June - July 2002 Edition 

"I'm Bored" -- What To Do With Kids on Summer Vacation   By Jeanne Baratta (Fair Lawn's Kitchen Elf)   “Summer Time and the living is easy.” Whoever wrote those lyrics obviously didn’t have kids home for summer break! We sign them up for camp, plan vacation get-aways, but you know eventually you will hear those dreaded words “Mom (or Dad), I’m Bored!”  Fair Lawn offers a wide variety of summertime activities to keep our children busy. Visit the Fair Lawn Recreation Department's web site for more information on what is available. Our wonderful Library is another terrific source for summertime programs. They offer excellent programs for children from pre-school thru teens. Besides reading programs, arts and craft classes, talent shows, musical programs, to name a few, are on their summer schedule for 2002. These are all fabulous, please take advantage of them. Visit the library for more information and check them out on-line at their web site. So, you’ve done all this and still they are bored. Here are some nifty ideas to squash the summertime boredoms.  Get out in your own backyard!  With a little effort and planning you can create a “back yard scavenger hunt” for your kids. Make a list of about 20 or so items for your kids to find. If your children are not of reading age yet, draw some simple pictures of objects for them to find in the yard. Give them a time limit and set the boundaries for the search. Some items to include: a feather, a flat rock, a red leaf, a “y” shaped stick, etc. Don’t want to mess with nature, give the kids an inexpensive disposable camera and a list that can include things like, a bird’s nest, a cardinal, insects in flight. Set them out on a “Photographic Scavenger Hunt”, have the photos developed to see how they did. Don’t forget to put your photos in a scrap book with some journaling about their adventures. Now fix yourself some iced tea and read a book!   After dinner boredom? Did you know that lightning bugs or fireflies, that are zipping around strutting their stuff, are doing their thing to attract female lightening bugs that hide in the grass and do not fly? Set the kids out at dusk with some small flashlights, have them sit in the grass and see how many male fireflies they can fool! Put the flashlight close to the ground, when you see a male flash his light wait 2 seconds and turn the flashlight on and off. Now watch that guy turn around and head right toward you. Continue flashing back and forth and soon that firefly will land right on you!    Small children are intrigued with gardening. They especially love planting things that they can eat. I have found that my children are more likely to eat veggies if they have watched and help them grow. Give them a small piece of land, some seeds and let them tend to their own garden. Too much work you say? Ok, how about getting them to tend to an established garden? My 6 year old is a nature lover, she loves seeing how things grow, but I am not too thrilled with letting her experiment in my prized gardens. One of her jobs is dead heading the flowers, sounds crazy but she loves it! I showed her where the seeds were located in the spent flower heads, now it is her “mission” to take the seeds apart and scatter them around so they can continue to live! This works especially well with marigolds that are loaded with seeds. She can spend hours at this job, and my garden looks well maintained all the time.   Rainy Day Blues?  They can always clean their rooms! Let’s be more realistic. We have done the movies, the library, now we are stuck inside. Declare it “crazy concoction day”! This takes some work on the parents’ part and yes it is messy, but take my word for it, you will have as much (if not more) fun than the kids! Here are some easy kitchen recipes that I have used in a classroom setting with children as young as 6 and at home with children as old as 12. Some of these projects are artsy and some are just gooey and fun.  Tutti-Frutti Watercolor Paints: You need a variety of individual .13 to .23 ounce packets of unsweetened flavored powdered drink mix, such as Kool-Aid, 2 teaspoons of warm water, a spoon to stir, paint brushes and some paper (water color paper works best, but in a pinch any paper would be fine). In small disposable cups empty the contents of a Kool-aid package and 2 teaspoons of warm water and stir till dissolved. Continue with other flavors of Kool-aid, making more colors. Now give the kids some paper, paintbrushes and let them create. Now for the best part, when there masterpieces are done, tell them to “taste their creation”. Oh they will look at you a little strange at first then they will give a sly smile and soon they will be licking their art work! One rule here, no sharing art work! Refrigerate any left over paint in airtight containers for up to 3 days.  Bubble Painting: Gather up some inexpensive craft paint (acrylics, tempera, etc. work well), a shallow pan or bowl, water and dish detergent. Depending on the size of your container, add about 10 spoonfuls of paint, 1 spoon full of dish detergent and 1 spoon full of water to your container, gently mix this up. Give the kids some straws and have them gently blow into the pan creating rising bubbles of paint. When the paint reaches over the rim of the container, take some paper and touch it to the bubbles, continue till the paper is filled with bubbles. Let it dry and try another color. This is a fun way to make home-made inexpensive wrapping paper. Use large sheets of butcher paper or newsprint. One word of caution, most paints are non-toxic, read the label to be sure, but all the same, tell the kids to blow out, not in!  Apple Cinnamon Clay: Kids love playing with clay. This recipe makes a fragrant, air dry clay, perfect for making ornaments. You will need 1 part applesauce to 1 ¼ part ground cinnamon. Stir together with a spoon or Popsicle stick until dough is stiff. This dough rolls out nicely, use cookie cutters to cut out shapes if you wish. Let air dry for 24 hours and paint if desired.  Home Made Flubber:  A parent should do the mixing in this fun experiment. You will need 2 cups of white glue, food coloring, 4 teaspoons of Borax, warm water. Here’s what you do to “Wow” the kids! In one bowl mix 1 ½ cups warm water, 2 cups of white glue and a few drops of food coloring. In another bowl mix 4 teaspoons of Borax and 1 1/3 cup warm water, stir until the borax dissolves. Pour the glue mixture into the Borax mixture. Don’t stir, just watch and wait (dramatic pause)! Then have the kids reach in and lift out the flubber! I’m not going to tell you what happens, try it and see for yourself. The flubber can be stored in an airtight bag for a few days.  Well that should keep you busy for an hour or so! Need some more ideas, more kid friendly recipes?  I have put up a page on my website filled with kids projects, you can find it at www.KitchenElf.com/kidfun.  Happy Summer…  Check out the Kitchen Elf's Other Wonderful Articles Family Time and Dinner Time  (April 2002) What To Give (And Not Give) Your Wife (February 2002)  Kitchen Elf on Staying Fit  (December 2001) New Market and Gourmet Apples  (October 2001)