Vacations Activity Ideas
Today, we embarked on an ambitious vacations activity ideas: making a flower wreath out of egg boxes and cardboard. The inspiration does not come from us, we saw this happening on Instagram a few months ago, and it tempted us well. So we set aside a few boxes of eggs (we even recycled the purple boxes of Milka boiled eggs, that’s always less to paint!) And cardboard. Finally, we had pom poms, so we decided to use them, but it’s optional.
For the cutting of egg cartons, it all depends on the age of your children, but it is better to plan to do it beforehand and between adults because it is pretty long and a little tricky. Let’s say that with a good cutter or very precise scissors, it will be easier to get beautiful, well-cut flowers.
Idea 1: Make a spring wreath from recycled materials
The painting stage is the one that the children liked the most vacations activity ideas. We used acrylic paint because it has more coverage than gouache. However, be careful, it stains, so you have to protect the table and clothes.
It was an opportunity to work on certain mixtures of colours to obtain green or pink. We proceeded in two stages of easy and simple drawing for kids. first, paint the exterior and dry a little, then the interior. Then count about 2 hours for good drying of the elements before glueing.
For the glueing step, we used a glue gun because it is fast and efficient. We, the adults, took care of it because there is still a risk of burns for young children. But it is also quite possible to do with universal liquid glue.
And here’s how to make a pretty wreath to bring spring into the house!
Idea 2: Listen to podcasts to learn, get information, get away from it all
Since the first lockdown, we have discovered many podcasts for children vacations activity ideas. One of the main interests of podcasts is to promote attentive listening. In a world of zapping and visual passivity, this is a valuable skill to train. And if in addition, it allows them to learn new things, learn about the world, or escape into a story.
So at home or school, in a listening centre, podcasts are an essential resource.
Where quite simply to put the children at the end of the day. When the excitement rises, we have established the ritual of listening to a podcast.
Here are our favourites:
- The Odyssey: a magnificent series to discover remarkable or bizarre facts of history and historical figures. A jewel! It’s the darling podcast of the whole family.
- Myths and Legends: Produced by Quelle Histoire, these high-quality podcasts tell children about the world’s mythologies. This week’s program: listen to season 2, which has just been released and looks very cool.
- OLMA: this scientific series lays the first foundations of astrology, physics, and geology for 8-12-year-olds (but adults will also learn things there;)).
- Bestioles: brand new series devoted to animals for children (5-8 years). Our five-year-old daughter liked the animal voices, but we didn’t. It is our minor drawback to this podcast.
- America for Kids: this mini-series produced for the recent American elections allows children to discover some elements of American history and culture: the conquest of the West, weapons, political system, Trump. Exciting!
- Hello Info: this weekly program is essential for talking about current affairs at the children’s level, especially in this somewhat uncertain period.
- A story and OLI: pretty stories to entertain the youngest: the little mouse, Santa Claus. Our five-year-old loves them.
- Stories in music: classical and world tales against a background of classical music. Very soothing.
- The adventures of Tintin: It was our big crush of the first confinement. The evening family ritual: sit down and listen together to one or two episodes of Tintin.
Idea 3: Make a bouncing egg
Here is an experience effortless to implement at home (or at school) and which the children liked. Material level, all you need is an egg, white vinegar, and a glass vacations activity ideas. We could observe an astonishing phenomenon quickly (less than 1 minute): hundreds of bubbles formed on the egg’s surface. Then they came back up, and it was a continuous flow. The children were amazed: “Wow! It’s like the egg is sparkling! »Exclaimed our five years old 🙂
Our schoolboy then explained that it was the vinegar, acid, which attacked the calcareous shell and produced CO2, therefore bubbles. Too proud to be able to show what he had learned in physics and chemistry;)
After 12 hours, we could observe that a kind of membrane had detached and floated on the surface of the glass. The egg appeared much clearer, almost white in places, and there were always plenty of bubbles.
Finally, after 24 hours, we rinsed the egg under the tap, and the greedy little hands were finally able to handle it. Since the time they were waiting for this!
We were able to move on to the observation phase:
- Observation 1: The egg was soft.
- Observation 2: he was bouncy.
- Observation 3: it let the light pass if we put a source behind. The guaranteed success of the “flaming dragon egg” effect!
In short, an informative science session, economical, easy to achieve, and fun as we like them!
This idea is inspired by the book “The easiest scientific experiments in the world,” Simplissime collection, published by Hachette.
Idea 4: participate in the game “Find my pebble.”
Do you know this game from across the Channel vacations activity ideas? It’s been all the rage for a few years now in Anglo-Saxon countries (under the name “loveontherocks”), and it’s starting to flourish in France. We discovered it a few weeks ago, and since then, it has enhanced our family walks.
The principle is straightforward: everyone can decorate pebbles (by writing #trouvemongalet on the back) and hide them (in a park, on a path, in the street). So that other people can find them. When you find a pebble, you can take it and hide it elsewhere (or keep it if it is too good). The goal is to make the pebbles that we find travel.
There are groups on Facebook where you can share the photo and location of a pebble found and indicate where you will drop it in turn. It doesn’t have to be, but it’s nice to hear from your gravel!
