Twelve Ways To Entertain Your Family During Hurricane Irene

Strong winds and driving rain sound like a recipe for hunkering down with your family this Sunday. This opportunity could be a blessing in disguise; no one can go anywhere, you may not have power and it will be up to you to create your own fun.

Here’s a list of activities to entertain the entire family. Make sure to print this out, in case power is lost and you can't access the internet.

Before the Hurricane Hits: Have your kids help you out.

• Sunday's high winds will wipe out most of your late-summer blooms. Have your children pick the flowers before the storm, and arrange them in vases throughout the house.
• Let them gather blankets and pillows to create a safe "nest" somewhere in your home.
• Give them their very own flashlight. This will help them feel more secure.
• Take a fun trip to your local library to stock up on books.

During the Hurricane:  

Re-scripting Silent Movies: If you have power, you can have a movie marathon, OR try this fun twist: Turn the volume down on your movie and take turns doing the “voiceovers” for the actors and actresses. Establish the tone by being silly with your scripting and the family will follow suit.

Hurricane: The Musical: Have your kids write and perform a silly play about the hurricane.

Madame Mama’s Fortune Telling: Write a bunch of silly fortunes on slips of paper, fold them and put them in a “fortune teller’s bowl.” Then dress like a fortune teller and “read” your kids their fortunes. Silly fortunes could include: “You will change your middle name to Garth,” or “Your brother likes your best friend.”

Mind-reading: Grab a stack of playing cards and take turns guessing what the next card will be.

Talking backwards: Try saying words and sentences backwards.

Gratitude Journal: Take turns writing and sharing what you are grateful for. It could be very simple, very silly or rather profound.

Telegrams Game: One person writes down five or six random letters, then everyone takes turns constructing a sentence using those letters as the first letter of each word. This gets funny without even trying!

Silly Thesaurus: There are a lot of silly words out there! Grab a thesaurus and take turns finding silly words to learn and use. Take turns creating sentences that incorporate the word and see who comes up with the best sentence.

Story Round Robin: Take turns adding to a story that one person starts. Encourage extreme goofiness. 

“Would You Rather?” Asking each other silly Would You Rather questions like “Would you rather swim in pudding or jello?” will get some giggles. The real humor starts when you ask your child to justify their responses. You just never know what they will say! 

Squeak Piggy Squeak: Everyone takes a chair and sits in a circle. One person stands in the middle, blindfolded and spun around a few times. The person should be given a cushion. The “piggy in the middle” then has to make his way to one of the people in the circle. Once he has chosen someone he carefully puts his cushion on the person’s lap and sits on the cushion. He issues the command “squeak piggy, squeak.” The chosen person then has to squeak three times. If the blindfolded person correctly identifies whose lap they are on, then they switch places with the person and they become the new piggy. Disguising squeaks is encouraged!

The Sock Game: This game’s simple premise is deceiving. Get on the floor with your child and simply try to take off each other’s socks! Kids LOVE this game and surprisingly, so do most parents!

Other Ideas:

• Write Poems.
• Paint.
• Have an indoor picnic on the living room floor.
• Have a dance party.
• Write and illustrate a comic strip.
• Cut pictures out of old magazines and create a collage around a particular topic or interest. 

Please be safe and take care this weekend!