How To Get Things Done When You Have Little Kids

As a single mom of 2, self-employed, and once upon a time home daycare provider, I have created and used an infinite amount of activities for my kiddos to do, and I’ve included a hefty list of ideas here for you!

These are some of our favorite and most used activities, and I’ve included examples and ideas to mix it up for each one!

These activities don’t have to be super extravagant like the bounce house pictured above, simple is best, because if it’s not quick and easy it’s hard to stick to and do regularly!

My kids would watch tv while they waited for breakfast, but they seemed to struggle with the transition to starting school and anything else for that matter, they just didn’t want to stop watching, and when they did stop they weren’t the happiest of campers!

However, if they hadn’t watched tv they were raring and ready to start school!

So a new habit in our house is to do a simple no-prep activity before breakfast instead and they have to earn tv time by finishing their school and this simple transition has saved our mornings!

Each of these is good for any time though, you don’t have to use them in the morning unless you want to!

My 2 Second Set-Up For A Productive Morning with Kids

Each night before I go to bed I grab the stuff I need from around the house and layout a new activity for the kids in the morning to do while I make breakfast.

These can be set up the night before and require little to no prep mostly just grabbing the stuff from around the house (I usually lay it out on the dining room table the night before so they know to go straight to the table and start)

Here are some ideas to get you started and links to some cool sites that offer these (these can be adapted for all ages, when I ran my daycare for years all kids loved these! I would suggest variations of these activities from ages 18m+ – Ages I’ve used these with – 18m, 23m, 3yr, 4yr, 5yr, 7yr, 9yr) My current 4 and 9 year old looks forward to these each morning!

1. Coloring Pages

These can be simple for littles, or difficult for older kids, and can also be themed to their fav characters- you can get a coloring book from dollar tree or print individual pages, I do a combo of both depending on the day, I will usually print special ones for holidays, and I make them and have them on my tpt store!

 

2. Cutting Practice Pages

You can print them off on new paper or print on the back of used paper (my favorite way) or construction paper or even old newspaper/magazines.

These not only are great ways to reuse old paper, build hand muscles and improve cutting skills but it’s also just a ton of fun! Just like many other things on this list these can be adjusted based on age and skill level, you can have simple lines for your toddler to cut or it can be more difficult with wavy/zig-zag lines for pre-schoolers or shapes and pictures for your older kids.

Some other cutting pages could be origami shapes to cut and then fold for older kids, or you could go more abstract and do a project of a collage this is a favorite of ours because its no prep and can be ‘themed’ to a holiday, here is an example of our recent collage for memorial day- I created a flag printable (you can just use one offline or use the one I made) for my 4-year-old to glue his little cut pieces to, and my 9 yr old made her own on blank paper. All I had to do was print the coloring page and hand them red/white/blue construction paper, scissors, and glue, and they went to work!

3. Word Searches

Dollar Tree has an amazing section of word searches but you can also find them for free around the web, if your kid is a fan these are a great way to get some learning in during your morning activity!

4. Writing Practice

Another great way to bring learning into the morning is writing practice sheets, you can make them as simple or as fun as you want! You can also make them yourself or find them online for free, the sky is the limit, you can use free KG Fonts to Create easy tracing pages that you can print, or you can find free writing prompt story pages that allow your child to draw a picture and write a short story to go with it!

 

5. Sticker Books

These can be stickers by number books, I found some at dollar tree recently, or stickers with a blank piece of paper for littles or a free storyboard/scene for older kids to make a scene or story with their stickers, you can also make it a puzzle by drawing shapes/outlines of the stickers for kids to line them up or have older kids draw their own scene for the stickers, here’s a pic of a scene Sophia drew last year for her Vampirina stickers (age 7 at the time), there are endless ways to make stickers fun with little to no prep!

 

6. DIY Puzzles

Just like with a lot of the items on my list these can be as simple or as complicated as you would like, they can also be scaled to different ages, in the photo above my kids are doing a simple name puzzle, my daughter (9) knows her name of course but wanted to be in on the fun, I could have made it more challenging by printing off an image and cutting it up to create a puzzle or having her do sight words or something like that, there are tons of ways to make it easier or harder, for toddlers you could do shapes, or a simple picture like bluey and cut it into 2 or 4 pieces for them to put together.

7. Painting

You can paint with watercolors, acrylics, or even water! You could paint on paper, a plate, or even a cookie sheet, I’ve mixed some water and a little food coloring and gave them a cookie sheet and they went to town creating shapes and pictures that I could just wash off the sheet when we were done! You could put water in a little up and let them paint outside on the sidewalk or fence if you want to do your activity outdoors!

 

8. Kinetic Sand

This is a fan favorite in our house, actually, the kids know that Fridays are sand tray day! I keep a bin with our sand, the cookie sheets from the dollar tree, and little toys all together in a cabinet, and we just pull them out for a bit and they all go back in when we’re done no mess or fuss!

9. Floam

This one is a bit messier but not by much, I just don’t recommend this for really little ones who might eat it, and I’d watch your 4 yr olds to in case they smush it into a lego or on their clothes (speaking from experience here!)

10. Slime

This is such a fun one! Especially if you made your own! We made our own last year and they played with it for weeks before I threw it out! If you don’t wanna make it you can buy it from dollar tree!

I wouldn’t let them leave the table with this one though! Maybe use an apron or play clothes, this is a nightmare to get out of a dress! (also from experience!)

11. Shaving Cream

This is one of my go-to’s when we need to shake up the routine and paper gets boring, I break out the shaving cream and a cookie sheet!

You can have them trace letters or shapes, I had Owen trace his name the other day, but if they are little and you’re worried they might try to eat it an alternative is yogurt- I used this all the time with my daycare babies! It’s a fantastic sensory experience!

We like to put it together with some letter shapes to practice or themed items like Easter eggs during easter time

12. Dried Rice

The final item on our list is dried rice, this is a fantastic medium for all kinds of sensory busy work activities, you can add virtually anything but water lol to this and it will be fun! Place some dried rice in a bin, bowl, or tub toss in some cups, measuring spoons, little toys, cars, pretty much anything you want in there, and let them at it!

We also like to add holiday-based stuff into these too, Easter eggs at Easter time, ornaments during Christmas, cookie cutters (this is our favorite set of cookie cutters I’ve had for years!), etc.

Bonus Activity! Magnetic Letter Sort

This is a new favorite now that Owen is learning his letters, there are many ways to do this and you could simplify it for even younger kids, by just using a cookie sheet and magnets to play with on it. I used a printed T Chart that was focused on his name, it said ‘letters in your name’ with a thumbs up since he can’t read yet, and the other column said ‘letters not in my name’ with thumbs down then I instructed him to place all the letters in his name in the thumbs up column and letters not in his name in the other one, this kept him busy the whole time I cooked breakfast! You can make them spell or practice sight words or for older kids, you can turn it into a game, have a sheet of paper with sight words and give each a number then have them roll a dice or eenie meenie miney mo to pick one and then use the letters to spell it out, the options are endless!

The list is long but the ideas are endless

If you’re wondering how I plan out these activities I usually just make a plan on Sunday for what I will lay out for the week, and then it’s a no-brainer!

I hope this has helped jumpstart your ideas to keep your kids busy while you make breakfast or just to help you be productive throughout the day!