Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Activity Packets

Remember how I said I wanted to put together some packets for the kid to do this summer? Well, I did. I possibly went overboard. But, that's kind of what I do.  I spent my weekend scouring Pin.terest for activities for the boys to do this summer while home with their Poppa. I came up with a lot. As in, I had to narrow them down to what: A. was reasonable to be accomplished in the summer. B. hubby would realistically agree to do with the boys. And C. I was willing to purchase the supplies for. I went shopping. And then the real work started.

I spent hours Saturday and Sunday working on the packets. I decided that I had to make the activities do-able and ready-to-go in order to hubby and the kid to do them. A simple list of "here you could try these things" wasn't going to cut it.

Here's what I did. I picked out activities that varied in several ways. There are science experiments, water play, art, reading, math, experiential, etc... Some are over-and-done in less than 30min activities, and others take a week to see the results. Some activities the kid can do on his own, others necessitate lots of support from hubby. Some have 1-2 supplies, others a long list. Some allow baby E to get in on the action, while other are just for the kid.

I printed out directions for each activity. Some of the directions are as simple as "water balloon pinata - fill, hit, have fun!". Some are 1-2 pages - those are generally the more involved science experiment ones. Then I stuck those and as many of the supplies possible into zip.loc bags. The tree hugger in me cringed at all the plastic I used. The organizer in me couldn't not do it though so organized they are. (Sorry, environment. We'll make it up to you somehow!)

Now, if I had more time (and, frankly, desire), I'd have labeled or color-coded them all in some way to help hubby and the kid be able to easily recognize which take longer, necessitate adult supervision, etc... But I didn't. Maybe next time.

They're all in their little (big) bags now and in a tote down in my scrapbook room. Pics of the first one to be posted later this week. Fingers crossed that hubby and the kid continue to use them, which means I'll have lots more pics to share as the summer continues. Thanks to several of you, also, for your ideas! We're going to incorporate several :)


Today's lesson: Here are the links to a few of the sites I found and got great ideas from.
Kids Count 1234
The New Home Ec
Science Bob
Play, Create, Explore
Play at Home Mom

3 comments:

Alex said...

Very cool! I can't wait to see the pics of your activity bags. Way to go, mom, for doing such cool things for your boys - big and small.

And thanks for the links. I just got lost on the internet for 30 minutes exploring these... :)

the boy's behaviour said...

I love the idea of this and am now starting to plan something similar for my son's long summer holiday.

Thanks to you posting this now, I've got another 5 weeks of planning which allows me plenty of time to prepare them.

Look forward to seeing your photos x

AS said...

I really appreciate that you did this without rancor towards your husband for not managing it on his own. I struggle sometimes with the mismatch between the reality of my husband's fathering and my expectations (and he really is a great father, just not me).