For the last few weeks, we’ve been having a ton of fun. We’re doing 21 days of DIY Summer Camp at Home, because summer camp is fun, but ex-pen-sive! But we can have the same kind of fun (and more!) right here at home, for much less cost — and no early wake up calls. And we’re finished our second week: All About Reptiles!
What have we done so far:
Over the last 10 days, I shared the second week’s schedule of my DIY Summer Camp. Almost every day you could come back and you were able to get the schedule for the day, so you could do summer camp for your kids at home.
I’ve including outdoor and indoor activities, reading suggestions, craft and snack ideas. And I attempted to use activities that could be done with just one child, or with many child, with minimal prep and few special materials. Because like you, I’m a mom, and I don’t have a ton of time or extra money to spend on special things. But DIY Summer Camp at Home means that we can do special things for FREE or cheap!
Recap Day 1:
If you’re just getting started, you’ll want to go back and start here with Day 1 of the 21 Days of DIY Summer Camp. On Day 1, we started camp off with some fun camp things. We made camp t-shirts, name tags, and played with environmentally friendly water games. We had watermelon for snack, and told not-so-scary stories at the end of the day.
It was a ton of fun!
Recap The First Week: Backyard Birds
On Day 2-6 of the 21 Days of DIY Summer Camp, we started with our bird theme of the week. First, we went looking for the birds, with some backyard birdwatching! We made binoculars, created a field guide of all the birds we saw, and we played some fun bird games. Check out All About Backyard Birdwatching here in case you missed it!
Then we fed the birds. Try Feeding the Birds with us by reading the post! Next, we looked at Birds as Pets. Read about our backyard “Angry Birds” game on Day 4 here. On day 5, we tried flying like a bird. Get all the birdy details on Day 5. And day 6 was about what birds actually are. You can grab the games and worksheets from Day 6 here.
Week 2: All about Reptiles.
Recap Day 8: Slithering Snakes
On Day 8 of the 21 Days of DIY Summer Camp, we started with our reptile theme of the week. First, we played with the slithering snakes. We made paper snakes, bead snakes and bubble snakes. Check out Slithering Snakes here in case you missed it!
Recap Day 9: Terrific Turtles
Learning about turtles made for a terrific day 9. We tried navigating the way turtles do and we made some adorable baby turtles. Try our Terrific Turtles Egg Experiment too!
Recap Day 10: Dangerous Dinosaurs
No reptile themed camp would be complete without a Dinosaur Day! So on day 10, we dinosaur-stomped our way through a game of “The Floor is Lava”, we measured out dinosaur lengths, and we made some fossils. Track down dinosaur fun with this post.
Recap Day 11: Amazing Alligators
Since dinosaurs weren’t dangerous enough for my kids, on day 11, we approached some alligators. We swung around our alligator tails and made swamp slime. We even made some chompy alligator fridge magnets to hold onto all the fun pictures. Find Alligator Activities on Day 11.
Recap Day 12: Lively Lizards
Looking for lizards meant we needed to be fast on day 12. With a world full of tongues and smells, you never knew what was coming next. Take the temperature of our lizard post here.
Recap Day 13: Funny Frogs
Yes, I know frogs aren’t reptiles, but my kids couldn’t get enough reptile fun, so I offered up some hopping good time! Our frog crafts were fantastic, and swatting bubble-flies got everyone hoping for more fun games. Leapfrog over to Day 13’s froggy post here.
What’s coming next?
Next week is full of another theme, and we’ll play more games, have more snacks, and do more amazingly fun stuff.
Don’t forget to finish up the book you’ve been reading all week. Here’s our recommended list of reptile books, for your read aloud. We read a chapter or two every night this week.
- Hiss-s-s-s!
- The missing ‘gator of Gumbo Limbo
- What the Tortoise Told Alice
- Willard Price: Python Adventure *Note: suspenseful!
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