Last minute tips for Victoria Day PA day activities
With another hectic Mother’s Day behind you and the family, how did the Victoria Day long weekend creep up so quickly? No one would blame you for not having planned a weekend get away far in advance, what with the ice storm that came to Toronto last month, and the wind storm a few weeks ago, and hey, wasn’t it just Easter?
For tomorrow’s PA day, why not spend the day at home spending quality time with your kids? Before they get any ideas about being on the Ipad all day, check out our list of Victoria Day PA day activities. Leave the family dog on the couch, and get your kids off of it! These 3 easy, cost-effective activities can be put together in almost no time at all with items you already have around the house. You don’t even have to leave your kitchen. These fun ideas will give you and your kids lots of opportunities to try to create new things, together!
- Get cooking!
What child doesn’t love pizza? And with the healthy variations you can try these days – Gluten-free flour for dough! Cauliflower crust! Hummus instead of tomato sauce! – pizza making has never been easier and more nutritious for your kids. Not to mention how easy it is for kids to make their own pizzas. Using either dough or a pita, kids can spread the sauce of their choice and add whatever toppings they like! With a parent’s help using the oven, kids can be eating their own home-made healthy treat in minutes.
Giving children the opportunity to start learning their way around the kitchen is beneficial for their educational growth as well as their hunger! They will feel a sense of pride at having made their own meal, and better still, they can make more pizzas to keep in the fridge for a later time if they get hungry again or if they want to make more for the rest of the family.
- Get crafting!
While you’re waiting for your pizzas to cook in the oven, and since you’re in the kitchen already, find some paint of any colour you like and an old t-shirt. Things are about to get crafty. Pick your kitchen food of choice: it can be anything from an apple to a pepper to corn on the cob. Cut the item in half, dip it in the paint, and start stamping on the shirt! You can create all kinds of unique designs or use different colours for some variety. What a unique way to make fashion, giving your child a sense of accomplishment that they turned an every day item like an old shirt into something completely new and exciting. It’s also always a good lesson to show your kids that household items can have lots of different uses, so long as you have a creative mind to imagine them!
- Get quizzing!
What month is Canada Day in? July!
You’ve had your pizza (and it was delicious) and the paint on your shirt is drying off. So what now? Why not do a little exercising of your kids’ minds with a few fun trivia questions. These don’t have to be anything too strenuous – questions like ‘What month is Canada Day in?’ and ‘What is the first name of the prime minister?’ can be used to be educational and fun at the same time. Here’s a fun twist to an otherwise simple game of question and answer: have your child spell out the answer to the question using whatever items they can find in the kitchen in a game we like to call “Word Find.” As quick as they can after they figure out the answer to your question (or riddle even), have them look in their surroundings to see what would be the best utensils or items to most accurately spell out the answer!
If you have more than one child staying at home with you, this can be made into a time-racing competition, if you like. This will force the child to not only stretch their brains to think of the correct answers, but also ask their brains to work outside the box and in different directions to portray the answers in a new way.
Bonus: Get walking!
If you’re ready to get out of the kitchen after these three activities, remember the doggy you left on the couch while you were running around the house on your PA day. Why not take him or her for a walk? And even if you don’t have a pet, going for a walk (weather depending) would be a great way to cap off a PA day spent at home with your children. If you want to try to make the walk educational, see if you can ask your child to remember how to make their way home from wherever your walk leads you in the neighbourhood. Safety comes first, and knowing what your house looks like and how to get home on their own if they ever need to is a wise idea to make sure your children are always prepared.
No matter what, enjoy the extra time you have with your children. Hopefully, they learn something new and you got some great bonding time in before they return to school on Tuesday!
