If you are a regular reader of this blog you will know how much we love our outdoor play here! … Freaky Rivet are a company all about encouraging children of all ages to step away from the screen for a little fun outside so I am pleased to share a guest post and fun activity with you today from Iyas – founder of Freaky Rivet.
Admit it. You hoard every piece of “artwork” your kids bring home. I do. Not sure how much was because I loved it, and how much was because I couldn't bring myself to throw it away, but I hoarded a lot of stuff. Obvious tip at the end of this post for a better way to do it!
But this activity is exactly about creating some art, then liberally destroying it! It'll teach the kids about the temporary nature of art, which is probably a good thing!
The ingredients are really easy. Sidewalk chalk, water balloons, water. You get the idea already. Do I need to elaborate?
Fill up the water balloons with your kids – maybe a dozen or so. Put'em in a bucket, and get the kids to dry their hands (important if they want their chalky creations to look good). Then, go out front to your drive, or a bit of safe concrete where they can draw.
Ask them to choose something they really don’t like. Mine wanted carrots and tomatoes. Then get them to draw a bunch of that thing. If you want some time for musings in peace reading the papers, get them to make it REALLY detailed. If you're in a rush, an outline would do! But whatever detail you have, make sure the drawing is as big as the space will reasonably allow. It's so much more fun when they feel they can make something huge.
When they're done, let them take a picture of their artwork. Cameras away (and really away from anywhere they might get wet), and let the mayhem begin. Let them go to town and bomb their art with the water balloons. Every child will LOVE this part!
Top tip from our hard-earned experiences. Less-full balloons skid around more when you throw them, while really full ones pretty much burst on touch. So depending whether you want to wear your kids out or not, decide how full your balloons should be in advance! Keep'em half full, and your kids will likely move out of home before a single balloon has exploded. Fill'em up to near bursting, and it'll all be over in seconds.
Camera out again, and they’ll have some great before and after pictures. Kind of like mascara before and after a big night out. Embarrassing? Possibly. But fun? Heck yeah!
By the way, back to that children's art-hoarding habit. I found that taking photos of them, then delicately disposing of them allowed me to keep the memento, avoid the guilt of throwing away stuff my kids made, while still leaving me some shelf space. Also, I can put them together at will into a digital scrapbook that chronicles their development, which is great.
Sounds like so much fun….Balloon Bombing – just perfect as we in Australia are coming into Summer now…why not give it a try this weekend ?
Freaky Rivet was founded by Iyas, the author of this article and father of four, and Kevin, an ex-teacher of over a thousand children, who now runs activity days for schools. Iyas used to lead an organisation of nearly 500 people, which he left for the bigger challenge of herding his four children with his wife around Latin America for 6 months. During this life-changing trip to recover from the corporate world, he was disturbed to see how easily children's natural curiosity, discovery and energy could be side-tracked when a video game was in the vicinity. Deciding that technology was still essential for our children, but that it shouldn't be given free reign instead of kids exploring, moving and creating, he decided with Kevin, an old friend from their time together at Oxford University, to come up with the Freaky Rivet concept – inviting children into a life of activity, of exploration and of discovery by using technology rather than fighting it. In his spare time (kidding, right?) he runs a charity for children living in disadvantaged and war-torn environments.
Thanks so much for sharing with us Iyas…if you want to know more about joining up with Freaky Rivet (and I highly recommend it!) you can click on the badge on the sidebar up above or follow this link or those in the article above.
Warm Wishes….
This sounds like a lot of fun. I wonder what my son would draw?