7-9
Free/Low cost
1. Work together to create something unique (a clay sculpture, a painted rock, a holiday ornament).
2. Make a thin layer of Jello-O and carve it into letters, numbers, figures, etc.
3. Take a walk together with a memento bag and collect interesting leaves, rocks or junk.
4. Design a Christmas card together.
5. Weave a ring out of grass.
6. Go on a sound scavenger hunt with a tape recorder.
7. Make giant soap bubbles.
8. Create paper snowflakes.
9. Make puppets and put on a show.
10. Start a gratitude journal together listing 5 things you’re thankful for daily or weekly.
11. Plan an imaginary vacation.
12. Learn a few magic tricks and put on a show for your friends and family.
13. Find all the living things on a one-foot square of grass.
14. Make a bug cage and catch bugs.
15. Learn to count to 10 in a foreign language.
16. Explore the attic.
17. Make a calendar of the big events of the year.
18. Start a coin or stamp collection.
19. Get a book of animal tracks and explore a pond or trail to see what animals live there.
20. Finger paint with chocolate, lemon, or strawberry pudding.
21. Spend time just talking about how your week was and how you’re feeling.
22. Walk along Victoria’s downtown waterfront on a hot summer’s day and watch the buskers.
23. Build a log cabin out of Popsicle sticks and glue.
24. Use a magnifying glass to examine all kinds of little things.
25. Tape record yourselves reading your favourite stories.
26. Learn to tap out your names in Morse code and to sign your names in sign language.
27. Make a treasure or jewellery box.
28. Tour Roger’s Chocolate Factory, and then make your own chocolates with chocolate moulds.
29. Look in the phone book to find people with your same last names.
30. Build a house of cards together.
31. Go swimming at Thetis Lake.
32. Make your own code with numbers representing letters. Send each other coded messages.
33. Make pancakes from scratch.
34. Bake and frost cut-out cookies.
35. Have a carpet picnic on the living room floor and watch a movie.
36. Maintain a scrapbook of all the things you do together. Include ticket stubs, menus, pictures, brochures, programs and other mementos.
37. Decorate brown lunch bags and make them into gift bags.
38. Decorate eggs - not just at Easter.
39. Tell each other stories. Start by giving the other a starting sequence, such as "I was walking to school the other day and I saw..."
40. Create a bead necklace or bracelet.
41. Make a vase or decorate an old bottle or jar with paint, jewels, or buttons.
42. Cast their hand in plaster of paris in a pie plate or pan. Remember to write the name and date on the back after it fully hardens.
43. Make Christmas ornaments out of dough.
44. Tape record messages to send to grandparents or other loved ones that don't live nearby.
45. Make a family tree in the shape of a triangle with the Little’s name or picture at the top and the parents and grandparents branching out below.
46. Help them write and illustrate a story, fanciful or autobiographical, that you bind into a book with plastic comb bindings.
47. Make a Mother’s Day present.
48. Make a hand wreath for Remembrance Day.
49. Make handprint cookies. Cut around their hand on cookie dough with a blunt knife, and after the cookies are baked let him or her decorate the “hand” with a frosting tube.
50. Walk to the lighthouse on the Ogden Point breakwater.
51. Make glitter pine cones.
52. Make a Father’s Day card or present.
53. As you read a story, let him or her “illustrate” it with markers on paper.
54. Plant a garden in a window box. Watch and learn as it grows.
55. Spend time teaching them to whistle through his or her fingers on a piece of grass, to blow a bubble, to play jacks, to make a daisy chain, or to perform any of your favourite childhood activities.
56. Learn a few riddles, jokes or tongue twisters and have a good laugh together.
57. Thumb wrestle.
58. Make Birdseed Ornaments and hang them on nearby trees.
59. Play on the swings.
60. Look through a catalogue or magazine and try and guess each others favourite things.
61. Every kid should have the chance to make lemonade at least once. Let them determine the type of lemonade, the kind of cups, etc. It’s a wonderful photo opportunity.
62. “Fingerprint” your match, using a water-based paint and paper. Then draw thumbprint creatures, giving them names when appropriate. Ex: Draw legs and a head on the thumbprint to make a spider.
63. Make cards or gifts for loved ones.
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64. Train together and participate in a one-K fun run.
65. Order sea monkeys or Chia pets and watch them grow.
66. Visit the Victoria Bug Zoo.
67. Create s'mores with graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate chunks. Heat them in the oven, microwave, or over an open fire.
68. Learn to make homemade root beer, ice cream, or popsicles.
69. Play mini-golf
70. Visit The Scratch Patch Mineral World Interpretive Centre in Sidney and make discoveries in the world of geology.
10-12
Free/Low Cost
1. Go down to the waterfront and watch the boats and ships come in.
2. Go and spend the day flying kites in the park.
3. Together, write a family newspaper for friends and relatives.
4. Look up new words in the dictionary.
5. Putt some balls on the putting green in Beacon Hill Park.
6. Learn basic sewing skills and then put your new skills to work.
7. Go beach-combing for treasures.
8. Use a globe to locate friends, travel destinations and current events.
9. Make a collage of your lives with pictures cut from magazines.
10. Make homemade potpourri with dried flower petals.
11. Play frisbee outside in the sunshine.
12. Write a poem about each other and read it to one another.
13. Help your Little write a letter to the author of their favourite book.
14. Create a tornado in a bottle; put coloured water in a two-litre bottle, connect another bottle to it like an hourglass, turn it over and give it a swirl.
15. Go on a camera scavenger hunt. Let your Little take the pictures.
16. Stencil a border pattern around the tope of a wall.
17. Take turns styling each others' hair.
18. Make mini-pizzas using English muffins.
19. Make maracas by covering light bulbs with layers of papier-mâché. When they dry, gently break the glass and paint.
20. Have a picnic overlooking Victoria, at the top of Mount Tolmie. See if you can point out where you live.
21. Using the letters from a big word, see how many smaller words you can create.
22. Use of book of names to find the meaning of your names.
23. Make a delicious cake from scratch and decorate it.
24. Write a poem about Big Brothers Big Sisters.
25. Squeeze fresh orange juice.
26. Go to the airport for lunch and watch the planes take off and land.
27. Roast pumpkin seeds in the oven.
28. Take a self-guided tour of the Greater Victoria Compost Education Centre or go to a basic composting workshop.
29. Read books about famous inventors.
30. Make a time capsule and fill it with things that you both like, then bury it.
31. Watch the activity at a construction site.
32. Visit a farm and milk a cow.
33. Surf the Internet. Learn about new subjects.
34. Visit a nursing home and read or sing to the residents.
35. Sit at the mall or in a park and watch people.
36. Learn how to dance.
37. Plan an imaginary trip around Canada. It's a great way to sneak in a geography lesson.
38. Build a website on Geocities.
39. Try your hand at some fun and interesting science experiments.
40. Start a road hockey game.
41. Help them create a coat of arms using symbols significant to them. Ex: musical instruments, athletic equipment, etc.
42. Role play meeting new people so your Little will have more confidence in unfamiliar situations.
43. Bring a camera and take some funny-face photos.
44. Find something inspirational to read.
45. Learn origami.
46. Clip and save articles of interest from the newspaper.
47. Play one-on-one basketball, football, soccer, etc.
48. Make a crossword puzzle for your match with clues emphasizing key facts and interests in his or her life. Ex: 1 Across – Favourite Colour.
49. Take the time to play a board game or card game of their choice.
50. Go on a newspaper scavenger hunt.
51. Press flowers and or leaves from the fall to make paper or picture frames.
52. Fix something (a broken toy, bike, piece of furniture, equipment).
53. Go to a volleyball or basketball game at the high school your Little will attend.
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54. Watch a potter throwing on a wheel, then try your hand at making pottery.
55. Build and paint a birdhouse.
56. Learn about three constellations and go to the Observatory to look at them through the telescope.
57. Make homemade ice cream sandwiches in the summer and eat them outside in the sun.
58. Make a dream catcher and learn about the story behind it.
59. Buy a yo-yo and learn how to do tricks with it.
60. Assemble a model or bookcase.
61. Make foods from around the world and learn how people live in that country.
62. Cook - pizza, KD, breakfast, waffles, BBQ, etc.
63. Cook or go out for breakfast one day, even if it’s in the afternoon.
64. Garage saling - see how much stuff you can buy with $5.
65. Keep a journal and write reviews on movies you see together, restaurants you go to, plays you might see.
66. Plant a tree, bush, or perennial at their school or home.
67. Give them the chance to experience the feeling of self-worth that comes with helping someone else. Put together a Christmas shoebox, donate a gift to an organization, join in a school clean-up project, etc.
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68. Learn a martial art together.
69. Rent a canoe and go on an aquatic adventure.
70. Explore the world of model Railroads; electric car sets.
13+
FREE/Low cost
1. Show your Little your high school yearbook picture.
2. Go for a walk through a hardware store and explain the function of various tools.
3. Practice filling out applications for everything.
4. Wash the car.
5. Look through a book of house plans and pick out your dream house.
6. Read biographies of people who did great thing.
7. Get a book of North American birds and go bird watching.
8. Write a letter to your MP or MLA regarding an issue important to both of you.
9. Donate old toys and clothes to a community shelter.
10. Teach your Little to use a fire extinguisher.
11. Share photographs.
12. Take your Little with you to vote.
13. Volunteer to ring a bell for charity at Christmas.
14. Get creative with some lumber, hammer and nails.
15. Go skateboarding at a nearby skateboard park.
16. Make a mobile using driftwood, beach shells and glass, small stones etc.
17. Read books written by local authors.
18. Open the hood of a car and point out various parts of the engine, check the oil, fluids etc.
19. Skip rocks on water.
20. Make a collage with a particular theme of interest.
21. Go to your local fire department and learn to use a fire extinguisher.
22. Try your hand at archery.
23. Go to a photographer's darkroom and learn how negatives and prints are made.
24. Teach your pet a new trick.
25. Talk to one another – share troubles & worries, joys & successes.
26. Visit the campuses at Camosun College and at the University of Victoria.
27. Visit Fort Rod Hill and watch the naval ships enter and leave Esquimalt harbour.
28. Do something for an elderly friend.
29. Research what was happening on the day you both were born.
30. Learn 10 new words in a foreign language.
31. Ride bicycles in a nearby Park.
32. Make a batch of your favourite cookies.
33. Go ice-skating, get hot chocolate afterwards.
34. Learn how to fix your bike.
35. Meditate together.
36. Visit a coffee shop to sip hot chocolate or soda while having a friendly chat.
37. Research an important event or issue at the library. Tour the big libraries at the university.
38. Do aerobics in the living room or visit a health centre.
39. Tour the Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary’s) Regimental Museum.
40. Play tennis together.
41. Learn about each other’s favourite music group.
42. Take the Naden Dockyard tour, and walk through the Naval Museum.
43. Play Frisbee golf.
44. Go swimming at a pool, lake, or in the ocean.
45. Help each other learn how to juggle or hacky sack.
46. Look at new cars - Vipers, Corvettes, Hummers, Mercedes.
47. Yard Work - at either Big’s or Little’s home.
48. Learn the rules of Cricket then go watch a match in Beacon Hill Park.
49. Tour the BC Legislature. Sit in on a session and listen to the debates.
50. Visit an electronics store.
51. Go for a hike at Thetis Lake.
52. Encourage them to write a favourite author a fan letter, which can be addressed in care of the book’s publisher. Authors often respond warmly to such fan mail, and they may be the thrilled recipient of a personal response.
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53. Paint an original T-shirt.
54. Make your own instruments.
55. Enjoy a fresh coconut, pineapple or any other kind of fruit that can not be found in the area.
56. Paint an old piece of furniture.
57. Explore different museums, libraries and art centres.
58. Whack golf balls at the driving range.
59. Work on home improvement projects together - painting, wallpapering, or remodelling a spare room. It provides great talk time and quite a few laughs, too.
60. Make a fondue meal or a fruit-and-cake fondue for dessert.
61. Design and build a kite and fly it at Clover Point.
62. Cook anything from scratch (pizza, spaghetti, mashed potatoes, waffles, BBQ etc).
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63. Tour the city and learn about its history.
64. Train together to run in the Times Colonist 10km (entrance fee is $25-$35).
65. Go to a hockey game – either the Victoria Salmon Kings at the Save-On-Food Centre, or the Victoria Salsa at Bear Mountain Arena.
66. Walk around a boat show or go to a sporting event.
67. Take an art class together.
68. Challenge one another to a game of Laser Tag.
69. Go to an event at the Western Speedway.
70. Go golfing at a Par Three golf course.
Other interesting weblinks!
Check out Saanich Recreation for upcoming fun and exciting events.
Here’s what’s going on for Youth in Victoria!
The Admiral's Complete Guide to Victoria.
Lots more of arts and crafts ideas found here!