It comes back every year with roughly 100 hours to organize! After exhausting museum trips, library visits, or zoo outings, how do you entertain both little ones and grown-ups? POP Shoes comes to the rescue with a variety of suggestions to do at home. Become the manager of a special camp for the school break with our fun family activity inspirations to do with children, no matter their age or interests.
Make friendship bracelets with embroidery threads
No matter our generation, we all made friendship bracelets during elementary or high school years. In fact, embroidery threads might be lying around in the catch-all closet or the craft corner at home. Don’t remember how to tie them together to make a pretty pattern? YouTube is full of tutorials to help you create beautiful designs. One of our favorites guides you to make a circular template with a hole in the center using a piece of cardboard from the recycling bin, like a cereal box or tissue box. Notches around the circle hold the threads to keep them from mixing, and then you just need to learn the repeating pattern until the bracelet is finished.
Check out the bracelet tutorial with template on YouTube.
School break-style advent calendar
All kids go crazy for advent calendars in December! Why not take inspiration from that to prepare a container holding a series of paper strips, each with a fun activity to do during the break. Grab a Mason jar from the cupboard, cut a bunch of paper strips, get some pencils, and gather everyone around the table. Then, brainstorm ideas and once they’re agreed upon, write each one on a strip of paper. Need inspiration? A blanket fort, dinner chosen by the kids, an hour of fun challenges, evening tube sliding, a snowball fight, building a snowman, an hour of board games, camping in the same room, baking a dessert, movie and popcorn, or any other playful activities. Each morning, the child or children take turns drawing the day’s activity.
The fake lava lamp
One activity that inevitably widens curious little eyes is setting up a science lab at home. You might think of the famous erupting volcano or slime, with recipes available on the Débrouillards website—a goldmine of information for parents who love science experiments. Alternatively, we recently tried a lava lamp from Coup de pouce with a nephew and niece, which was a big hit. The ingredients are easy to find in the kitchen, like vegetable oil, food coloring, and an empty bottle that can be sealed with a cap or a Mason jar. The only pharmacy run might be to get some Alka Seltzer effervescent tablets. Then just fill the container halfway with vegetable oil, add about 30 ml (2 tablespoons) of tap water, choose your favorite food coloring and add several drops. Warning: never stir the contents. The magic happens on its own when you add the effervescent tablet. To really impress, turn off all the lights to darken the room, then place a light source under the container to illuminate your scientific creation.
Craft “clouds”: puff paint
If you browse Pinterest, you’ve probably seen this kind of craft that you microwave to puff up the drawing.
Here’s the recipe:
- 250 ml (1 cup) flour
- 30 ml (2 tablespoons) salt
- 30 ml (2 tablespoons) baking soda
- Water
- Food coloring(s), your choice
In a bowl, mix the flour, salt, and baking soda. Slowly add water until you get enough to achieve a texture similar to pancake batter. Then, if you want different colored doughs, divide the dough into several bowls and add a few drops of food coloring to each. Ideally, fill bottles with small squeezable tips to easily “paint” with your mixtures. Otherwise, you can also use brushes to create your artwork.
Finally, choose a thick cardboard for your creation to avoid soaking your materials and a size that fits easily in the microwave. 15 to 30 seconds in the microwave is enough to puff up the dough.
Paper mache on a balloon
Let’s stay with messy activities and go for a craft as old as time: paper mache! A fun way to do this craft is to inflate a party balloon and then cover it with strips of newspaper dipped in a flour-water mixture. Then you can shape almost any animal head. You could also turn a soup bowl upside down and use it as a mold or start with a milk carton to make a house or a rectangular container.
Keep in mind that the average ratio is 5 parts cold water to 1 part flour.
Make meringue
Do you have one or more budding little chefs at home? How about guiding them to crack eggs, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form, and then use a piping bag like a pro? The Quebec Egg Producers Federation offers a simple recipe in 4 easy steps that’s hard to mess up.
Have a blast!
With one of these ideas, you have the potential to raise the bar for this long March break. Of course, we’ve suggested a bunch of relatively calm activities for home. You could also get inspired by the proposals from the team at our sister company, Go Sport, which has plenty of ideas to get kids moving—indoor activities, outdoor activities, basically a multitude of options!
