Tag Archives: Kids

Camp Au Pair – Dinosaurs

Next week’s Camp Au Pair theme is Dinosaurs.

Crafts, recipes, activities, and games related to dinosaurs can all be found here on the Camp Au Pair – Dinosaurs pinboard.

Field Trips can be a great way for kids to learn and have new experiences. Get permission from your host parents before any outings and be sure to take all social distancing precautions.

Field Trip Ideas:

  • Children’s museum
  • Natural history museum
  • Parks with fossil hunting programs
  • Play spaces with dinosaur areas
  • Science centers

Virtual Field Trips:

Toys – Many kids have dinosaur toys already. See what your kids have and think of fun, new ways you can play with these toys with them. Imagine taking a plastic dinosaur and making footprints in play dough to form your own fossils.

Webcam – The Calvert Marine Museum in Maryland offers a webcam where you can watch paleontologists remove rock from around fossils.

Videos – Look for fun videos on YouTube about dinosaurs and fossils. Here are a few to get you started.

Movies – Here are some movies that fit the dinosaur theme.

  • Dinosaur
  • Dinosaur Island
  • Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
  • Land Before Time
  • Lego Jurassic World
  • The Good Dinosaur
  • Walking with Dinosaurs
  • We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story

For older kids:

  • Journey to the Center of the Earth
  • Jurassic Park (which is rated PG-13)

Books – Check your kids’ bookshelf for books on dinosaurs. You can also find many read aloud book videos on YouTube.

Photo: krojotak.com

Building positive self esteem in your children

Most American parents want their children to be independent and responsible, and have a positive image of themselves. A child’s self image is based on how the child sees himself or herself. This is called self-esteem. It is defined by the judgments children make about their own self worth. Self-esteem can be positive or negative. In America, positive self-esteem is very important.

A child may have positive or high self-esteem at different points in his/her life and negative or low self-esteem at other times. Most preschool-aged children typically have very high self-esteem. As children get older, their peers become more critical of each other and can affect a child’s self-esteem. As children move into the elementary school and middle school their self-esteem can decrease for a period of time due to the criticism from their friends.

There are several ways for parents and au pairs to build positive self-esteem in children and have them feel good about themselves. The suggestions include:

  1. Providing warmth, support and praise
  2. Using positive discipline
  3. Being responsive to a child’s needs
  4. Having reasonable, age-appropriate expectations of a child
  5. Developing and enforcing consistent limits
  6. Providing opportunities for a child to make choices
  7. Providing opportunities for a child to explore, investigate and problem-solve
  8. Encouraging a child to be responsible for their actions
  9. Expressing interest in a child and his or her activities.
  10. Helping a child handle disappointment and failure.
  11. Providing opportunities for a child to succeed.
  12. Providing opportunities for a child to help other people.

Make Your Own Play Dough

Play dough is the perfect modeling material for children. Their small hands can pat, poke, pinch, roll and knead it into many shapes. Keep it in an airtight container to use another day, or let it air dry into favorite shapes.

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Measure 2 cups of flour, one cup of salt and 4 teaspoons of cream of tartar into a bowl. Add 1/4 cup of oil to one cup of water in a separate bowl then add the mixture to the dry ingredients. For colored play dough, squeeze 10-20 drops of food coloring into the water before you add it to the mixture. Cook the dough at low heat in a wide pan, stirring constantly until it becomes rubbery. Remove the dough from the heat and knead it for a few minutes. When it cools the kids can play too!

Photo: Kevin Jarrett (Flickr)

Camp Au Pair – Summer Olympics

This week’s Camp Au Pair theme Summer Olympics. The 2021 Summer Olympics are taking place in Tokyo, Japan, July 23-Aug 8.

Crafts, recipes, activities, and games related to the Summer Olympics can be found here on the Camp Au Pair Summer Olympics pinboard.

Videos – On YouTube you can find many great videos of about the Olympics.

Books – Stop by your local library and look for books about the Olympics.

Some good ones include: Olympig!, G is for Gold Medal: An Olympic Alphabet, How to Train with a T-Rex and Win 8 Gold Medals, Wilma Unlimited, America’s Champion Swimmer: Gertrude Ederle, Way to Go Alex!, Touch the Sky, Pele: King of Soccer, A Picture Book of Jesse Owens & Babar’s Celestville Games.

You may also find some of these books read aloud on YouTube.

Fun Fact: The Olympic symbol consists of five interlaced rings of equal dimensions, used alone, in one or in five different colors, which are, from left to right, blue, yellow, black, green and red. The Olympic symbol (the Olympic rings) expresses the activity of the Olympic Movement and represents the union of the five continents and the meeting of athletes from throughout the world at the Olympic Games.

Image: Project Nursery

Camp Au Pair – Dinosaurs

This week’s Camp Au Pair theme is Dinosaurs.

Crafts, recipes, activities, and games related to dinosaurs can all be found here on the Camp Au Pair – Dinosaurs pinboard.

Field Trips can be a great way for kids to learn and have new experiences. Get permission from your host parents before any outings and be sure to take all social distancing precautions.

Here are a few places to go that fit this theme:

    • Children’s museum with dinosaur exhibit
    • Natural history museum
    • Nature center with fossils

Toys – Many kids have dinosaur toys already. See what your kids have and think of fun, new ways you can play with these toys with them. Imagine taking a plastic dinosaur and making footprints in play dough to form your own fossils.

Webcam – This NPS Paleontology Lab offers a webcam where you can watch paleontologists remove rock from around fossils. The cam is normally working 9 am-5 pm PST, so 12-8 pm our time.

Videos – Look for fun videos on YouTube about dinosaurs and fossils. Here are a few to get you started.

Movies – The Good Dinosaur, Land Before Time, and Ice Age are all great family movies that fit with this theme. For older kids, consider movies like Journey to the Center of the Earth and Jurassic Park (which is rated PG-13).

Books – Check your kids’ bookshelf for books on dinosaurs.

Photo: krojotak.com

Welcome to Camp Au Pair in America!

When kids are out of school for the summer, it doesn’t take long for them to become bored and  sometimes that leads to sibling squabbles and mischief. Even though they don’t realize it, they are usually missing routine and predictability in their daily schedule. One solution is to make fun plans to keep them busy! 

Each week this summer we will share a different Camp Au Pair theme. These weekly themes are designed to give you ideas to keep your host kids occupied and engaged all summer long. They will also be learning. (But shhhh, don’t tell them that part.) Check back each Friday, for the next week’s theme. This gives you a chance to make plans and gather materials for the next week. For each theme there will be crafts, games, snacks and activities. You can just use these ideas or add your own and customize the themes to fit the ages and interests of your host children.

Here are the themes you can look forward to:

  • Art Experiences
  • Backyard Safari
  • Bugs & Butterflies
  • Cars and Trucks
  • Dinosaurs
  • Explore the World
  • Nature Explorations
  • Outer Space
  • Pirate Adventures
  • Princesses & Knights
  • Science (STEM)
  • Under the Sea

Check out Summer Fun & Summer Holidays pin boards for even more ideas.

If you get some great pictures doing these activities with your host kids, please send those to your counselor. We love to share your accomplishments and inspire other au pairs!

Let’s make this an amazing summer!

 

Social Distancing: Free Virtual Escape Rooms

Libraries may be closed due to COVID-19, but many librarians are coming up with creative ideas to keep people entertained and promote literacy. One of those creative ideas is free virtual escape rooms. With a variety of themes, some may be fun to do on your own, others as activities with the kids.

Sydney Krawiec, Youth Services Librarian at Peters Township Public Library in McMurray, PA created this Hogwarts Virtual Escape Room. She shared this tutorial on how to create your own virtual escape room, which seemed to spark the creativity of many other librarians.

Some amazing librarians all over the country have been busy creating virtual escape rooms with a variety of themes.

Special thanks to the Humboldt County Library in Winnemucca, Nevada for gathering info on many of these escape rooms. Follow them on Facebook for their storytimes and weekly Facebook Live Science Time on Fridays.

Image: Canva.com

Social Distancing: 5 Online Adventures for Kids

Reading, playing, and doing art projects are always great ways to entertain children and keep them physically active and learning. It’s a good idea to limit screen time. But, in this time of social distancing, technology can play an important role in allowing kids to see and connect with the world outside of their homes. Many online resources are popping up to create those opportunities.

Here are five to get you started:

And if kids have questions about the coronavirus, Live Science has created an ultimate kids’ guide to the new coronavirus that has lots of information and is appropriate for school-aged kids.

10 Tips for Summer Safety

  1. Remember to bring along drinks, especially water. Try to get children to drink water every 20 minutes, when they are outside in hot weather.
  2. Pay attention to surfaces that can be hot against children’s skin, such as metal slides and other playground equipment in the sun.
  3. Safety around water is particularly important. A child can drown in just a few inches of water. Whenever you are near water you must never leave a child alone – if the phone rings, take them with you or let it ring! Always stay within arm’s reach when the children are in or near water.
  4. Young babies should be kept out of direct sunlight. Keep the baby in the shade or under a tree, umbrella or stroller canopy.
  5. Dress babies in lightweight clothing and use brimmed hats.
  6. Apply sunscreen 30 minutes before going outside, even if it appears overcast (cloudy).
  7. Try to keep children out of the sun in the middle of the day when the sun is strongest.
  8. Learn what poison ivy looks like and keep children out of it. A good rule to teach the children is “leaves of three, let it be.”
  9. Use insect repellent spray to keep away mosquitos and ticks. Ask your host parents before applying.
  10. Check for ticks when you bring children in from playing outside, especially if you’ve been in tall grass or the woods.

Photo: Scott97006 (Flickr)

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Inside games to play

It’s difficult when the weather is too hot for kids to play outside and get all of that great kid energy out.

JuggleGirl

Here are some indoor physical activity ideas:

  • Create an indoor obstacle course in the largest, kid safe room in the house (playroom, basement, family room, etc.)  Use large cushions and toys to create places for kids to climb over and under.
  • Turn on some music (kid music or other music that is appropriate) and dance.
  • Play freeze dance. Tell the kids to dance when you turn the music on and to stop dancing when the music stops.  Let the kids take turns being the leader,  controlling the music.
  • Do the limbo dance.  Play music and challenge the kids to go under the limbo pole as it gets lower and lower.

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  • Make paper airplanes and see how far they can fly.  Remind the kids not to throw them at other other people.
  • Mark small squares on the floor and challenge the kids to see who can stay on their spot the longest.  Make it tougher for older kids by having them stand on one foot.
  • Play ball toss games with soft items like rolled up socks.   The younger the children the larger the container they are tossing into should be.  For very young kids, use a laundry basket.  For older kids, use something smaller like a box, basket or large plastic mixing bowl.
  • Build a fort using blanket and furniture like chairs and tables.  Or if the kids have a small play tent put that up.
  • Play sports charades.  Charades is a game where you act out something while people try to guess.  You can do this with sports actions, using no equipment, just making the actions.  For example – hitting a golf ball, pitching a baseball, serving a tennis ball, bowling, etc.)
  • Jump rope. Jumping_rope.
  • Play with a hula hoop.
  • Try juggling, top spinning, or yo-yo contests.
  • Play hide and go seek.
  • Play “keep the balloon up”. Use one balloon per child or one balloon per small group. The group may add additional balloons as they gain control and awareness. *

* Safety Note – Balloons are a choking hazard, supervise children when playing with balloons and make sure to find and throw away any pieces of popped balloons.