Painters Tape Saves the Day!

There are days that you just can't make it to be the outdoorsy family you usually are. Perhaps it's a late season snowstorm or hurricane day off of school or my favorite, is the Florida heat is so suffocating today that the layers of sunscreen and gallons of water required for outside play is just too much to bear. I enjoy arts and crafts with my girls. I find things on Pinterest like the next mom for sure. But sometimes we are just in need of something different, then crayons and glitter. My secret for creative indoor play? Painter's Tape. 

There is no painting but Painter's Tape will make adventures appear in your home that weren't there before like obstacles courses, hopscotch fields, giant Tic Tac Toe, alphabet search, and race tracks.

The great thing about Painter's Tape is that it doesn't hurt the surface you put it on. There is no lasting damage to your walls or floor. 

1. Obstacle course. 

A hall away is best, but if there isn't one that can be an obstacle at the moment, you can recreate the same effect with furniture. Simply you tape stick the tape on either side of hallway in crisscross ways. Place some tape really low and some of it really high. Consider the size of your kids in the process. If you kids are bigger makes sure that they will be able to crawl without tearing everything down immediately. I added areas for my little ones to crawl, stand up, jump over and then crawl again. After it was set up, I told them we were secret spies that had to get the magic sparkling treasure on the other side but we couldn't touch any of the "sensors" (aka tape.) It was so fun. 

2. Hopscotch 

We have a big brick hallway and I taped down hopscotch field with numbers. Since my kids are young it was a fun and easy number activity. We threw things and hopped down the hall. We counted backwards and forwards. Then I had a pack of dollar flash cards that had different numbered animals on it. We matched the animals to the numbers. So, we got a little early math skills and large motor jumping skills out of the fun.

3. Tic Tac Toe

A large board was made on the floor and we picked toys to be the X's and O's. Stuffed animals were X's and dolls were O's. We played for a while. This board was the least successful because my kids aren't quite into the strategy of Tic Tac Toe yet, however it was a good distraction. 

4. Alphabet Letters

On an area of the carpet I taped all the letters of the alphabet in half hazard ways. We sand the ABC song slowly while going to every letter. Then I called out letters to see who could find it first. Then we sounded out words with the letters, then I had another dollar set of alphabet flash cards and they matched the letters on the floors with those on the cards. 

5. Race Tracks

On the family room rug, I created a race track with straight shots and swerves. The girls got out all their cars and played on the track. Eventually they raced cars and got other toys to ride in the cars. The imaginative play they created was amazing. The track became the road to the castle or the circus. All the friends were on their way there and having great time. 

After the day of tape was done, I peeled it all off and there was no trace of using the indoors like an outdoor play area. It did take a little prep time, but well worth the effort.