Make a mess!!

Since it is National TV-Turn Off week, here are some GREAT fun and messy ideas. The kids will love these and mom and dad will be thrilled not to have been part of the clean up process.

Shaving Cream Tie Dye: (Courtesy of Tracey Barnes) Take foamy shaving cream and put dots of food coloring in it then let the kids use a popsicle stick to gently spread the color around (encourage the kids to slice lines through the colors and drag the color out into the shaving cream). Then take paper that you have cut into various shapes (flowers for spring, umbrellas, bunnies, eggs) and place the paper on top of the shaving cream. Let sit for maybe a minute, then (while wearing gloves) remove the paper from the shaving cream and wipe the excess cream off the paper... you now have a "tie-dyed" design! * Cardstock paper works best and you can reuse the shaving cream with dye several times. For younger kids, this can be modified into a squishy sensory activity by putting the shaving cream into a clear bag and letting them squish the bag to create swirls of color. (Of course extremely prudent supervision is required depending on the child's age.)

Giant Art: (Courtesy of Lacey Matney) Get giant pieces of poster paper or a roll of butcher paper and cover a surface carefully. (If you are inside, the tile of kitchen or bathroom floor usually works best. Outside, spreading out in the driveway or turning a fence into a well covered easel is fun.) Put the kids in clothes that can get super messy or let little ones strip down to their diapers. Give everyone their medium of choice: daubs of washable paint (tiny paper cups work well), paint markers, chalk sprayers.. anything fun and messy. :) Then let them create their supersized masterpiece! Encourage out of the ordinary creativity: footprints, handprints, body prints, splatter painting, all the messy stuff that usually can't be contained on a standard size piece of paper. For older kids, this might turn into a mural with hand and feet shaped flowers, trees, buildings or an entire cityscape. While the toddlers will love getting dirty and be great at diaper textured stamps and cute little footprints.

As babysitters, we are masters of organized chaos and there is no better time for kids to let loose and have some messy fun than with us. :)