Summer in Hong Kong is absolutely miserable—contstant rain, high humidity, or terrible air quality has forced us to stay indoors for most of August. As a result, the Dumpling and I have been extremely busy at home.
Below is a recap of all the indoor activities we have done in August. Most of them involve common household materials! I also included links to external tutorials and recipes I used.
Create Faux Sea Glass
Apply Elmer’s glue mixed with food coloring onto glass bottles or vases to create a faux sea glass effect. Once dried, the stained glasses cast the prettiest light shadows in the sun!
Decorate a Cardboard Picture Frame
Cut the shape of a picture frame out of cardboard and wrap it with white paper. Decorate the frame with paint, pom poms, feathers, stickers, etc.!
Decorate Cookies
I’m not much of a baker, but everything tastes better when we add sprinkles.
Turn Chopstick into Wands
I hoard “trash”—cardboards, plastic trays, bottles, even takeout chopsticks. I knew the last item would come in handy one day because they made wonderful wands!
Paint with Droppers
Another odd thing I save is kiddy medicine droppers because they can be converted into coloring tools. Combine water and food coloring in a small container and use the dropper to squirt the colored mixture onto paper towels or baby wipes.
Decorate Cookies with Puffy Paint
This three-ingredient puffy paint recipe (made with flour, salt, and baking powder) is my absolute favorite—I always have a batch stored in the fridge. The paint is actually puffy and stays puffy and it can be air-dried or microwaved dried.
Turn Colored Transparencies into Stained Glass or Lanterns
Similar to the faux sea glass activity, apply Elmer’s glue tinted with food coloring onto plastic transparencies to make stained glass or suncathcers. I also taped the sheets together to make a lantern and lit it up with my phone flashlight at night.
Paint with Toy Cars
Squirt some paint on a piece of paper and run toy cars through the paint.
Have a Soap Bubble Tea Party
Pouring stations are always a hit with the Dumpling. I added pom poms and foam soap for her to scoop into our “tea”.
Mix Baking Soda and Vinegar
Add food coloring to vinegar for a colorful eruption.
Create a Popsicle Stick Puzzle
The Dumpling loves looking at herself, so it’s no surprise she was really into solving a puzzle of herself. This classic craft is made with a photo glued onto popsicle sticks using mod podge.
Bust Out the Play Dough for Open Ended Play
I usually make a HUGE batch of fresh play dough every few months, store them in separate ziplock bags in the fridge, and bust one out whenever I’m in a bind.
I rotate the accessories that I put out with the play dough—different cookie cutter shapes, lego blocks, scissors, etc. If the dough is on its last legs, I let the Dumpling mix in all sorts of stuff…like coffee grind.
Jump On An Oobleck Muddy Puddle
Oobleck (cornstarch mixed with water) is one of my favorite messy play materials. Being seemingly both solid and liquid at the same time, the Dumpling is endlessly fascinated by it.
I set up a Peppa-themed activity with her Peppa toys, muddy puddle made out of oobleck, and bubble bath made out of foam soap…I think all of the Dumpling’s Peppa dreams came true with this one.
Jump On Real Puddles
Sometimes cabin fever can only be cured by escaping to the outside world. We just put on our boots and embrace all that the heavy rain has left behind.
To create the translucent paint, we mixed one drop of gel food coloring with four tablespoons of Elmer’s glue for each desired color. The Dumpling painted the mixture onto four square transparency sheets.
mrs. jigg 