Hello everyone,
We had some crazy weather in parts of Connecticut today . . . and we ended up losing our power for three hours. My almost 5 year old daughter said that it was "boring" without power . . . so we decided to go over to the picture window where there was still some light coming in, and we read a few of her favorite books. As it got darker outside and the storm stopped, we ended up going to my parents' house for a little while. My question is . . . does anyone have any fun ideas of things to do with young kids during power outages? I looked on the internet and found a few suggestions . . . but I thought I'd run it by the Moms here at Mamasource and see if anyone can come up with some fun and interesting things to do.
Thanks.
T. M.
Build a fort out of pillows and blankets and parts of the couch, play hide and seek, tell silly stories, play 20 questions, play I Spy.
When the power goes out at my house we usually play board games. My fiance, daughter and I, automattically go to grab games when the power goes out, I've been doing that since I was 3 years old, and I did it when it was just my fiance and I also before we had our daughter.
Depends on the type of storm. Snowstorms are fun to watch. Better yet if you have a gas stove. My mom used to cook popcorn on the gas stove, and we used to make "bets" as to which cars would wind up in the ditch accross the street from driving too fast. Then Dad would call the police and tow truck to get them out. We also sang our favorite songs together and just spend family talking time.
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I recently wrote a children's book and was wondering why you decided to self-publish. I've been reading books about submitting my manuscript to different size publishing houses . . . what is needed and what to leave out. Did you try submitting it to a publishing house? Who did your illustrations? How are you promoting the book? Thanks for answering my questions.
BTW, I would have some flashlights prepared and make a cool fort in the living room when the lights go out. Good luck!
M.
Hi! I have some great memeories from when I was little and we lost power. We had my dad's Coleman camping light (now they come battery powered from LL Bean) and we would play board games, card games, do puzzels and tell stories. It was a really nice bonding time for the family. My kids love it now and they are 9 and 6. When we lost power in the summer a couple years ago, they were excited to go "camping" in the family room (so that we could all be together) and we all slept there until the power came back on.
Have fun!
My husband likes to make hand shadows on the wall, and let the kids guess what they are. He does this even when the power hasn't gone out. He just turns off the lights. Also, if you put the flashlight in the center of the floor and shine it straight up at the ceiling, it adds a lot of light to the room. Great for kids who might be afraid of the dark while hearing thunder outside. You should also make sure you have batteries for a CD player, and some fun dance music. If you're lucky, the dancing will burn up enough energy so your daughter won't have to say she's bored. She'll fall asleep when she's finished dancing.
I just looked up your book and it looks cute. Are you using this for your next idea?
Hi T.
Congrats on the book!! Hope it is a huge success!!!
As for power outage things to do, I have fond memories of playing board games, or dominoes when the lights went out when I was a child. Today you might want to use flameless candles but then we used lit candles. We played cards or dominoes with our children.
Now, when we lost power for 8 days after hurricane in NC, then moved to NY just in time for a power outage of 10 days with the ice storm(both federal disasters) the girls needed other things to do, so we did a camp adventure both times. For the occasional evening games with candles are fond memories, my kids say so too.
Today we made that so much fun that they call those times of disaster an adventure and look forward to them.
God bless you
K. -- SAHM married 38 years -- adult children -- 37, coach; 33, lawyer, married 8 years, son almost 1yo; twins 19, in different colleges, after home schooling and making the Dean's List each semester.
That was crazy, wasn't it?? We're just north of you. :)
We pretend we are camping, and do most of the things we would do w/o power at a campsite. I will lay a blanket out on the floor and serve snacks there like a picnic. They will create a campsite with the couch cushions and some blankets and that keeps them busy for long time!
Try building a fort/cave by drapping blankets over a table and chairs. Hide out and tell stories, or pretend your in a tent camping.
Get out the flashlights and make shadow figures on the wall.
Read books by flashlight.
If you have a good latern (preferably battery powered) play cards or board games.
We used to look forward to power outages (had them several times a winter and some lasted up to a week or two. I can't remember any that lasted as little as 3 hours. :D)
It was a great time for ghost stories (or any camp stories). We played card games, different board games, had impromptu "camp outs" on the living room floor using sheets and blankets to make tents over the furniture, put on mini-plays & recitals, took turns reading stories by candlelight, played dress-up and did some crafting (whatever we felt like at the time). Our heat source was a wood stove, so we popped popcorn, roasted marshmallows around the stove.
