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.