Idea Queen Tips & News

Can’t get enough of Dora the Explorer? We absolutely love her in this house! Luckily there are several free Dora the Explorer games to download on BigFish. We have a membership, so each month we can get a new game to play. Below you’ll find a few we have and play on a regular basis, with a few others we want to try soon. Enjoy!

Candy Land - Dora the Explorer Edition
The classic game Candy Land meets Dora the Explorer. It really needs no further explanation. Try it out for an hour and see what you think!

Dora’s Carnival Adventure
This game we do own, and we absolutely love it. My daughter plays this one on a regular basis, and it really keeps her busy. There’s several different games within the game to play, all which give tickets. The tickets are used to buy prizes, which it takes quite awhile to be able to buy all the prizes.

Doras Carnival 2 - At the Boardwalk
The second version of the popular Dora’s Carnival. New games and prizes featured for hours more play.

La Casa De Dora
This one we haven’t tried out yet, but it’s on our list of games to buy. This Dora the Explorer game features 8 different educational games all in one. Kids learn Spanish (of course), math, and music. I absolutely LOVE educational games!

If you find any more, let me know. We’re always looking for fun games to play together!

Spring break is approaching, and you’ll need some ideas to keep those kids busy. It’s hard to predict how nice the weather is going to be this year, so we’ll be sure to list indoor and outdoor activities. If you can get outside you should!

Craft Ideas

If it’s still cold and wet outside, you’ll of course need some indoor activities. Crafts are a wonderful way to keep kids busy. Idea Queen has several different crafts, including how to make your own stickers and crafts for kids rooms (decorations they can make specifically for their room).

Also be on the lookout at the grocery store in the checkout for little booklets. A few weeks ago we picked up a book that cost less than $5, and is filled with craft ideas. The best part of this booklet is the crafts are made from household items such as cans, bottles, and paper towel rolls.  You can let the kids raid the recycling bin for various items to use.

Indoor Activities

So the weather isn’t great, and you’ve got to find things to do inside. Not a problem! You can always spend some time on the computer with them (see game sites for kids and game sites for toddlers).   We’ve been pretty hooked on the Webkinz for the last several days, so all other game sites don’t seem to matter right now. There’s just way too much to do there!

If you need a break from the computer, there’s lots of other things you can do inside together. Try a few board games, or maybe cooking in the kitchen. What better way to spend the afternoon than making a batch of cookies? You might also think about cooking up some playdough to use that day as well. If you make it edible, they can eat it after they are done playing.

Outdoor Activities

Hopefully over spring break the weather will be nice enough you can actually get outside for awhile (I know I’m more than ready for the snow to be gone!). Take your first trip of the year to the local park, or to somewhere special (we have a wild life park and learning center right outside of town - check your area for places similar to this).

To stay closer to home, you might think about working on your garden or just spending the day in the backyard playing a few kids games. Try some different versions of tag, or play other childhood games if you have enough people. No matter what, try to get involved with the kids (Although we’ve learned mom is just too good at baseball and we lose balls over the fence if we try to play that in the backyard, so it can’t be played at home). If you play with them, it’s good exercise and you’ll have a blast spending time together!

This list should get you started, and at least give you several options depending on the weather. It’s so hard to predict what the weather will be a week ahead of time this time of year. I hope we’ve given you enough ideas either way though!

While there are a few free craft projects for Easter listed on Idea Queen, I thought it would be fun to post a few kits for sale at one of my favorite online craft stores. These are some REALLY cute projects and worth looking into. This site really does have a lot of neat stuff.

Flower Pot Bunny (pk/24)
How cute are these? Plus they come in a pack, so they are really great for group projects with multiple kids. You can even save the leftovers for next year, share with your local daycare, or use as a birthday party activity. Very inexpensive costing less than a dollar per bunny.

Bunny Purse (pk/12)
Another VERY adorable bunny who makes a very cute purse. Another great activity for multiple kids to do. Share this project with some friends!

Bunny Pen with Egg Stand (pk/6)
Alright so if you couldn’t tell, I really like the bunnies. They are just too darn cute! This one looks extremely fun to decorate, and is useful as well (holds a pen).

Maybe if we all think spring with these craft projects for Easter, we can chase away the cold weather. I know I’m more than ready for it to be spring!

With all these snow days we’ve had recently (yesterday made number SEVEN! ARG!), you may be looking for activities to do with your kids. What better thing to do than spend the day in the kitchen making cookies?

Here is a recipe we pulled from the Chocolate Lover’s ebook for Double Chocolate Chip Cookies (or as I like to call them, chocolate chocolate chip cookies). It’s super easy, and only takes a few ingredients. PERFECT for kids!

Double Chocolate Cookies
18 1/4 oz Package devil’s food cake mix with pudding
1/2 c Vegetable oil
2 lg Eggs
1 c (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate morsels

Combine first 3 ingredients, and beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until blended. Stir in chocolate morsels. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes. Cool cookies on cookie sheets 5 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Yield: 3 dozen.

So I admit - I get addicted to games very easily. Especially when they have “tycoon” in the name. Zoo Tycoon has always been one of my favorite games, and ranks up there with my absolute favorite of all time. I even tore the house apart looking for the CD one day so I could play.

Imagine my delight when I saw there was a Zoo Tycoon 2. I know, it came out a few years ago. So I’m a bit behind. Sorry! But I finally got my hands on a copy of it. LOVE IT!

There’s quite a few things that are the same as the first. The animals of course, certain buildings, zoo keepers, etc. However, there’s other objects that are brand new to this game. Some replace some of the old buildings (no more pizza stand, sorry!), while much of it is just in addition.

They’ve made a few changes to the game play as well. You no longer have to worry about fences wearing out or trampled terrain. That’s a HUGE plus to me and allows you to focus more on other activities in the zoo.

But the biggest change was the ability to put yourself in the view of the visitors. I LOVE this feature, and LOVE to see exactly what the visitors see (no more stuck on just overhead view!). Also you can do the tasks of your staff, which is another huge plus. I always got annoyed when staff wasn’t doing their job the way I wanted them to. Now I can just do it myself! (Feed the animals, empty trash, etc).

The last major addition was that of the goals. They have already set up zoos where you complete certain tasks to move on to the next campaign. I don’t remember this being an option with the first Zoo Tycoon. I really like this feature, as it gives me something specific to do. More challenging I guess.

If you already have the first Zoo Tycoon, this one is still worth buying. If you already have it too, they have several zoo tycoon 2 expansion packs available now. I might have to look into those expansions once I’m done playing all the regular features. Although I really don’t see that being an issue any time soon!

Highly recommend this game for both kids and adults - very fun to play together!

This is always a fun project to dive into, although it’s best to plan ahead to make multiple stickers while you’ve got the glue ready.

The only recipe we have is for the lick and stick type, but that’s always been fine for my kids. If you have peppermint oil in the house, adding a few drops of this will make the stickers taste pretty good when you lick them (peppermint oil is just about a staple in our house because we use it for many different things).

The first time we did this craft was probably two years ago, and we are finally ready to do it again. The kids have no school today, so we need to do something to prevent them from fighting all day.

You can see the recipe, instructions, and ideas for what to use for stickers here: http://www.idea-queen.com/stickers.html 

I just had to blog about this because my daughter loves these games so much. She’s just starting to read, but can not do a whole lot that requires reading. Playhouse Disney is wonderful for her, since it tells them all the instructions outloud and has a whole lot of great games for them to play.

Bunnytown is one of her favorites, because she gets to “buy” stuff for a bunnytown house, and clothes for her bunnytown bunny. Items are purchased with Carrots, which are earned from the games available in this section. Then they get to decorate their homes and bunnies in anyway they like. There’s even several different types of homes to chose from, which they can change at any time.

You can view other rooms and bunnies of kids online, but there is no real interaction. However, you can send them a message by choosing from a list. I’m sure there’s probably a way to check messages sent, but I haven’t found this yet (of course, I don’t get to play too much because she’s too busy on this site!)

I absolutely love the idea behind this. It’s a safe environment where kids can learn to count up their carrots, and understand the concept of saving and shopping. There’s the appeal of sending email and messages without any risks or getting bad messages (which would be the case on other sites where they can send any message they want).

A small hint though - if you run into a problem where the shopping function doesn’t appear to be working, just right click in the main screen and choose “Settings”. Make sure you allow information to be stored on your computer or it won’t work (it uses a cookie-like system instead of a log in system - another reason I love this site because it’s as simple as possible for preschoolers).

If you are needing a site they can play on without you having to help too much, this one is PERFECT. She can play for hours on the whole website, and especially the Bunnytown section (we’ve got to earn more carrots for more stuff of course!).

Have fun!

If you only have one kid, ignore this post. It doesn’t apply to you, because every day you get a chance to focus on your one and only. For those of us who have more than one kid, this can be quite a challenge.

Right now I am lucky enough to have two kids in different grade levels with different school hours. It’s not an every day thing, but usually twice a month I get each of them individually for a short time. My daughter goes to preschool from noon to three every day, where my son is in 1st grade and goes every day all day. Except for some Wednesdays where they let out 2 hours early, when the preschool goes normal hours.

I’m very grateful for these days, and go out of my way to plan special things to do alone with him. He’s the hardest to plan “alone time” with, since his sister goes where he goes most of the time. I get to spend every day alone with his sister, but he seems to always be gone.

Add the fact he’s a boy and you’ve really got problems. Boys tend to be harder to connect with the older you get. Sure dad has no problem, but mom is a different story. Seems like the older they get, the more they see us as the enemy. Unless of course we take action now to spend as much private time as possible with them.

Take offers from family and friends to keep an eye on your kids so you can spend time with just one at a time. Do things they enjoy like take them out for ice cream, to a movie, or even just to their favorite restaurant. Make them feel special as individuals by giving them your undivided attention even for just an hour, giving them a memory of “just me and mom” that didn’t include all the siblings.

We don’t live in a perfect world so it might not always be easy, but you can do it. Even if it’s just 15 minutes while the rest are asleep or taking a bath, it can mean the world to a child that has to share your attention and love on a regular basis.

Video games, expensive crafts, wild recipes that make huge messes….do our kids really need all that much to keep them occupied?

Last night the kids and I did one of the most basic activities you can do - we colored. That’s it. No fancy markers that change color or blend, or special paper or paints. Nope, just coloring book pages and crayons (alright and a few basic markers - but they didn’t do any special “tricks”). Honestly, I haven’t sat down and actually just colored for no reason since I was a kid. Wouldn’t you know it was actually FUN!

It made me think though, how little it really does take to entertain kids. Even my 7yr old boy shut off his GameCube and colored with us. Pretty amazing, huh?

Does it seem odd I post about my favorite time waster right after a post about trying to get my house organized? Honestly though, this game doesn’t hold me back as much as you’d think it would. It’s more of a “quick break” than anything else (and trust me, I’d be taking these breaks regardless).

The best part of Plant Tycoon is the fact you have no choice but to walk away from the game for periods of time. The object of the game is to grow various plants and find new ones from cross breeding them. Thing is, it takes over 40 mins for plants to grow. That’s over 40 mins I take to get up and DO something while I wait. It’s only on my breaks that I tend to them and actually play.

The playing time is shorter than the growing time, so really this is a perfect game to have up while you are cleaning house or doing other things. Reason being you would get extremely bored just sitting there watching them grow. Now they do have random bugs to catch, although that gets boring too. In between tending to the plants, I let the kids watch and catch the bugs. My 5 year old thinks it’s pretty cool, and she’s pretty good at it too!

So if you are looking for a fun game to play, check this one out. With built in breaks away from the game, you’ll actually get something useful done while playing it!