School’s out, and summer vacation is upon us. If you’re like me, you’re trying to think of good ways to keep your kids entertained. How about these summer eco-activities?

1. Enrol your kids in summer camps and classes for budding naturalists, like those offered at Edmonton’s Devonian Botanic Garden or John Janzen Nature Centre. My daughter was at camp at the DBG in the rain this week and LOVED it.

2. Plant a fruit tree or vegetable garden together: you’ll be growing memories and your own food. Yes, many garden centres and some farmers’ markets still have transplants available if you didn’t get it together to start from seed. This year, we’ve planted corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, and a pumpkin plant in the sunny back corner of our yard.

3. Set up rain barrels and a composter – kids especially love composting with worms. Here are two sets of instructions for how to make your own inexpensive vermicomposter.

4. Build a solar oven from an old pizza box, then cook something fun in it, like cookies or pita-bread pizzas.

5. Spend a rainy day choosing old clothes, toys and books to donate, then choosing more age-appropriate ones at a second-hand store or the library. Or, organize a swapping party with friends.

6. Collect a bunch of plastic bags, then laminate them to make a tough, cool fabric for lunch and tote bags: there are good tutorials archived at Etsy Labs and on eclipse.etsy.com’s myspace page. I’d suggest doing this outdoors if possible, to minimize any exposure to fumes from the softened plastic.

7. Make art from your trash: www.resourcefulschools.org have lots of great craft ideas for reusing household garbage before it hits the recycle bin. The ReUse Centre is also a great spot to collect reuseables for arts and crafts. Here are some other great recycled kids’ crafts roundups: Alberta Egg Producers’ egg carton roundup; Craft Jr’s recycled craft roundup; makeandtakes’ earth day craft roundup; Family Fun’s Recycled Crafts Contest; and the wonderful blogs Fun In The Making and The Long Thread.

8. Another great rainy-day project with little kids: make some home-made green cleaners and test them out. Preschoolers love to role-play, so give them their own spray bottles full of water with a splash of vinegar, and let them wash off their toys, the windows, or the (unwaxed) kitchen floor. If you don’t have any homemade cleaner recipes handy, the Women’s Voices For The Earth “Green Clean Party” website is a great resource.

9. Plan a road trip to a number of local U-picks and farm stands.

10. Mix up some organic play-dough using the following recipe. (If you don’t need it to be gluten-free, substitute wheat flour for the corn starch and rice flour.)

Gluten-Free Play Dough (adapted from http://www.glutenfreeforum.com/index.php?showtopic=22445)

3/4 cup rice flour
3/4 cup corn starch
1/2 cup salt
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 cup hot water
1 tsp. cooking oil
food colouring – use lots to make the colours vibrant

Mix all ingredients together in saucepan until smooth, then place on low heat, stirring constantly with a silicone spatula for at least 5 minutes (10 minutes if recipe is doubled, about 15 minutes if tripled) or until it forms a ball. Remember to scrape the bottom of the pot as you stir!

Remove from heat, let cool for 10 minutes. Scoop into a large bowl, add at least 1/4 cup more rice flour, and 1/4 cup more corn starch, knead until well mixed and no longer sticky. (The kneading can be done partway in a food processor – or can be a project for your child, if you have extra flour and cornstarch (it’ll be messy!).) If it gets too dry, add a few drops of water. If it’s too sticky, add more rice flour and corn starch in equal amounts.

Store in airtight container.

For enough for a Kindergarten class (probably 10 kids can play with it at a time), I triple the recipe (which uses a whole 500g package of corn starch). You can also put all your ingredients in at the start, but I find it harder to get a dough of consistent texture when I do this.

(cross-posted at ecodomestica.com)