Well, it looks as though we’re facing a rainy/snowy rest of the week here in Western New York. Rainy days with a three year old are tough, especially since we try to limit Jaden’s television viewing and he’ll only colour or play with blocks for so long. We often love to bake together, but then the house is full of foods I’d rather not have around, especially since I’m 30 weeks pregnant and want to eat everything in sight!

One of my favourite games a child was Memory, and the last time I was at a home improvement store I thought of a fun idea that would help while away even more time. Take a trip to your nearest home improvement store and head straight to the paint section. Select colour swatches from the paint section with squares that are all the same size, and be sure to take two of each colour your child likes. If you’re anything like my family, a trip to the riding mowers is inevitable, but hey, it’s all time well spent.

I feel as though the rules to Memory are universally known, but then again maybe I shouldn’t make such an assumption. So once you have your colour swatches, mix them up and lay them out upside down in a grid. You and your child take turns turning over the cards, two at a time. If you have a match you take the pair and then try again. The person with the most sets of matches at the end of the game wins. After you’re finished with the memory game, you can use the colour swatches and either string them together to make a fan, or cut them into smaller pieces and let your child glue them onto a cardboard shape you’ve cut out to make a mosaic.