Inside: This Mother’s Day activity bundle has puzzles, code breakers, Sudoku, activity challenges, I Spy, fun facts, spatial thinking crafts, and games.
What is a mother?
A giver and lover of life…
a biological wonder…
the embodiment of love and patience….
the center of the family….
a singular and irreplaceable influence in our lives….
Yes, to all, in my opinion, but you know what else? She’s a scrambler, a get-everything-together-er, a help-everybody-with-everything-er, a champion of reliability, an athlete of raw endurance, and sometimes… sometimes… she’s quite tired.
So even on Mother’s Day, when we celebrate her role and invaluable contribution to life, family, and society – we can also give her a break. Enter this giant pack of Mother’s Day activities for kids to keep ’em busy so Mom can relax, and hopefully also provide some ideas and inspiration for how to express the appreciation we should all feel for our mothers every day.
Mother’s Day Games
Games are what we (and especially kids) do when we don’t have to do anything else. Like a spoonful of sugar, if you make it into a game, it happens easily and with pleasure. I have a couple of simple games for little ones, like Tic-Tac-Toe and “Are You My Mother?”
Plus, some like I Spy (with a bit of counting practice) and “Mother, May I?” as well as one to help kids get to know their mom’s personality a bit better (This or That Game).
I think asking each other personality-type questions every once in a while, even when you’ve known each other all your life, is a great way to stay connected and up to date on how your loved ones are evolving…
Mother’s Day Art
Lots of art ideas for your little ones. They can make a scienc-y pop-up Mother’s Day card, design a helper to help mom with chores, finger paint, draw, color, and make cupcake toppers (to decorate cupcakes on this special day).
Something I love about holidays, in general, is that they give you permission and the opportunity to make things. Even if it’s just coloring or baking a cupcake that you’ve baked a hundred times before, the festivity of the holiday makes it into a special occasion and reminds you of how much fun it is to fill your home with beauty and color, and tasty treats!
Kids feel an enormous sense of pride when they create, and giving away their creations is so satisfying for them. So when they hand you something messy and silly and corny, give them a great big hug and tell them you love them. I suggest keeping your kids’ homemade gifts to you in a box or folder to look at whenever you want to be reminded of those moments of love.
Mother’s Day Critical Thinking Activities
For kiddos who are a little older or like a challenge, I’ve included some Sudoku puzzles (two levels of the beginner version to show them how it works) as well as a couple of riddles hidden in a secret code.
Want to push it further?
Why not ask them to invent their own riddles about Mother’s Day? It should give you a chance to take a long hot shower 🙂
Mother’s Day Activity Challenge
There are lots of possibilities here: in-depth activities to fill a few hours, not just a few minutes. If we’re going to make cupcake toppers, well, we might need some cupcakes to go along with them! I love cooking with my kids, and as they get older, they acquire more and more independence in the kitchen.
We’ve also got a scavenger hunt so active kids can run around the house and origami to stimulate some concentrated quiet time – aaaah….
Mother’s Day Spatial Thinking
Mazes are a great and satisfying brain challenge and build a sense of space and sequence; a must for navigation and even abstract reasoning. For something more hands-on – kids can cut out the pattern to make a box! This kind of transformation helps your mind understand how objects are put together – it’s also excellent for holding mini-chocolates. 🙂
Mother’s Day Fun Facts and History
Motherhood has been around since the beginning of life itself! No surprise, then, that motherhood has its own symbols, linguistic referents, and a deep etymology. Go ahead and stimulate some scholarly curiosity.
Mother’s Day Language Arts
A few choices here: Mother’s Day crossword puzzle, word crumbles, and simple creative writing ideas. Sometimes the best way to reflect on mothers is through words – in fact, it often is. I’ve included brief prompts like “my mom makes me laugh when” and “one thing I hear my mom say a lot.” These are deceptively simple sentence starters that can trigger surprisingly touching, insightful, and downright hilarious responses from children.
For the creative dreamers, go for a deeper dive. These prompts ask kids to imagine what adventures they and their moms would have in “Pam-dhuni Land,” and how a movie about a superhero mom would go – hey, that one’s so close to real life, they should have no trouble coming up with ideas!
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For all the loving, patient, kind, sometimes tired, superheroic moms out there, Happy Mother’s Day!
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