Spring Break Activity Ideas for Kids

Spring break is the perfect time to take a family vacation since the kids won't miss any school. However, this may not be in your family's budget. Here are some ideas for activities to do with your children during their spring break.

Begin planting a garden:

Buy some seeds from your local garden or home DIY store such as Lowes or Home Depot. Small plastic pots are perfect for beginning seeds. Put soil such as Miracle Gro soil into the pot about ¾ the way through. Gently rake the soil with your fingers and sprinkle seeds into the soil. Fill the rest of the pot with soil, water and place pots in a sunny area. This activity is perfect for children as they love to get their hands dirty and will put the soil in the pot willingly. They will also love to sprinkle the seeds in. You can take advantage of growing seeds to teach your children a little bit about plants. They can watch the seedlings grow over the next several weeks and once they are ready to grow, you can transplant them into your garden or larger containers to place on your patio.

Local museums

Roller rink or ice skating rink

Movies

Planetarium

Parks

Scrapbooks and photo albums-drag out those photos that have been waiting to be put into photo albums. Have fun with the kids while you look at old family photos and let them help arrange the photos and put into albums. Or, let them create a fun scrap book from the holiday photos or of old family photos of their grandparents, parents and other relatives.

Color Easter eggs and teach kids about the history of the Easter egg. Find out about the history of the Easter egg at:

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/8149/egg.html

Recipe for Homemade Easter egg dye:

1 cup hot water

food coloring (about ¼ tsp-5-6 drops)

¼ cup distilled white vinegar

Mix together and allow to cool a few minutes before your kids dip hard boiled eggs into it.

Alternatively, have kids sponge paint eggs by dipping small pieces of sponge into tempura paint and dabbing over the eggs.

Make a simple bird house and teach your kids how to use simple tools.

http://familyfun.go.com/decorating-ideas/gardening/feature/famf0602_proj_squirl/

Make homemade bird feeders and borrow a book from the local library to teach your kids about birds familiar to your region. Let them take photos of birds that eat at the bird feeder and help them identify which birds they are from photos in the bird guide.

Homemade bird feeders:

Take a pine cone and spread peanut butter on it, then sprinkle bird seed on them and hang in a nearby window. Or, you can take a sugar cone, smear peanut butter and sprinkle bird seeds, sunflowers or other nuts over it and let hang outdoors.

Find a number of spring crafts, coloring pages and activities at this site:

http://familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts/season/specialfeature/spring_crafts_ms/

Indoor obstacle course. Find ideas here:

http://fun.familyeducation.com/exercise/activity/37126.html?detoured=1

Indoor scavenger hunt. Hide small objects around the home and give the kids a list of what they need to find. You can also do this in the yard or park and have kids find objects on the list. Alternatively, make a list of items around the home that need to be picked up. Give each kid a bag and have them find as many items they can such as socks, toys, etc.. Give small rewards to them afterwards.

If it is warm outdoors, this could be the perfect time to get your kids involved in preparing the garden and cleaning up the yard. It will also give them some good exercise. Have them pick up piles of leaves you raked and put them into garbage bags. Kids can easily pick up twigs, debris and dead leaves from around your bushes and perennials.

Make homemade play do:

3 cups flour

1.5 cups salt

6 tsp. cream of tartar

3 Tbsp. oil

3 cups water

Add food coloring

Put all ingredients into a large saucepot, stir until dough begins to pull away from sides and form into a soft ball. Remove and let cool a few minutes and knead a few minutes until a dough texture forms. Cover with plastic wrap when not in use.

Engage the kids in spring cleaning. Make a chore chart and for each activity they help you complete, award them with a sticker or other token. Once they have a set number of stickers, reward them with a treat such as a movie or ice cream.

Have a spring party. Engage the kids over their spring break into making homemade invitations from construction paper, and take them to deliver it to their friends, or teach them how to address an envelope and mail the invitations. Kids can help bake cupcakes, make homemade chex mix and party dips and create the games to play. For favors, give away sugar cookies that you and your kids decorated. You can bake your own sugar cookies or buy refrigerated cookie dough and bake as directed. Decorate cookies in the shape of eggs, chicks, butterflies and other spring items. You can find fun cookie cutters at Michaels and AC Moore.

These activities will help entertain your kids while they are home from school and help relieve boredom. With a little thought you can take any activity here and make them into educational opportunities to keep your kids learning even when they are away from school on their spring break.