Spring break: 6 fun activities to do at home

mère-fille-expériences-scientifiques-relâcheShe comes back every year with more or less 100 hours to organize! After burning the exit to the museum, library or zoo, how to entertain young and old? Pop Shoes arrives in reinforcement with various proposals to make at home. Become the manager of a special camp for school break thanks to our inspirations of fun family activities to do with children, regardless of their age and interest.

Make friendship bracelets with embroidery threads

No matter our generation, we all made friendship bracelets during our primary or secondary years. Besides, embroidery threads may be lying around in the tote wardrobe or in the DIY corner of the house. Can't remember how to tie them together to form a pretty wedding? YouTube is full of tutorials to be able to make pretty models. One of them, our favourite, guides us to make a circular template with a hole in the center using a piece of cardboard from the recycling bin, such as a box of cereal or Kleenex. Notches around the circle hold the threads to prevent them from getting mixed up and then just learn the formula which repeats until the bracelet is finished.

 

Consult the bracelet tutorial with template Youtube.

 

Spring Break Advent Calendar

All children love the advent calendar in December! Why not be inspired by it freely to prepare a container in which will be a series of strips of paper on which will be a fun activity to do during the break. Take a Mason jar out of the cupboard, cut out a series of paper, pencils and then gather everyone around the table. Then, take out ideas and as soon as they are unanimous, you can write it down on a piece of paper. Need inspiration? A cuddly toy cabin, the dinner chosen by the children, an hour of fun challenges, tube slides in the evening, a snowball fight, building a snowman, an hour of board games, camping in the same room, cooking a dessert, movies and popcorn, or any fun activity. Each morning, the child or children take turns picking up the day's activity.

fake lava lamp

One of the activities that inevitably magnifies curious little eyes is organizing a science lab at home. We can think of the famous erupting volcano or glue, the formulas of which you will find on the website of the Débrouillards, a gold mine of information for parents who are adept at scientific experiments. Otherwise, we recently tested with a nephew and a niece a lava lamp from Coup de Pouce which had a great success. The necessary ingredients are easily found in the kitchen, such as vegetable oil, food coloring and an empty bottle that closes with a cork or a Mason jar. The only detour to the pharmacy could be to pick up Alka Seltzer effervescent tablets. Then all you have to do is fill the container halfway with vegetable oil, add about 30 ml (2 tablespoons) of tap water, choose your favorite color of food coloring and add several drops. Warning: the contents should never be shuffled. The magic will work on its own when you add the effervescent tablet. To impress then, by turning off all the lights to gain darkness and then, put a light source under the container to illuminate your scientific recipe.

 

 

Tinkering with “clouds”: paint that swells

If you snoop on Pinterest, you've already seen this type of craft that you slide in the microwave to inflate your drawing.

 

Here is the recipe:

  • 250 ml (1 cup) flour
  • 30 ml (2 tbsp) salt
  • 30 ml (2 tbsp) baking soda
  • Water
  • Dye(s), of your choice
  •  

    In a bowl, mix the flour, salt and baking soda. Slowly add water until enough water forms to obtain a texture similar to pancake batter. Then, if you want different pasta colors, divide the pasta into several more bowls and add a few drops of food coloring to each. At best, you will fill bottles with small squeezable tips so that you can easily “paint” with your preparations. Otherwise, you can also use brushes to make your artwork.

     

    Finally, choose a thick cardboard for your creation to avoid soaking your material and a size that will easily enter the microwave. 15 to 30 seconds in the microwave is enough to inflate the dough.

    Paper mache on balloon

    Let's stick with the messy-type activities and go for an age-old craft: papier-mâché! A fun way to do this craft is to blow up a party balloon and then cover it with strips of newspaper dipped in flour mixed with water. Then you can form just about any animal head. Also, you could turn a bowl of soup upside down and use it as a template or start from a pint of milk to make a house or a rectangular container.

     

    Keep in mind that it takes on average 5 measures of cold water for 1 measure of flour.

     

     

    Cooking meringue

    Do you have one or more passionate budding chefs at home? How about guiding them to crack eggs, beat whites until stiff peaks form and then use the piping bag like a master chef? The Federation of Egg Producers of Quebec also offers us a simple recipe in 4 steps that are easy to follow and therefore hard to miss.

     

    Have fun! 

    With one of these ideas, we have the potential to raise the bar for this long March break. Obviously, we proposed a host of relatively quiet activities for the house. You could also let yourself be inspired by the proposals of the team of our sister company, Go Sport, which has a host of ideas for get the kids moving either indoor activities, outdoor activities, in short, a multitude of activities!


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