Things to Do - Two Great Activities for Kids in a Hotel Room

Kaleidographs

A few weeks ago I posted about wanting a set of Kaleidograph cards. Luckily, the manufacturer somehow learned of my post and sent us two sets for free (Flora and Crystal, which sell for only $12.99 on amazon). I waited until vacation to take them out of the envelope, as they seemed like the perfect hotel room activity. And the cards did not disappoint. The girls and I can't stop layering different cards on top of one another, then twisting and rearranging them to make thousands of pattern combinations. The cards are addictive, even for adults. I also think we'd enjoy using the cards as stencils (perhaps with watercolor crayons?) but I'm waiting on that activity for a later day. On the downside, T played a little rough with the cards (he tried to rip two of them to shreds) so we created during his nap time.



Story Cubes

We won a set of Rory's Story Cubesat F's school auction (seems odd to say that we "won" something we paid for) and they've quickly become a favorite activity for all three kids. This makes me happy, as we FINALLY have a game that the whole family can play together ("game" being loosely defined).

The story cubes' magic rests in the fact that kids really love to roll dice (sort of a no brainer), and after they roll the storytelling comes naturally. My kids especially seem to enjoy the element of interpreting random information in a way that creates order and unity (i.e. making something from nothing).

T tells bare bones stories, usually something along the lines of "a bad guy came" and then [point to a picture on a dye] and then [loud laugh] WAHHHHH [throw dice in the air]"; whereas F's stories have plots and characters. P's tales fall somewhere in between. A fun way to kill some time.

For other storytelling activities, click here to read about our story stick craft and here to read about story cards.
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What about everyone else? How do you keep your kids entertained during vacation "downtime"?