Summer time is a great time to relax and recharge, but if you're a parent of little ones, I'm sure you've already started searching Pinterest for ideas for how to keep your kids entertained! Here are a few ideas that I've used in the classroom, that you can give a try at home!
1. Homemade Playdough!
This 3-ingredient playdough recipe was super fun and more importantly, SUPER EASY. I found a video on YouTube that explains all the steps - here's the link to the video, but I'll include the main points below as well:
You'll need about 1 cup of flour and 1/2 cups of water and salt. That's it! If you want to add colour, you can use food colouring or washable paint, but I'd recommend using gloves to knead your dough when you add the colour in to avoid staining your hands. You can keep your playdough from drying out by storing it in a ziploc bag.
2. Shrink Art!
Shrink Art is without a doubt one of the COOLEST at home crafts you can make. I can't believe a crafty kid like me went my whole childhood without this, but don't worry, I definitely made up for it when I became a camp counsellor - you had to drag me away from the Shrink Art station LOL! You'll need to buy the Shrink Art paper, but besides that, you should have everything you need at home. One thing to note is that children will need to be supervised by an adult to complete this craft as they'll need to bake their art in the oven!
Here's how it works:
1. Purchase the shrink art paper! I'll leave a link to a site for an example, but definitely shop around!
2. Colour in the images with pencil crayon or permanent marker.
3. Hole punch a hole into your shrink art so when it bakes, you can use it as a key chain!
4. Follow the direction on the shrink art paper box in regards to cook time and temperature.
5. Once it cools, you can add it to a bracelet, lanyard, backpack, you name it! See below for some examples.
3. Digital Sand Art
This is one I heard about during our most recent virtual learning block, from fellow teachers on Instagram! It's a website called This Is Sand and there is also an app as well. This is a great one for kids in the car, or even to practice mindfulness - I had my students work on sand art while we played some nature soundtracks and they really loved it. It became a favourite in my class for sure! You also do not need to create an account, and if your child wants to print out their work to keep, you can screenshot the page and print! As an adult, you might also want to give sand art a try - it's super relaxing.