Another week of self isolating and homeschooling lies ahead of us – and if I’m very honest I am in need of shaking up our routine! As we were getting to the end of last week I could feel my focus waning! So I have come up with some zero waste ideas that we are going to try out this week – hopefully they will offer some inspiration to you as well.
- Make salt dough – I have been meaning to make salt dough decorations with the kids for a long time! Everyone can get involved and work to their own ability. I’m going to try this recipe (https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/how-make-salt-dough-recipe) and hopefully the excitement of making them and then decorating them will help cheer up our January Blues!!
- Make play dough – we are going through a play dough phase at the moment. Unfortunately all the gifted play dough from Christmas has pretty much been used up. Various dried up play dough creatures are hiding throughout the house! So we are going to make our own! This will be a money saver as well as saving on plastic! I used the recipe from this site before and found it to be good. The site also has a section on salt dough! https://www.thebestideasforkids.com/playdough-recipe/
- Make a treasure hunt – I am going to make up some very simple clues for different locations around the house and the treasure will be some toys that have been hidden for a while!! We have done a few treasure hunts around the house and they are always a cause of excitement. I keep the clues straight forward (and they don’t have to rhyme!). I have games that have been hidden away for a while so now they will be like new! You could also do a book treasure hunt from the comfort of your chair – give the kids some clues about a book off the top of your head and they need to find it. Once they find it you could read it or give them another clue to keep them busy!
- Stick art – we have a fantastic stick collection at the moment. Now might be the time get creative with them! We might try nature weaving or make some fairy wands or some stick mobiles for hanging up outside.
Hopefully these ideas will create a little zero waste joy in your houses over the next week!!
(PS the links seem to have gone invisible on me! Hover over and you should be able to click! If that doesn’t work the first link is to the bbc good food website and the second is to “the best ideas for kids.com” website)