Last year, the family went a dinosaur exhibit at the Science Center in Singapore. They had a video reinactment of dinosaurs attacked by lava balls of fire, leading to extension. It was maybe a bit advanced for my kids, and they have asked endless questions since then. East, now 5 was asking for ‘lava’ weekend, so it seemed apropos to make it our final (I hope!) themed weekend.
We ended up with a 3-day weekend due to a holiday for election day in Singapore, which gave us a bit more time to play, but also less time to plan! I put together a volcano for decor out of streamers, while my husband and the kids were out at the store. I couldn’t help but think he would have done it better, but I thought it worked.
The kids liked it– and East was so excited that she was finally getting a lava weekend! We started the weekend with some tropical fruit, playing on the Hawaii islands with pineapple and orange.
A couple of weeks ago someone was selling a volcano kit on Facebook, unopened, so I picked it up in antipation. We opened it and got to work on making the volcano. The kids mixed the plaster (maybe a little slower than recommened as it got hard quick!) and we poured it into the mold. It was a multiday project– which was ok, because we had the time!
The box came with a learning guide and some 2 rocks to perform experiments on, which was a bonus. We read the book, put one the pumice stone in water to see if it would float, and broke the geode open to the see the crystals.
We moved on to the pre-lunch movies on volcanos errupting and how the Hawaii islands were created from a volcano. I don’t have the links, as they were found on the fly, but the one by Physics Girl was a win.
For lunch we had poke, which is a personal favorite of mine. Yea! And East loves raw fish and seaweed, so she made her own sushi.
In the afternoon we went to the pool, and by the time we came back the kids were tired. They curled up for Moana (South Pacific islands with volcanos!) before dinner of coconut and lemongrass kebabs.
The next day the kids painted the volcano. Paint came in the kit, but it was dried up (who knows how old it was), but we had some washable paint on hand.
It was a bit of a nutty day as we prepped for our first playdate since quarantine, so for the pre- lunch video the kids watched a bit of Lilo & Stitch (Hawaii and a volcano!) on Saturday and finished it on Sunday. In the afternoon they did some volcano coloring from pages I printed, and Rush colored a picture of the layers of the Earth’s crust with the lava breaking through (I was impressed!).
On Sunday, it was finally time for the volcano to errupt! The kit came with the powder, and suggested to add soap to make it more bubbly. We did it many times, watching the lava bubble over.
Then it was snacktime– a veggie volcano! It was really cute, but not super popular. The kids asked for fruit instead.
We watched the Disney short, ‘Lava‘, which I heard played before ‘Inside Out’ in the theatres. It was so sweet – we watched it twice.
Then we played ‘Cross the Lava Pit’ where the rug was the lava and the kids had to get from one couch to the next without touching the ground. It was a special treat as usually they get in trouble for jumping from one couch to the next. I played some music and had them stop with the music. The kids had tons of fun, and Papa got invovled by being a bridge.
Finally it was time for homemade pizza and a movie- ‘Land Before Time’ and we discussed why this movie worked with the theme. They told me it was because volcanos made the dinosaurs extint. Message recieved! 🙂
This was really fun. I’m glad that we did these weekends as it entertained us all and created purposeful family time. I’m going to make a photo book to bring all of this fun together in one place. I hope the kids remember this time as a positive and fun time and forget the stress of no playground, school or pool. That’s the goal, right?