Bag of Tricks Babysitting

Use tacky glue or a hot glue gun or the eyes won't stick.  After creating the creatures, play with them!  Have children make up a story with the creatures and act it out, and write down the story from the dictation.

As the post suggests, gather a small collection of tea cups, saucers, etc, to assemble your own magical fun tea set for use with little ones.  Invite the children's dolls and stuffed animals to join in the tea party fun.  Don't be afraid to let little ones get the set filled with mud, flowers, and other fun stuff.  If you'd like, bring along tea bags or scented oils to add to water for an extra sensory experience.  Don't drink oil-scented water, of course.  Make some dress-up costumes to make the tea party a royal occasion by searching "dress-up" in this blog.

Bring along waterproof babies of your own, which you can get very inexpensively at a dollar store for this purpose.  When at the family's home, only allow the children to wash babies of their own if they are fabric-free and have no holes in which water can get trapped and stuck in the babydoll.  In other words, no ruining the children's toys!  Kids will love the idea that they can give a bath to their dolls.  Get an inexpensive baby tub or a plastic bin for the purpose and bring that with you.  An empty squeezy tube filled with sudsy water and a washcloth, hairbrush and towel make excellent accessories.  Better?  Ask kids to lend some bath toys for their babies to use.  If a bathtub is accessible and you can't get outdoors, use the regular indoor tub.  If you have an empty lotion container or powder bottle and a diaper and change of clothes for your baby, even better!

You can get very cheapo bowling pins and then have them to do this activity again and again.  Do I need to say that this is an outdoor activity? ;)  The ice balloons should be made as soon as you arrive for an all-day gig, or make them at home, bring them with you and then just stick them in the freezer when you arrive to reharden what has melted.

Don't just make the crown: Play with it!  Have a royal tea party, get dressed for a royal ball, make invitations, etc.  Read Cinderalla or a non-traditional royal story beforehand, talk about the royal family in the UK, etc.  Older children especially might be interested to talk about what they imagine a real royal family to be like and contrast that with what is presented in fairy tales.

Check out Millie's Marvelous Hat from the library and bring it along to read before you begin this project.

Do use tacky glue (not regular glue) instead of a needle and thread to attach the letters to the back of the cape.  Bring along some superhero books to read beforehand for a literacy connection and discuss the child's favorite superheros.  Ask what powers the child would like to have and why, etc.

Use whatever you can think of to enhance these dresses.  For a literacy connection, check out The Paperbag Princess from the library and bring it along to read before beginning this craft.

Use creativity to add ribbon, buttons, and any other special touches to really make these gowns shine!

You can either make this with the help of younger children or allow an older child to make her own or make one as a gift!