phoenixwormwood137:

jennink:

Babysitting three kids under the age of 10. They love the Avengers, Batman, Spiderman, and Transformers. 

Seeking geeky activities to do with them, especially outdoors. 

I’d love to hear any and all ideas! (Reblog from me with your idea; I’ll reblog it back so everyone can see here. <smile>) 

well, cosplaying is something natural to kids and should be pretty easy, especially if they already have costumes. If you wanna go all out you could make props and things out of cardboard, like Thor’s hammer or something, or even the New York skyline (so you can adequately destroy things). (or you could build a fort out of couch pillows for the Empire State building and then have the evil guys destroy it). I’m sure if you root around in their toyboxes they should have some epic stuff (what’s a basement without a dress-up box? But what do i know.) You could also find some sheets to wear as capes. :D Also, you could film a movie (consulting the youngers for the script - it’s better and more whacky that way!) or do a photoshoot.

I’ve totally spontaneously played Avengers with my sibs, who are all younger. Letting things get a bit rough-and-tumble, (though obviously not too far :P) is the BEST part. We had a basic mission: Thor (my ten-yr-old bro) was carrying some kind of treasure (the inanimate object being played by my one-yr-old bro) across the field in a wagon. Loki, of course (played by none other than yours truly, because how could I resist?), created problems and just got in the way. There were ‘safe’ areas - I think the path in our field was the Bifrost and, idk, they couldn’t come to Jotenheim (the random hill near our place), so that was a safe place for me. And we needed those safe areas, because there was a lot of tackling going on.

All this grew really fast out of nothing. Direct things a bit and it’s all so fun.

There’re always crafts, too. I find kids love making masks out of cardboard, tied on with string - Spiderman and Batman would work really well, if you added a couple of coloured markers! and Googling ‘colouring pages’ always brings up tons of results.

If you’re feeling SUPER adventurous and don’t mind doing pre-preparation, maybe you could make cookie cutters shaped like superheros and then make some cookies when you come to babysit. Or making t-shirts is fun - if you buy blank ones, and use paints (and sponge cut outs/potato cut outs for dipping in paint and making shapes on the shirts - if you want more info, I can get it) - or even just use markers.

sorry for going so, so long. I have a LOT of younger siblings and a LOT of experience, and I rarely get to talk about it.

gosh, I had NO idea i liked kids this much. Like NONE.

whoa.

Ooooooooooooooooooh so many great ideas!!! ♥

On colouring pages - do you know how detailed a 5, 8, or 10yo would enjoy? I have downloaded a bunch already and I’m concerned that they’re too detailed. 

I like the tshirt idea a lot. I saw youth blank tshirts at the $1 store last time I was there… not something I can do tomorrow (I’m babysitting in about 12 hours, haha) but it would be a really fun activity that would be best done outdoors. I remember using sponges & potatoes as stamps when I was younger - what sort of paint would be safe to use (i.e. washable)? 

AND OH THE NEW YORK SKYLINE OUT OF CARDBOARD IS WONDERFUL. i happen to be getting boxes for moving tomorrow before I go babysit from my brother’s workplace’s dumpster so I bet I can get a big piece of cardboard from there… I could cut it out and then we could color it together. <grin> 

Ahh, I’m really quite sad that I’m only going to be here another week or two and I’m only just getting started with babysitting. Kids are so cool.