them (especially the youngest few I was most worried about) busy, happy, and amazingly quite clear through lunch...



...and giving me time to slip out to prepare for the afternoon's entertainment.



It's great to be a homeschooler.

9 comments:

Cristy said...

The afternoon's entertainment made me laugh out loud. (Did you put those water balloons in a cooler? I know someone around here who did that as a prank. It was very funny, because the cold was so unexpected.)

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Cristy - That would be funny - I might try that with the older children next week! This time I just placed buckets of water balloons around the yard, turned on the sprinklers, and let them have at it :)

Phyllis said...

I LOVE that last picture!!

Amy Dingmann said...

Great idea! I think my boys could play forever on a table like that. Guess I know what we are doing on this rainy day...

Ticia said...

My last foray into water balloons didn't go that well. I kept overfilling them :)

I need to let them make a play mat like that again. I did once ages ago, before they were super into drawing so it was mostly scribbles.

Linda said...

I love this table play mat! The next time I am hosting my sister and her 10 children we will most definetly be using your idea. As for the water balloons...in the ice chest... :)we may be trying this one later this week. My daughter would love this, and so would the children around our new home. Great activity to make friends on a hot summer day. You house looks like the one that everyone wants to hang out at!!
Linda
Homeschooling one child for five years and still loving it!

Marcee said...

Ha!! Recognize a few of those kiddos!! Looks like you guys had a little fun!

Becky said...

We love preparing a wagon load of water balloons just before DH gets home. It's a refreshing and fun welcome after a long,hot day at work! I have found the easiest way to fill water balloons is to use a nozzle attachment (looks like a gun)on the hose! That way the water comes off and on with just a squeeze of the handle and I can sit comfortably in a chair.

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

Cool to see you in action :) Sounds like a terrific activity good for all ages.