Family/Kids | Jillian In Italy

Archive | Family/Kids RSS feed for this section

Summertime Surprise Activity Garland

After a lot of motivation from my three enthusiastic kids I finally finished sewing up their summertime surprise activity garland yesterday. They are so excited to do this again this year. I changed up a few activities from last year and kept a few that were big hits (with a slightly different twist to keep it interesting). This garland is perfect for those moments that the kids are just too tired/hot/bored to come up with something on their own. And surprisingly enough, it’s a great way to get your kids working together. Last year after opening the “architectural challenge” I watched my three kids construct a fairytale village in the lawn with wooden skewers, toothpicks and leaves for over three hours. Their concentration and team work was amazing to see.

First of all I rummaged through my fabric scraps and sewed up some different sized pouches in which to put the activity items (measure all items and sew accordingly). I just placed two identically sized pieces of material together (bad sides facing) and sewed three sides. Nothing fancy! After inserting the activity cards and items I simply sewed them all shut along a long piece of folded bias tape (you could also use ribbon or a long piece of fabric).

Here are the activities in this year’s garland:

The Photo Challenge: Last year the photo challenge was such a hit that I had to include another one this year. They spent ages coming up with the perfect compositions for their photos last year and the little book we made with them is often hauled out and admired. I just tucked a little card in the fabric pocket that instructs them to take photos that represent a list of 10 words (happy, summer, dance, self portrait and more that I can’t for the life of me remember now).

The Architectural Challenge: Another favourite from last year. I included a few packages of long wooden kitchen skewers and toothpicks and some of that sticky gum-like stuff you use to hang photos on the wall (what is that called?!). On the card I gave them instructions to construct a circus tent and come up with name and sign as well. They use the lawn as their base because it’s easy to stick the skewers in for a stable construction. I’ll also give them some small pieces of fabric to decorate.

Whittle Challenge: This is a new one this year. On the card I wrote asking them to look up the word whittle in the dictionary (because I’m pretty sure my multi-lingual kids have never heard that word). Once they’ve figured it out they have to whittle (with small knife provided by me) shapes out of some small bars of soap (see there is a good reason to take those little hotel soaps home with you!). I’ve included simple shapes to whittle such as heart, star, and flower. I’ll let you know how it works out and if there are any major injuries.

Comic Book Challenge: My kids are HUGE comic book fans (it’s a Dutch thing I guess). So I made a tiny book with blank pages. I divided each page into four boxes to accommadate their drawings and story. They have to come up with a story with a circus theme and make their own comic book. The ultimate work-together project. Again, I’ll let you know if there are any injuries.

Cooking Challenge: My kids are really into cooking all of a sudden. And since I really want to encourage and motivate them in the kitchen as much as I can I thought a cooking challenge would be perfect. So for this challenge I included a card which sends them on a search for a particular cookbook on our shelf and to a particular page. They then have to prepare that recipe. This year it’s a recipe for homemade pigs-in-blankets from the children’s cookbook Look and Cook by Tina Davis.

On top of it being fun for kids this garland is also really pretty to hang up! When the kids are ready to open one of the pouches just cut open along the bottom (which makes it hardly noticeable that it has been opened). You can then keep the garland for decoration or for re-filling with activities next summer.

We’ll be kicking off our garland activities in the coming days. I’ll keep you posted on how they were all received by the little ones!

Tags: activity garland, arts and crafts, diy, garland, kids, photography, sew

Comments 10 Comments
Categories Creative, Family/Kids

Vacanza

15 Jul

It has been pretty quiet around here lately due to end-of-school-year chaos and finally the summer vacation starting. We were all running around like lunatics until July 5th which was the last day of school (is it just me or does that seem really LATE to end school for summer?). I can’t even count how many going-away parties, end-of-year parties, summer parties and barbecues we attended in the last weeks. It was fun but exhausting (although I admit that at the end it was more exhausting than fun).

The day after school ended we packed up the car and headed south to the gorgeous region of Umbria with all the Belgian aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. We spent an amazing week relaxing poolside at our villa, eating delicious meals and exploring all the small cities and towns Umbria has to offer. The weather was perfect (not too hot and not too cold) and the nine little cousins had the time of their lives together. There were tears at the end of the week when we all had to say goodbye and part ways. Lifetime memories were definitely made for everyone.

We stayed in the stunning Villa Enea which is probably one of the most gorgeous properties we’ve ever lodged at. There is actually a chapel, a library (including baby grand piano), a pool house (with kitchen, dining room, bathroom and changing room) and more than enough bedrooms to accommodate our very big extended family. Believe me, we enjoyed every second of our time in this gorgeous villa and region.

We visited the small city of Perugia (where the International Jazz Fest was being held), Assisi, Todi and our favourite small town of Spello (which was a flower haven!). We loved meandering through the old stone streets and alleyways, visiting ancient Roman and Etruscan sites and admiring the incredibly varied and impressive architecture to be found everywhere. And the fact that we saw a monk with an iphone, a nun with a hot pink glittery purse and a priest wearing a cowboy hat in Assisi was just icing on the cake. I’ll be writing more about these visits in my upcoming Classic Play travel column.

(Follow me on Instagram to see more photos of our time in Umbria).

Tags: family, kids, photography, travel, Umbria

Comments 1 Comment
Categories Family/Kids, Living in Italia, Travel

Summer Inspiration for Kids

1 Jul

Seeing as summer vacation is quickly approaching for my three kids I’ve been thinking a lot about meaningful ways to pass our time together this summer. We’ll be away on vacation for a total of four weeks this summer which leaves us four additional weeks here at home. We usually spend our days either at the beach or out discovering new walking trails or doing a quick trip into the city. But there are definitely lots of moments where we find ourselves at home and I really want those moments to be enjoyable, fun, memorable and even maybe a little educational.

As I’ve said in the past I’m a big believer in letting kids be bored. As you can read here even the experts are advising it. When my kids get bored they get creative. They dig out all the art supplies or the big box of lego and they get busy for hours on end (although I do admit that the “mama I’m bored!! moments leading up to this can be quite frustrating!).

This summer we decided as a family that there will be no computer/ipod before 6pm. Our days will be spent reading, playing, swimming, baking, painting, writing, building, selling lemonade and whatever else they come up with. The kids were on-board from the get-go and have already started thinking of special projects to pass their long, hot summer days.

Here are some of the projects that I’ve been thinking of proposing to the kids this summer:

These 26 art lessons that were created and curated by the super talented Deborah Harju are definitely on our list of projects to try out this summer. Deborah not only includes step-by-step instructions for her projects but she also includes interesting and educational background information to the various methods, styles and artists that go with them. I really can’t wait to try the Geometric Design with Islamic Art project, the Intro to Neo-Plasticism project and the Leaf Painting project (which involves a hammer!). There are projects for kids of every age and ability.

Another great place for creative ideas is the blog One Bunting Away. Giova is an avid and passionate snail-mailer and she includes lots of really beautiful tutorials on her blog to make your snail mail more beautiful (I did a guest post in her Flat Project last month). Projects like these will really motivate my kids (and me!) to write lots of letters to friends and family around the world this summer. Plus, it’s a great way for my Dutch schooled kids to practice writing in English. Some favourite projects that we’ll definitely be trying are the Accordian Envelope, the decorated poems and the felt envelopes (because we love to sew!).

This is also the summer that my kids are going to learn to cook and bake. I’ve noticed that they are really starting to become interested in helping out in the kitchen and they often ask questions about what tastes go together or what foods are the healthiest to eat. One of my daughters actually started baking on her own this past winter. She has officially perfected her great grandmother’s biscuit recipe and I’ll admit that the fact she made them for me 10 times in a matter of 2 weeks has definitely motivated me to teach her some new recipes. I love all the recipes found on Sheri Silver‘s blog called Donuts, Dresses and Dirt. They are usually quite simple, don’t have long lists of ingredients and are healthy. We’ll definitely be making the Sugar-free Honey Lemon Cake, the Fruit Leather and the Honeydew-Lime Ice Pops (above).

And lastly I have a list of Ted Talks for Kids for those moments when it’s just too hot to move or do anything or when they’re exhausted after a long day of tennis camp. These Ted Talks are absolutely amazing, inspiring and very educational. My kids have already watched a few and they were enthralled from the beginning to the end. There are many talks given by adults on subjects such as Life in the Deep Oceans, Mathemagic (my kids loved this one) and Sketching Electronics. There are also fascinating talks by kids such as Tavi Geninson who created a space where girls could find each other and redefine feminism or Sirena Huang who is an 11 year old professional violinist. I know my son will be excited to see the talk by 12 year old Thomas Suarez who is a world renown APP developer. Check out Ted Talks for Kids here and Ted Talks by kids here.

And again this summer I’m going to make the kids an activity garland like I did last year. It was a huge success with all three of them and they still talk about it often and ask when this summer’s garland will be finished. I sewed up different sized pockets on a garland where I inserted various surprise activities for the kids such as a photo challenge, a wooden skewer architecture challenge and a recipe challenge to name a few. They spent hours working together for these projects and at the end of the summer we made a little book with some of the finished projects and photos of the finished projects. Check out last year’s post which explains it all here.