Melbourne mums: School holidays in a jar
With the school holidays just about to begin I am scrambling for ideas to get everyone busy. I have decided to make a list of activities and keep them in a jar so that we can get them out every morning and have a surprise in our day.
To get this ready you will need a container, and this could be of any size, shape or form (even Tupperware or re-purposed container like a shoebox will do the trick. You can use pieces of paper, or if you want to have a more concise setup, you can use an old tin or a jar and some cardboard strings or icy pole sticks.
Take a string of cardboard or icy pole stick and write the activities you would like to do over the holidays. Here is our current list for my kiddos that are 10 and 13 years old.
Australian School holiday activities for kids
After much discussions in our household we have come up with a list of ideas that I hope we will be able to get through over the school holidays the next couple of weeks. Here are our activities:
Close your eyes and point randomly to the victorian coast line, research the interesting places in those surroundings and visit for the day.
Go for the day to a beach you haven’t yet visited near Geelong or the Mornington Peninsula.
Have a camp in the backyard with some friends (as long as we can catch up due to Covid restrictions).
Open up a Pizza restaurant, do some research on the history of pizza and cook a combination that you haven’t tried before.
Let’s have a workout: select a person to set up an obstacle course and time each other. The winner out of 5 rounds will get a prize.
Use all of your Lego in one creation
Look for boxes or bags and sort out all your Lego by colour
Go to the drive in for a movie night, even better if you go earlier to have dinner somewhere nearby. Our favourite is the Dromana Drive In, but the Dandenong drive in it’s also a great option.
Bake some cookies and decorate them. Our favourite kind of cookie is sugar cookie, here is our favourite recipe.
If your kids are a bit older then maybe making a model home could be an activity that will keep them busy for a few sessions. My girls have spent some time on their Miniature houses and I know we will have more hours spent building these lofts. Our favourite at the moment is Dora’s Loft and Jason’s Kitchen.
Run a board game championship, this activity can run over a few days. With Covid-19 and the prospect of staying at home for long periods of time, we have expanded our Board game cupboard and we have added many items. Our favourite games at the moment are: Exploding kittens, Organ attack, Chinese checkers, Rumy cards, Uno, and Cluedo. You can have a tally of the winner of each game and maybe add handycaps or fines to make the challenge a bit more interesting.
Build a 3d puzzle. Earlier this year we took our obsession of Harry Potter to new levels, when my oldest bought the 3d puzzle of Hogwarths and spent a few days building it. The puzzle came with no instructions so it was an even bigger challenge to get it done.
Make a collage of inspiring images and photos that you love and put hang it in your room for inspiration.
Grab a white shirt and experiment with natural dies like using purple onion, or yellow onion, you can also use Carrots or coffee.
Do a 3d model out of paper printing the patterns from Canon Creative Park. We printed them at Officeworks and we used a glossy paper so the models were a bit more durable. We also used double sided tape to stick the little tabs. I would recommend you to start with a simple model and work towards the more complex ones.
Learn about photography composition and general photography. you don’t need any fancy camera, just your phone can also work great for this activity.
I hope these activities will help you to manage the holidays and make it through in one piece. It’s always challenging to find things to do for them where they are engaged and have. great time.
