Spring Break Activities for Children

Consider planning an arts and crafts day with your child. Buy poster boards, finger paints, crayons, markers, scissors, glue and construction paper. Let your child paint and draw on the poster board and construction paper. Cut flowers and other springtime shapes out of the construction paper and let her glue them on to the poster board.

Purchase a hard plastic swimming pool or find a large box you can cut into the shape of a sand box. Head to your local home-improvement store and buy enough sand to fill nine inches of the pool or box. Give your child some buckets and shovels to play in the sand. If you are going to leave the sand in the sand box overnight, cover the sand box to prevent animals from using it as a litter box. To give the sand box a more "spring-time" feel, buy some artificial flowers and plant them in the sand or hide plastic Easter eggs in the sand---just be sure you watch your child carefully so he doesn't eat them.

You can plan a game night with your child. If spring cleaning is on your schedule, use this as a reward for cleaning. Be sure that you plan age-appropriate games. This works best for older children who can focus on the games. While you are playing games, make s'mores in the microwave. Place a graham cracker on a microwave safe plate. Put a chocolate square on the graham cracker. Cover the chocolate with a marshmallow. Microwave the s'mores for 5 to 10 seconds, depending on the power of your microwave. Cover each s'more with another graham cracker when it comes out of the microwave.

Take your family on a day trip. Head to a local park or plan an educational outing to keep your child's mind sharp during the school vacation. Museums and zoos usually have special activities for children during spring break. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums offers a listing of zoos throughout the United States and the Virtual Library offers a state-by-state list of museums (see Resources).