Top 10 Tuesday-- Activities with L

This is (I believe) my first time joining Oh Amanda for Top Ten Tuesday--go over there and check out more Top 10s! I have a big ambition for this summer: to play with my kids. I'm such a slacker mom, there are days where I realize it's almost lunchtime and between housework and internet "breaks" (mostly the latter), I've barely been in the same room with my kids. Bad mommy! So with our schedule a little less frenzied this summer, I have set myself a few goals. The two biggest are (1) every morning that L is not at camp and we don't run an errand, we will spend some time at the kitchen table doing an activity and (2) I will consciously play with T for half an hour a day (most likely split into 2 15-minute sessions). These will also be good times to reinforce what we're doing in speech therapy.

Just to give a little bit of background, my kids spend most of their time in our living room which is a giant play room of toys strewn from one end to the other (that I rarely bother to clean) but things with lots of pieces or things T will destroy are kept out of there (as well as art supplies) and we play with those at the kitchen table. When I think of it. Which hasn't been often enough.

So, thanks to some ideas from the recent Works For Me Wednesday--Mom, I'm Bored edition, I give you the Top 10 activities I can do with L during kitchen-activity-time. (T will be able to join in on some of these activities, for others I'll set her up with something age-appropriate--I'm still working on those ideas.)

1. Puzzles.

2. Playdoh. This is a good one for T to join in on, as long as I'm there to keep her from eating it.

3. Building sets. Lego, Trio, K'nex.

4. Basic art. Coloring, stickers, stamps.

5. Painting. L loves to paint. When I haven't had anything fun to paint on, I've given him a manila folder. I was thinking of maybe making "pet rocks" with paints and googly eyes.

6. Holiday crafts. (I got this idea from WFMW, thank you, Neverbored.) We have two different ornament crafts we didn't get to last Christmas. Also, I have a St. Patrick's Day banner I didn't get around to in March. Perhaps we'll work on a craft that could become Christmas gifts this winter.

7. Pipe cleaners. I got this idea from WFMW (thank you, Lisa) and bought the pipe cleaners at Dollar Tree. I still need ideas for some crafts to do with them.

8. Baking. As easy as making a cake from a box mix or as complicated as cookie cutter cookies. L loves to help bake!

9. Workbooks, puzzle books, activity books, sticker books. We have a nice stash of these and L loves them.

10. Play sets. We're giving L this awesome Mystery Mansion for his birthday next week and we'll play that at the kitchen table (because if we keep it in the living room, T will destroy it in no time flat). I'm so excited to play Scooby Doo with him!!! He has other toy sets that we keep out of the living room that are good for kitchen play too.

Edited to add: Games, how could I forget games?! Kitchen time is great for getting out the board games like Candyland and Cootie.

Also, I'm linking this to Works For Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family, because I think these ideas will work for me and maybe they will work for you too! Check out lots more ideas here.

Alright people, what am I missing? Please help me out with more activity ideas and with ideas to keep T happy at the table with us. Thanks!!!