Get the kids involved this weekend with these activity ideas. But there is absolutely no reason that adult only households can’t do them too!
A great way to change the whole feeling towards any changes in your household, is to get the kids involved. For those of you who don’t know me personally, I don’t have any little people at home, but I do have experience as a primary school teacher. So hopefully I won’t give you preposterous ideas that are unachievable.
Litter Picking
The easiest activity to undertake as a group or family would be a litter pick. If you are on social media check out #litterpickingiscool or #2minutebeachclean. The 2 minute element adds a bit of competition to the proceedings, which children obviously love. This weekend you may be out for a walk in the forest, at the park, or simply staying on your street. Sadly, there is litter everywhere we go, so they can do this anywhere! Flynn’s mum sent me this picture on Tuesday. After they had been chatting about my speech, Flynn decided to pick up the plastic litter he found on the way back to their hotel from the beach.
Just a quick bit of health and safety. Try to find old gardening gloves that everyone can wear and have a quick chat about the sad reality of dog owners leaving poo bags behind. If children are focused on spotting litter, they will not think twice about dashing across the road if they see some litter on the opposite verge. So a safety chat before starting would be wise.
Great British Bake Off
As the Bake Off draws to an end and the cold arrives this weekend, why not get the children involved with some baking for the week ahead. If they create flapjacks or muffins, these could be used in their lunch boxes instead of snack bars. It might even get them talking to their friends in the lunch hall about what they have been doing.
You could challenge them to find all the ingredients they need at the supermarket in plastic free wrapping – an extremely difficult challenge. Or to create the recipe themselves based on the plastic free items they find. They might have to be inventive with ingredients! Flour, eggs, sugar, oats, fresh fruit and chocolate are all easy to obtain plastic free in either card, paper or foil. They might struggle with sultanas, seeds and margarine though! As long as the margarine tub gets reused or goes in the recycling, I think that could be seen as acceptable.
Eco-bricking
I will talk more next week about Eco-bricking, but for now, the children could help you prepare to make an Ecobrick. It is a concept that is just taking off in the UK, but is more widely known in Indonesia, the Philippines and South Africa. Essentially, you are creating a building brick from a dry, empty plastic bottle and clean, dry, unrecyclable plastic.
Gather your materials:
Start with a 550 ml bottle with smooth sides as your first attempt
Find a stick that won’t snap
Gather plenty of soft plastic rubbish
Prepare the plastic:
Wash the plastic first and dry it really well. If there is any organic matter inside the brick, in time it will grow as bacteria and cause gases. These gases could then cause the bottle to explode.
Cut the plastic into pieces measuring approximately 8 cm x 6 cm. This is not an exact science and definitely no rulers are required! Your children can go all out with the scissors, but if the pieces are too small they will become static and not go into the bottle. If they are too big you won’t be able to ram them in as easily.
Ram the plastic pieces into the bottom of the bottle right from the start
Your brick has to have a certain weight depending on its size. Weigh it when you have filled about a quarter to check that you are on track. If not, ram it down harder! At the end you should be able to get the heaviest person in your household to stand on it and nothing should happen!
I will talk a lot more about the practicalities of Ecobricking in a post next week. For now though, get the children involved in collecting up the plastic, washing it, and finding a suitable bottle and wooden spoon ready to get started.
Have a great weekend everyone!