Sliding Tic Tac Toe

-->

How to play Sliding Tic-Tac Toe

No more cats games!

1. Draw the traditional Tic-Tac-Toe board. Make pieces be your X’s and O’s, but Use only 3 X’s and 3 O’s  (in a restaurant you can use 3 white sugar packets and 3 pink sweet and low packets)

2. Start off as you would playing regular Tic-Tac-Toe

3. Once all 6 pieces have been placed, continue taking turns by siding one game piece to an open adjacent square (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally).

4.The first player to get 3 in a row wins!

Tic-Tac-Toe games with the directions for Sliding Tic Tac Toe are available in select Packed 4 Fun Backpacks.

Homemade Playdough

This recipe makes GREAT play dough! It is quick, and the play dough will last a very long time.
Making it in large batches is great for groups of children, or to use as a party favor. Making your own play dough is also cheaper. The main expense is the Cream of Tartar. It is usually not sold in a large container at the grocery store, but can be purchased online. The price of this bulk container is about the same as two small spice jars purchased at a grocery store.

Mix ingredients into a medium-large sauce pan. (Children can help with this process before turning on the heat)

Notice the oil in a sports top bottle = easy to use!

3 cups flour
3 cups water
3/4 cups salt
2 tablespoons Cream of Tartar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
food coloring

Heat the mixture over medium heat until it pulls away from the edges.

Move dough to a large plate to cool.

While still warm, knead the dough many times with your hands to smooth out any lumps and bumps.

Store in an airtight container or plastic bag.

The String Game of Surprises

The String Game of Surprises
This is fun for holidays, birthdays, or just for random fun.
Take a ball of string or yarn, and run it zig zag through a couple rooms of the house. Have the string be a marker for where to look, so it is wrapped around a cupboard or door handle, under a chair, behind an end table, etc.
Take the content of Packed 4 Fun Backpack.
Put the Backpack at the beginning of the string. As the child follows the string they can find all the surprises and fill back up the Packed 4 Fun Backpack.
Finding each item one at a time can intensify the excitement of all what they are getting!

All Packed 4 Fun backpack orders purchased through April 10th will include a ball of yarn!

www.packed4fun.com

Love Notes for Children When Parents Are Away

This is a great activity for when parents will be traveling away from their children on a trip.

Write a special note for each day you will be away. This could be set up like an advent calendar where they see one for each day and can help count down the day until your return. Or, you could have your caregiver hide the note for the next day somewhere in the house and the child can look for their note each morning.

To expand on this, have the child leave a note, or make like a diary entry back to the parents each day saying what they did that day, or expressing that they miss them and love them. The parents will love to read these when they return!

This could also be modified for childcare/preschool settings, especially for preschoolers experiencing separation anxiety.

Glow Hunt

What fun this would be for an evening party, or just a family fun night.
The more glow sticks the better, one pack (of 10 bracelet size sticks) per child works best.

Activate the glow sticks and hide them outside, like an Easter egg hunt. It is best to time the hunt specifically for dusk- when it is almost dark, but not complete. When it is completely dark it actually makes the hunt easier (and could be a safety risk if it is too dark and people cannot see where they are going)
 
After the hunt, give children the connectors to make necklaces, chains, or other creative creations.


They also can make a fun bath toy, lighting up the water and the bubbles.

We got to thinking, what a fun, lightweight experience for vacations, where children are away from their bath toys and nightlights. Packed 4 Fun will automatically include a pack of 10 glow sticks in the next 6 backpacks that are purchased from www.packed4fun.com :)