Activity Jars for Kids

It's been a few weeks since I posted a DIY, and that's not because I haven't been making stuff. It's more like I haven't had time to blog about all the things we've been making! So I'm doing a little catch-up on some of these projects.
This is my daughter's last week of school, and summer is right around the corner for us. Some of you may already been on your summer break. As a first year stay at home mom, this will be my first summer vacation with my kids and no child care. I am excited and terrified at the same time. As a former camp counselor I am familiar with the importance of keeping children occupied and planning activities. But I also have an infant son, so my daughter and I may not always be able to leave the house to do things because her brother will need to nap. We do have a decent sized yard, a kiddie pool, and three pups to keep the kiddos busy, but you always need a backup plan. What if it's raining? What if I'm exhausted? What if it is just to dang hot in the middle of an Oklahoma summer to be outside? So I made a backup plan, with some assistance from my amazingly helpful daughter. We created these activity jars filled with ideas and activities to keep little minds engaged and out of trouble. 

What you'll need:
Some old cans
Washi tape
Wooden Sticks
Marker
First thing's first, clean out your cans. Remove labels and wash them all off
Second decorate with washi tape, paint, paper, or whatever you want. We used washi tape so that we could coordinate the wooden sticks to their can.
Next decide the categories of activities you would like to have. For ours we decided on energy activities for when we have, well...lots of energy, creative activities, most of which can be done inside, family activities that we can all do together, and quiet time activities that my daughter can do on her own when we need the house to be a little more quiet. Later I added a chore jar as well that my daughter can pick a chore out of every day to help me keep the house in order over the summer. 
After we had all of our categories, we came up with different activities that would fit into each category. Quinn was really helpful in the this area, and she came up with some great ideas. We wrote one activity on each wooden stick and I had her put matching tape on one end. 

And that's it. Super easy to do and also easy for kids to help make and participate in the process. My daughter is very excited about these jars and she asks every day to pick an activity out. The best part is we can change the activities any time, or add new ones as we think of them. 

Here's a list of activities we used for our jars

Energy:  
Biking, wash the car, play with the puppies, dress up, dance party, go to the park, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, water play, work in the garden
Quiet Time: 
Tablet games, painting, reading, practice letters and numbers, rest time, journal, coloring, free draw, watch a show
Family:
Go for a hike, play a game, go to the library, have a fire, go to the lake, walk the dogs, do a science project, watch a movie, get ice cream
Creative:
Sew something, reuse something, paper airplanes, cook something, sculpt something, paint something, make slime, bake something

The chore jar is my favorite addition. I usually use the time that my daughter is in school and my husband is at work to do the daily cleaning and picking up around the house. But soon I will lose this time to summer break and vacation. I am also working with my daughter on being more responsible and helping out around the house, so this is a perfect way to get her involved. It's fun and she gets to help decide what chores will go into the chore jar.
I hope this gives all of you other parents out there some ideas for your own kids. Summer can be hard without the structure of a school schedule and routine. And I know not every parent has the ability to enroll their children in a summer program or camp. I know I can't. So keep them busy and keep them happy! 😃

Let me know in the comments if you have done similar projects at your house, or if you have a suggestion.