School holidays are here and it's time to keep the kids busy and entertained without ruining your budget OR the planet (it is plastic-free July after all!).
Here are four eco-friendly activities we always do at home in the school holidays.
We love these activities because it sparks imagination and provides hours of fun with sensory play.
The ingredients are always on hand in the pantry and can be a real life saver for those rainy days or when everyone needs a rest at home or just because mummy might just lose her sh*t soon.
These are all easy to make with your kids.
We sit at the dining table with these and once play starts, I can happily enjoy a coffee in peace and participate as much or as little as I like. Which is exactly why I decided to round them up into one post.
DIY Eco-Friendly, Biodegradable Slime
Forget buying the smelly toxic slime from the shop in all it's packaging and get the kids busy making their own. You don't need glue or borax either!
Simply mixing the right quantities of corn flour and water mixed, with food colouring and you're done. (Full instructions here)
What I love about this is that it can't get stuck in your carpet, on your furniture or in the kids hair (and it doesn't have that awful smell).
Once the kids are bored with it, it can be placed in the home compost system or your green bin. Technically it is edible, making it safe and fun for kids of any age.
Make Biodegradable Glitter
This wont turn out exactly like regular glitter but it's a great option when you want micro-plastics out of your life AND your craft supplies.
It's very simple to make and can be glued onto pictures, craft projects and homemade cards. Get them working on birthday cards and you'll have a handy supply for the rest of the year.
All you need is Epsom salts and a little food colouring (Full Instructions Here).
It's super easy to clean up afterwards and can be put in their bath at the end of the day.
Homemade Ice-Cream Play-dough Party
This one is super fun and the play-dough will even smell like the ice-cream flavours they are meant to be.
You will need the usual ingredients for homemade play-dough (flour, salt, water, cream of tartar & oil). But instead of food colouring, use cocoa powder, real strawberries and natural vanilla essence.
This gives a beautiful, natural fragrance with the colour to match.
Alternatively, you can just make regular playdough in any colour you like, here's my no-cook playdough recipe.
DIY Eco-Friendly Cloud Dough
What's Cloud Dough? Well, its a lot like kinetic sand and not really much like play-dough.
You can sculpt with it and even make sandcastles.
Again, forget all the recipes that require you to buy a heap of canned shaving cream or conditioner simply to make throwaway cloud dough.
All you need is flour and oil in a bowl (full recipe here).
This has no toxic ingredients, can be useful for using up stale oil and is a lot of fun. Do keep this away from pets though.
I hope these eco-friendly activities keep you AND the kids entertained during school holidays and plastic-free July.
And if you're spending all day everyday with your beautiful cherubs like me, then THIS is going to help you get some moments of blissful peace.