Our first activity was painting a bird feeder. We got our bird feeder from Michaels, and with the 40% coupon, it was at most $5.00. We then had to purchase some bird feed, but the bag you can purchase ranges from pretty cheap to about $20. We bought the larger bag so we wouldn't run out any time soon. I gave Bug a paint brush and let him have at it with the paint. I ended up helping him near the end as it ended up being a time consuming project for his attention span; but on the most part he completed it himself. I tried to copy how he was painting, and I loved how it turned out...just a mosaic of bright colors. I then purchased some sealant from Michaels to protect it against the weather. We got Daddy to help hang it!
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Our second activity was planting flowers. A little educational with teaching him how plants grow and that they needed to be watered and shown some TLC everyday. We ended up putting some pea seeds in a Ziploc bag to tape to the window so he could actually see the seeds start germinating and forming roots. Once those were ready to transfer to a pot (about a week), Bug helped me plant them so they could go outside. He's a little bit of a scaredy cat for those who know my child...so I'm sure it's no surprise to some that he was a bit unsettled when he saw the gangly roots....hahaha....oh dear! Bear is obviously a bit too young for a large portion of our activities, but he does like to supervise; especially when food is involved!
Our third and most recent activity was done with one of Bug's buddies. I'm loving this age he is in right now, where he loves to spend time with his friends and asks to see them. They are close in age, so we thought it would be fun to involve him with this event. A couple of nights before this day, I took some tiny dinosaur figures and made dinosaur eggs (just baking soda, black food coloring and a little bit of water to make it a paste). You have to let them sit at least 24 hours, better if it's 48 hours so they dry out. The day I decided to bring this activity to light, I hid them around our yard and got the boys to wear their dinosaur exploring hats ($1.00 each at Dollarama). I made some nests out of towels, and soaked the bottoms a bit with vinegar (to help the breakdown process of the baking soda). Once they collected the eggs, they placed them into the nests and placed a vinegar soaked cloth over top of them. I explained that eggs needed to incubate and stay warm to hatch, so over the next few minutes we would take a quick peek to see what was happening. After about 5 minutes, I told the boys they could start helping the dinosaurs hatch and they easily broke the baking soda apart. The baby dinos then needed a bath so we placed them in a bowl with water...they had fun with this too, splashing as if they were in the tub themselves. As a side note, when you make the "eggs" and get the boys to help them hatch, I would suggest wearing gloves, and especially for the boys, have them wear clothes you don't care to get ruined. My hands looked like I was turning into the kid from the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that turned into a blueberry! I swear by Oxyclean, so if there is some staining to clothes, it comes out easily with that wonderful laundry product (the spray kind). I would definitely use towels that you don't mind getting ruined.
My list for this summer of Camp Mommy days is becoming quite long, so I'm sure these will lead into the fall. I, too share in the excitement with Bug for these days...it's so fun to see his imagination run wild!
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