CHILDREN’S ACTIVITY 19: PLAY POOHSTICKS
If you’ve never heard of Poohsticks, it’s a game invented by Winnie-the-Pooh in ‘The House at Pooh Corner’. The idea is that two or more people drop a stick into a river over the side of a bridge on the upstream side and the person whose stick is the first to appear on the downstream side is the winner.
The World Poohsticks Championships is held on the river Thames each year and has been going since 1984. The last championships took place in 2018 when Innes Turnbull was the champion!
To play this with your kids you will need to find out where your nearest river or stream is. Why not make a day of it, go for a lovely walk by the river, and have a picnic. Just remember to wrap up warm!
CHILDREN’S ACTIVITY: MAKE AND FLY A KITE
Believe it or not, making and flying your own kite is relatively simple. To make it as easy as possible for you to try out, follow our instructions below:
Materials Needed:
Large sheet of paper, cellophane, plastic garbage bag or tissue paper, (64 cms x 44 cms) two thin pieces of bamboo or dowel (one measuring 60 cm and the other 40 cms) glue, scissors, fishing line and string, ribbons or fabric scraps for the tail.
Procedure:
- Place the shorter stick across the larger stick and tie securely.
- Glue the sticks to the covering.
- Trim the covering into a diamond shape.
- Decorate the kite with crayons, paint or felt-tipped pens.
- Loosely tie a piece of string or fishing line from the top of the kite to the bottom. Tie another piece from side to side.
- Tie the kite flying string at the point where the two strings meet.
- Make a long tail using ribbons made from paper, plastic or light fabric.
- Attach the tail to the kite.
- Experiment with different designs and materials.
- Fly the kite in an open space away from buildings, power lines and trees.
CHILDREN’S ACTIVITY 21: BUILD A SANDCASTLE
Even in the Winter building sandcastles can be fun! I have a friend whose family go for a walk on the beach on Christmas Day every year, so building a wintery fort, provided it’s not raining could make a walk on the beach fun for your kids. Take a sandcastle-shaped bucket and make as many sandcastles as you can! Or take a beach spade and build the biggest sandcastle you can.
If you make it closer to the sea, you can dig a moat around the castle, which may fill up with water automatically. You can also make an offshoot of the moat that goes right down to the sea. If the sand is compact enough, you can fill buckets with water, pour it into the moat and watch it run down the pathway you have dug back to the sea!
Now there’s no need to get as complicated as the example image we’ve used, but it goes to show what can be done with a bit of creativity and skill… or rather, a lot of creativity and skill. See what you and your kids can do!
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