Silly games when kids are restless or need a distraction

[Cathy_B]

Hi all, I was inspired by a post in a previous thread to start this thread. What do you do with your kids when they are restless in the store or restaurant? How do you make cleaning up the toys into a fun time? How do you get some quiet time when an important phone call comes in?

Here's one example that I used with my then-2-year-old. I was waiting in line for passport photos for at least a half hour once. It was a queue ... no taking a number then waiting to be called. We were stuck.

Fortunately the floor had patterns on it. So when my ds couldn't take the line anymore (and who could expect him to) I had him: walking on the yellow line, then walking backwards on it, then turning circles on it, then jumping on it, then jumping from the yellow line to green line ... whatever I could think of.

So what has worked for you????????