We have year round school here in NL, but I know many of you are already on summer vacation, or nearly there. While I like year round school for various reasons, I can see my kids fading in these last few weeks, so July’s holiday will be a blessing.
That said, part of me always dreads these long breaks because I just don’t know what to do with them. If I had it my way, we would hang out here at home every day. It is getting easier now that they are a little older and more self-sufficient, but with boredom comes a general grumpiness that I would like to avoid if possible. And while my kids are most excellent at creative play, no child can fill six or more weeks of nothingness alone.
I wish I could tell you how creative and organized I am, and that I’ve planned awesome activities for every time a child comes to ask what there is to do. I wish I could tell you all the activities I planned involve materials found around the house. And mostly I wish I could tell you I’ve created a step by step tutorial for you to follow.
HA. HAHA. HAHAHAHAHA.
I am kind of hoping we survive these last few weeks so we can get to all the fun stuff that we don’t have planned.
What I have done, though, is found some fantastic websites whose authors have done all of the above things for us. I figured there is no reason to reinvent the wheel. Below are some things I’ve found to spark creativity in our kids. And in us a little too.
- Red Ted Arts: The blog is about children’s art, but this link is to a great post on crafts for boys
- Built By Kids: I just recently ran across this blog, and I must admit I’m smitten. Don’t discount it if your kids are small, there are projects starting at toddler age. I love that it emphasizes building and not just crafting
- All for the Boys: As the name implies, activities are geared towards boys. But that won’t stop my daughter from joining in on many of these ideas.
- Inner Child Fun: This blog looks great, but I haven’t tried anything from it yet.
- DIY.org: This site is my latest find. I am way excited about the things I’ve seen, including the pretty cool iPhone app. It is basically a community where you can upload what you’ve done, explore what others have done, and rate projects you see. It is secure through the use of avatars, and parents have access to a control panel where they can monitor activity and set limits if need be.
With this arsenal of tools, I am hopeful that this could possibly be the best summer ever, to paraphrase a line from my kids’ favorite TV show, Phineas and Ferb. I hope you find what you need to keep your kids creating as well.
