on friday we are having a local churchs summer camp come for a visit,the kids are between 2 and 6 there will be 27 or 30. i need some ideas on what to do with them. i think they will be here for 3 hrs. i do not think the animals will hold their attention that long. i am going to have snack, watermelon and juice. any activities you can think of? thanks

-- renee oneill (oneillsr@home.com), July 06, 2000

Answers

3 hours with the little ones - that can be an eternity! That's a wide range of age and attention span there you have to deal with...

KISMIF - "Keep It Simple, Make it Fun" or "Keep It Slow, Make It Fail"

The older kids will probably be good for 30 or 45 minutes max at any one particular activity. You may want to do a search on the web for "Tiger Cubs" (they're 1st grade cub scouts) and see if you can turn up any hits on activities that may be applicable.

-- Eric in TN (ems@nac.net), July 06, 2000.

Dear Renee, I have had some experience with pre-school children at my farm. I am not sure what you have for animals, I raise llamas. They arrive here around 9:30 am and we have a short lecture on rules(we also have a donkey that may bite if fed fingers)! Then I go into a small session on llama wool, mohair(angora goat), and sheeps wool. I pass some of each around so they can feel the difference. I show them my spinning wheel, the yarn that comes off of it. I show them llama hide, sheep hide. Tell them about in the olden days they used it for clothing etc. Their teachers usually do a unit on making clothes before they come here. After they seem to have had enough of that stuff we take 3-4 llamas for a hike around our property, the distance varies year to year. Some people like the hike some don't. By the time we get back to the house it is usually 11:00- 11:30 and they get out their sack lunches while I spread out a few blankets for their picnic lunch! The kids are usually found feeding their apples and potato chips to the llamas and donkey! I also have ready some grain sacks for a sack race if time permits. I also have some plastic spoons and eggs for an egg in spoon race. Generally, the children seem to have enough without these activities but I do not want them to be bored! You can also sing songs, they like that too. I'm not sure what you have to offer as far as animals etc but here are some of my ideas. I would like to some day have a small project for them to do with felting, balls are very easy for them to make and bring home. They really like to bring anything home with them. One year I made them llama pins, they loved them. Of course, they are time consuming, a sticker of an animal would probably do, or a pencil or bookmark. I don't know if I am of any help, but that is my experience.

-- Emily Nouvertne (bellyacresfarm@kyk.net), July 06, 2000.

how about some sack races with your empty grain sacks? (shake them out real good of course)

hoola hoop contest to see who can do it the longest- according to age

if you have hens, what about coloring hard boiled eggs that they can take home from the farm?

maybe an art session, where they can color or draw their favorite animal on the farm

just a couple thoughts, have fun!!

-- Pat (pmikul@pcpros.net), July 06, 2000.

http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/_summer.html for some more ideas...

-- Eric in TN (ems@nac.net), July 06, 2000.

Renee, I realize that you may get a 2 year old who'll be fascinated by the tour, and a 6 year old who'll pitch a fit, but in general, you're going to need to be ready to split the 2, 3, and some of the 4 year olds into another group. It may not happen, but it sure could. So make sure you've got enough older kids or adults handy to deal with it.

Look under some of the other threads for the make at home stuff like bubbles and sculpting clay. Have a table set up where you can park any kids that aren't into the farm. Let them make a pig or something out of play clay. If there's time, or if things go sour in general, have all the kids model something.

As young as all these kids are, you might want to have a dish pan full of bubble solution and some other things that could (granted) be done in any back yard. Comforting and familiar to all of them. Something like making ice cream or butter would be very farm-like for them, but probably too long to capture the attention of a bunch of excited young children. Even if your animals have had unknown children around them before, this will be a lot of unknown children at one time. You might again need to plan on having lots of older children or adults to break the kids down into smaller groups.

If you've really got your heart set on making this as much of a "farm" visit as possible, set up some people to demonstrate some things like spinning and quilting, anything that strikes you as appropriate and you can find someone to do. If you have some sheep or other fiber animals, have some cruddy fiber there that the kids can take a wad of. Kids love having things to take home, and if you can afford it, a Polaroid of each kid sitting on the tractor or petting an animal would thrill them to pieces.

Have fun! Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), July 06, 2000.

Be confident, clear and firm in your rules from the beginning.

We had 2 little girls here from california a couple days ago. They wanted to hold and touch all the critters. I don't mind them chasing the chickens all over and they aren't dangerous but they were not aloud to run at the geese or open rabbit cages without me. We had fun but they were here for 45 min.(no planning ahead)

My advice, as pre-school/daycare teacher: 1.)Keep it as much hands on as is possible and safe. One trip we were all aloud to try milking a very kind goat, at another we were aloud to pick and eat a couple raspberrries by ourselves. 2.)Yes, they love to have something (anything) to take home, ESPECIALLY if they could make it themselves (the egg and felt ideas are perfect!) 3.) Mix it up a little. some short, quiet talking times mixed back and forth with activities eating time and "vsiting" time. 4.)Have a couple extra ideas on hand and be prepared to ditch a plan altogether if needed. 5.) Most important...HAVE FUN yourself and enjoy the kids company. they will feel it and it will be smoother and more fun for all.

I hope that helps. If you need more ideas I'm usually pretty good at brainstorming and I belive in simple & cheap!

Good Luck and Have Fun!!!!!!!!!:):):)

-- Novina in ND (lamb@stellarnet.com), July 06, 2000.

You are keeping at least me in suspense. How did the day go? Didn't think about it until too late, but kids love to have their faces painted. Perhaps it could have been as farm animils.

-- Ken Scharabok (scharabo@aol.com), July 09, 2000.

I too would like to kniow how the day went. What worked, what didn't? Please fill us in.

-- tina shrout (clia88@newmexico.com), July 12, 2000.