• Keep a special "sick day" box filled with lollipops, books, a craft project, stuffed animal, puzzles, juice boxes and small toys from the dollar store.

• Get a child-size inflatable raft or sleeping bag, make it cozy with blankets and pillows and "anchor" it in the family room. Your child can watch TV, color or nap while he pretends he's in the middle of a great big ocean.

• If you have a tile floor, give your child a bucket of sidewalk chalk and let him draw on it. Cleanup is easy with a wet mop.

• For feverish kids, put their pillowcase in the fridge for a few minutes. It's refreshing, and not as messy as a wet washcloth.

• For chicken pox, get out some calamine lotion and Q-tips and play "Connect the Pox."

• Fill a large plastic tub with water, sand, oatmeal, small rocks or rice. Then add funnels, plastic bottles and small toys.

• Watch videos of your child when she was a baby.

• Make a big fort in the living room, using lots of pillows, sheets and blankets.

• Make Popsicles with juice or Gatorade.