O Canada! Let's stand on guard for thee and fill our holiday weekend with fun Canada Day themed activities for the whole family. Ready. Set. Time to get your Canuck on!
Find Canada on a globe (or map). What country is it on top of? What water is beside it? If you were to travel from France to Canada how would you go?
Draw a Canada flag on a round paper plate. Use it to decorate your windows, fridge, outside railing or even your wagon. Show your Canadian pride everywhere you go!
Play a red and white scavenger hunt around your house. Red apples in the kitchen. White soap in the bathroom. You can even take it outside (with an adult) and look for red and white stop signs.
Build an Inukshuk out of stones. Kinda looks like a person doesn't it?
Name all the things you can think of which come from Canada. Hockey players, singers, actors, inventions—essayez de le faire en anglais et en français—parce que le Canada a deux langues officielles!
This week is predicted to be ugly HOT. My baby is ok to play inside, but I kinda get cabin fever. So, I've made a little list of where to take kids on ugly hot days.
The public library. Air conditioned. Free. Great kids section of books, colouring, magazines. They even have reading time drop-ins. And your kids can be kids at the library!
Mall walking. Ok, here you have to resist the urge to purchase. Resist people. Stroller walking a mall is good sport (and air conditioned!).
Play date. Sometimes the best hot day entertainment is to have a buddy over to play. Break out the sprinkler, buckets of water, or the baby pool. (I've been hanging on to the baby bath for a hot week like this. I'll be stripping off baby's diaper and letting him go au naturel, toddling in and out of that baby bath in the backyard.)
Crafts in the cool basement. Get inspired with my Teacher Gifts post, to make some easy crafts with the kids.
Swim in the bathtub. Much like the play date idea above, cool the kids off with a swim in the bathtub. It takes the chore of a bath and turns it into fun when you do it in the middle of the afternoon, while wearing a swimsuit!
And remember, whether you stay home or go out—drink lots of liquids (both you and the kids), to keep hydrated. DS and I shared a sippy cup just this morning, because it was so hot and I forgot to bring a drink for myself.
Stay cool my friends!
Forget running to the drug store to buy a teacher gift this year. Keyword here is EASY (yes, there is easier than a drug store gift). Easy teacher gifts!
I wrote 5 Easy Teacher Gift Ideas sharing kid-made cards and the like to give personal gifts to the teacher—the note cards are my go-to.
Three Teacher Gifts Your Child Can Make by keeping 'em out of trouble also has some great, kid-made, teacher gift ideas.
5 Teacher Gifts That Don't Suck by Maureen Turner really is a go-to for gender-less, easy, one-gift-fits-all teacher gifts—the Tim's card is my favourite.
SPOILER ALERT: If you teach my kids...you might be getting the following item in real life this year...do not read further.
Layered Cookie Mix in a mason jar—tied with a ribbon—and directions hand written by your student. It gives the student a "made-by-me" sense of pride and a parent's "geez, that was easy" sigh of relief.
*For the really lazy..er...I mean...busy parent like me...buy the cookie mix at Bulk Barn and add chocolate chips. Yes, that is what we did last year.
Teachers don't need another candle or ceramic.
Give them something they will use (or re-gift at least).
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