Little H Coloring
I know it’s summer. But here in Calgary our weather has not been that great. In fact, we’ve had quite a few rainy days and my Little H absolutely hates being stuck indoors. We have a play park right beside our house and she’s always begging to go out there (silly us, we bought this house before we had a small child and thought it would be great to live next to a park when we had kids. Now we know better.)
My little H is an extremely active child and always wants to be entertained and on rainy days, especially days where I’m supposed to be working from home, this puts me in a tight spot. I can’t always zip out to the store to find something to entertain her. I know she’s got loads of toys and books and things but she gets bored with familiar items. If I really need to keep her focused it needs to be something new. That is hard when you’re trying to save money.
What to do?
I already posted my Homemade Play Dough recipe which is a fun and frugal activity but I have another solution…
Go online and print out some free coloring pages! There are so so so many templates out there you can download – especially if you have Microsoft software already on your computer. I found a cute Forest Animal coloring book that I downloaded for free. She loved it and it kept her busy for an hour. An HOUR! I also found some Paper Dolls that would be perfect for a child a little older. I’m keeping this one in the back of my mind for future.
Go and check out the main Microsoft Office Template download center and see what else is available…there are too many to link here 
Best of luck in keeping your kids busy on rainy days! I know it’s hard to keep their attention (and your sanity) Have any other suggestions? Let me know in comments!
Thanks to High Road Communications for providing me with Microsoft Office Software
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My friend Marisa has some free coloring pages you can download from her blog, http://tootsiegrace.blogspot.com/ – scroll down until you see the “printables” link in the sidebar and they should be there.
I didn’t know that they had one of these. It’s nicer than doing a search online every time I want to find printable coloring pages. Thanks for sharing!
I love those paper dolls! I never knew Microsoft had so many great resources there – thank you for sharing!
My little one isn’t old enough to color yet, but this a great idea. Thanks for sharing!
I’m trying to get my son interested in coloring and this is a great idea. Thanks for sharing.
NOW if I can only get him to stop sticking the crayons up his nose, I would be all set!
Yes, I am stuck inside right now with my three youngest ones and it’s raining. The teen took the van to go to her doctor’s appointment and it’s raining outside.
The toddler has been on my lap for about 15 minutes and she won’t stop talking or stop touching everything. I was hoping the teen would be back in time to fix them lunch for me, but I guess I have to get up and be a parent! LOL…
The other two have been doing fairly well playing by themselves, but they sure have managed to get toys over the entire house. I actually like them doing independent play better ’cause if I give them something to do they ask a million questions or say they’re finished before my butt even hits the share again.
Oh, and did I mention my printer died? No printing pages for me. Good luck with your rainy day… feel like driving down to pick up my kids.
That’s a great idea – very frugal and very fun!