How to Make your Own Summer Camp At Home

Budget constraints? Kids out of school? No money for camp? Plan your own summer camp and have family fun at little expense using household items .

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Dawn or Joy dish detergent
• bubble blowing equipment
• plastic containers- dish pan, tubs, bucket, empty detergent bottles
• assorted trinkets for prizes
• blank paper, white and colors
• scissors
• paste
• newspapers
• granulated sugar

1. Plan Summer Fun Days with the kids. Have a dry-erase board or a bulletin board to write in dates and time. Put doctor or dentist appointments and other important things first , then fill in the time slots for Summer Fun Days.

2. Plan activities-- Physical exercise, Arts and Crafts, Music and Movement, Drama and Production, Cooking . Everybody needs physical exercise, so, (baby included), jogging around the block, the "walking bus" to the field trips , attaching a cheap pedometer to everyone's belt counts, too. Keep a chart of miles earned for prizes.

3. Arts and Crafts are the big part of a Summer Fun Day.Paper, glue sticks , magazines are provided for collages. Make papier mache animals: use rolled up newspaper to form skeletons, hold with string or masking tape ( a little telephone wire, sometimes), and cover with strips of newspaper dipped in paste - homemade or wallpaper, and let dry for several days before painting. Montages are pieces of paper and "found things" glued together to make a theme. A trip to a museum is both fun and educational when tied to the art activities. Find out about discounts and free days which most museums have. Let the kids plan an art exhibit in your yard.

4. Music and Movement. Turn on your favorite radio station and dance. Make up your own dance. Have karaoke and talent search, too!

5. An hour or so before lunch (or dinner), plan a cooking activity. Stone Soup is a favorite. The peeled potato is the stone, so don't worry. Everybody gets to put in a favorite vegetable, somebody grown cuts them for the pot. Add chicken stock or vegetable stock, some dried parsley and cook it. Yum. Oatmeal cookies are foolproof. The recipe is in the lid of the Quaker's Oats box.

6. Produce a play for the whole family or neighborhood to enjoy. The junior cooks plan and serve the refreshments ( juice and homemade oatmeal cookies), have the art exhibit going and the drama queens and kings present the show.

Tips & Warnings

• Using good dish detergent, add one part liquid detergent to 8 parts of water. Add one part of granulated sugar to make bubble blowing liquid. Get the kids to save their bubble liquid bottles and wands to use for activities. Pour your bubble solution in a very thin layer in a pan and let the children try different things to blow bubbles with-- straws, string, jar rings, and so forth.
• Use only nontoxic paint for painting objects. Washable tempera paint is the best. Mix a bit into liquid starch for fingerpainting. Use butcher paper for fingerpainting.
• Glue sticks are cheap and easy to use. For papier mache, U can use flour and water paste, mixing a little flour and water and cooking it in the microwave, then letting it cool.
• Hot glue guns, knives, sharp pointed scissors, cooking surfaces must always be supervised or used by adults. Never leave children alone with sharp objects or hot pans, etc.