We’re headed to California next week to take care of my grandmother as she recovers from back surgery.  Recovery and two young children don’t always go hand-in-hand.  That said, my two boys are so excited about going and helping and spending time with their Great-Grandmother, that I’m hoping it’ll be a wonderful experience for all of us.

In order to keep my boys entertained during times when my grandma needs quiet over the next couple weeks, I picked up a few activity books from our favorite local bookstore.  You can also find all of the things I bought online.  They look like lots of fun, and I’m hoping they’ll go over well.  In addition to these goodies, I plan to utilize my grandma’s local library to check out lots and lots of books.  Wish me luck!

For my 8-year-old:

I bought all of these things from the adult section of the bookstore.  However, since my son is very patient and detail oriented, I think they’ll work well for him.

Ultimate Dot-to-Dot Animals.  This book contains very detailed dot-to-dots that include over 1,000 dots per picture.  Perfect.

Ultimate Mazes.  I’m hoping these will be challenging without being too frustrating.  We’ll see how it goes.  They’re definitely complex.

Paint by Sticker: Birds.  My son completed THIS Paint by Sticker set last year, and created some beautiful pictures.  I’m sure he’ll enjoy this book.

For my 4-year-old:

Patty’s Little Handbook of Dots.  When my little guy saw that I was buying his brother a dot-to-dot book, he wanted one too.  This one has simple designs and alternates between using letters and numbers to complete the picture.  He can recognize most letters and numbers, so I’m hoping this will build on and reinforce those skills.

My First Sticker by Numbers.  Again, my younger son saw that I chose a sticker design book for his brother, and he wanted one of his own.  I’m hoping he’ll have fun with this one.

For both boys:

Chinese Jump Rope.  To help keep everyone moving so they don’t have too much pent up energy, I also picked up a Chinese jump rope.  I’m hoping we can all jump together.  It’ll improve coordination as well as be fun.  And if it’s raining and we can’t make it outside, it’s movement we can do in the living room without damaging anything.

I also mailed several new games out to my grandmother’s house.  I’ll let you know what we think of them after we play them.

What sort of things keep your kids independently entertained when you need time to focus on other matters?