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My kiddos are driving me crazy.

I am at a loss for what to do with them. We do the typical arts and crafts, playing board games, etc. but I'm looking to switch it up. Anyone have fun suggestions for these long days of summer when you can't go to the pool or break out the water guns?

cushion/blanket forts! a whole imaginary kingdom with wars and romance and goblins and magic .

dress up. (bonus: good time to clean out old/too small clothes) take pictures (kids love to see pictures of themselves being silly).

kitchen band. (if you can stand the noise) pots pans, spoons and spatulas. many glasses filled with different amounts of liquid to make different notes.

treasure hunt inside the house. using "hot" and "cold" for hints.

bathtub bubbles. dish soap and a couple inches of water in the tub (kids in the tub too!). use wire clothes hangers for different sized bubbles, some as big around as their little bodies

play "grocery store". take everthing out of the cabinets, give them a list (stuff to make pb&j's, cupcakes etc..) and let them "shop". bonus: good time to clean out and organize the cabinets.

reenact their favorite book with them, start to finish.

go through pictures with them. put them in order, telling the story of their birth and lives.

Put on old clothes and go run around in the rain!

Why not let them play out in the rain? We used to love to do this; we even went swimming in puddles (my brother says we were 'free-range children' )

TBH, they are outside playing in the rain right now. But, they haven't progressed to swimming in the puddles!

The youngest needed a nap, so I told the other two to go outside and play. It's not raining too hard, and they're having fun, so why not?

Unfound, those are great ideas!! I've been thinking about a blanket fort lately, but since we don't have a great furniture layout for one I bought some of those hooks that you can take off the wall easily. I figured those, coupled with our sheets and clothespins, will make one kick-ass fort.

jump in muddy puddles!! =) we also do a lot of painting in the house with washable paint in the kitchen. It does get messy but its in the kitchen, so clean up is easy.

my kids will do that for hours.

Mud hikes or outside playtime. Give them water bottles and snacks in baggies and tell them they're on some sort of adventure trying to find their way back to civilization. This has ALWAYS worked for my kids. They're miserable out there and LOVING it.

Crayola has window markers now. They're pretty good, but before those came along I handed the kids of box of dri-erase markers and let them decorate every window and the sliding glass door in back. Best part? They love to clean the windows. They cleaned their own mess up and started over on a few of them.

I taught my kids how to cross stitch and crochet. Even the boy does it. On bad weather days, I pull out my various baskets and bins and everybody spends time tying knots and poking one another with sharp things. I put on Kidz Bop and we have a craft party.

Duct tape and jute. Mouths shut and bodies in chairs. Just make sure CPS doesn't find out.

My kids were fort builders. Their other favorite thing was to play "lava" - moving around the house without touching the ground, and when they did touch it, they would die horrible, dramatic, 5-minute long deaths and then reset the game and start over.