Sometimes it's all in the presentation.



If you suggest to your child, "Why don't you do eighteen jumping jacks?", they'd probably refuse.  But if a paper plate makes the same suggestion, well, to a kid that kind of presentation just can't be argued with.



Pat Sayjak and Vanna White, eat your hearts out, because today we are yukking it up with the "Wheel of Fun."



Draw lines on the face of a white paper plate in order to divvy it into ten equally sized segments.  In each, write a fun or silly activity for your child to perform.  Some examples:



    1.  Spin in a circle while singing a song.



    2.  Take three towels from the linen closet and make some funny clothes for yourself.



    3.  Draw something very fast, then make people guess what it is.



    4.  Call somebody in our family on the phone.



    5.  Do eighteen jumping jacks.



And so on.



After you've filled in the activities, punch a small hole in the middle of the plate.  Either insert a spinner from one of your family's board games (we used one from Chutes and Ladders in the photo) or find a wall with a protruding nail on which to hang the wheel.  Each child spins the kids gameswheel, and then gets to perform the task.  Repeat as much as you guys want.



This is a lot of fun -- and it makes for a great rainy day activity. Kids love the excitement of getting random results, and they love spinning the wheel.



If you're feeling particularly cheeky, you can sneak a couple of activities onto the wheel that will benefit you alone.  You could try adding "fold the laundry" or "wash the kitchen floor" to the wheel to see what results you can get!   Have fun, and get spinning!

For more free, family fun, check out the over 600 great ideas at TodayIsFun.com!

See Also:

-Tips on How to Survive Summer Boredom

-Need a Summer Activity? Play with Ice?

-How Did You Get Your Kids to Swim?