Blog from Cheshire Franchise
We’re in the middle of the summer holidays, which means most of us have either run out of ideas of what to do or run out of money.
Making sure young children are entertained all day for weeks on end can be extremely draining (speaking as an exhausted mother myself!). That is why having some fun, free things that you can do at home is always useful.
Here are some of our favourite food-related activities that will keep your little one entertained, as well as get them interested and involved in learning about food.
Chia seed slime
Chia seeds have become all the rage over the last few years, as they have a multitude of health benefits. But did you also know they can make a fantastic slime?
By soaking them in water, the little seeds expand and form a gelatinous mixture. If you put some cornflour in as well, you will create a satisfying slime that is fun to play with and safe to eat!
Fruit picking
There are lots of farms that allow you to enjoy fruit picking these days, but you don’t have to spend a fortune on raspberries or strawberries to have a fun day out.
Why not venture into your local park or forest and see if there are any bramble bushes with blackberries that you could pick? You might also come across an apple tree or two, giving you the perfect ingredients for a scrumptious apple and blackberry crumble that we have made in our children’s cooking classes before.
As well as killing a few hours, it teaches children lots about where fruit grows, which ones are safe to eat, and how to clean them before eating so as to avoid any bugs.
Cupcake decorating
You don’t need to be an expert chef to get your children decorating cupcakes. You could just buy plain ones from the supermarket and let them jazz them up with some sprinkles, chocolate chips, sweets or squeezy icing pens.
This is a great opportunity for kids to use their imagination, creating some fantastic cupcakes for their loved ones and, obviously, themselves.
Edible dirt
If you’ve got a young child who loves messy play, diggers, tractors, bugs, or dinosaurs then it is certainly worth learning how to make edible dirt.
All you need is cocoa powder, flour, icing sugar and water. Simply mix these together to form a dough before leaving to dry and crumbling into a tray to create realistic-looking dirt.
Then you could make your own muddy farm, dinosaur kingdom, construction site, or underground insect world.
If you want to use this opportunity to teach the little ones about where food comes from, you could hide plastic vegetables in the ‘mud’ and encourage them to find them all.
Pasta play
Is there anything that pasta can’t do? Not only do nearly all children love to eat it, but they also love to play with it too.
You could draw a face and stick fusilli hair on to the picture, for instance; make a macaroni necklace to develop their fine motor skills through threading; or chop up spaghetti to practise scissor skills and use this as hair.
Alternatively, you could create a fun messy play activity with cooked spaghetti mixed with oil, which is a great way to introduce babies and toddlers to different sensory experiences. The slippery spaghetti will certainly be exciting to touch, smell, and even taste!
These are just a few exciting activities that are easy to do during the holidays, as most people have the ingredients in their kitchen cupboard already. And even if they only entertain the children for half an hour, every minute helps!
If you’re interested in enrolling your children into KiddyCook holiday clubs email me today to stay updated on upcoming classes.