As the work week wrapped up last Thursday and my colleagues and I were wishing each other happy, restful and safe holidays, one remarked, “Thank you, but I suspect it won’t be much of a holiday. Instead of working here with you pleasant, polite, focused and completely sane people, I’ll be spending the 10 days I’m ‘off’ working to keep my adorable but high-maintenance lot from driving me batty.”
And now the Big Day has come and gone, the wrapping paper has been tidied away, and the new toys and games have been exclaimed over and explored, and the kids are home (still) and filled with energy (again).
No company is coming this year to provide novelty or distraction (or create more work). The week’s lunches and dinners are taken care of, thanks to the big bird bought in October, back when we all thought there’d be a buffet feast for more than just the nuclear family (back before the latest pandemic restrictions came in).
If you’re like my colleague with young children, you’ve already taken the troop on daily outings to the park and back and to the other park and back and you’ve led bicycle expeditions around the neighbourhood. You may even have set up a tournament of bat the badminton birdie around the living room. And you’ve most likely used up most of the available Disney-download magic.
The little ones, however, are not only raring to go at 6:30 every morning, they’ve taken it into their adorable little heads that you’re the sole source of all possible entertainment.
Somebody at UBC’s Faculty of Science seems to have thought about what this week might be like for parents of young kids who have already spent more time at home from school this year than usual.
They put together a 20-day calendar of science-related activities that curious kids — but really, pointy-headed people of all ages — can do at or from home throughout December. A few of the activities are one-time events or require registration — register here for the Dec. 30 virtual tour of the Beaty Biodiversity Museum — but most draw on online, anytime resources from the faculty.
Your kids can make a jelly roll inspired by a display at the Pacific Museum of Earth or whip up some dinosaur-trackways shortbread to eat while they listen to a podcast about footprint fossils by palaeontologist Lisa Buckley.
They can also tour the Greenheart TreeWalk Rainforest Experience at UBC Botanical Garden, build a Rube Goldberg machine that serves cake, or build a solar system using Scratch, an accessible computer-programming language. For more information, see tinyurl.com/yc6tvl8d
Not part of the 20 Days of Science calendar but still through UBC is the online Nature Club session on Jan. 3. Your kids will need to register to take part: tinyurl.com/ycu6u4pd
The University of Victoria-based Science Venture program also has a number of activities and resources relating to science, tech, engineering and math that can be done at home. Check out biodiversity, bugs and other inveterate invertebrates, the physics of sound and waves, ocean chemistry, and kid-friendly at-home coding challenges at scienceventure.ca/stem-at-home.
Kids can also check in with Science World’s Dome at Home winter activity pack or online winter break (scienceworld.ca/dome-at-home/) or take an online tour of the Centre of the Universe’s exhibits (centreoftheuniverse.org/virtual-tour). The pandemic put a halt to star parties up on Observatory Hill, but you can still explore the observatory’s past and present science at centreoftheuniverse.org/spotlight-on-the-observatory. The good thing about these offerings is that clear skies are not required.
If art, not science, is your kids’ thing, check out the new digital arts initiative, Field Trip: Art Across Canada, which the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria is partnering on and contributing to.
The online Field Trip platform (tinyurl.com/y8wrv967) offers arts experiences with some of Canada’s most celebrated artists. Not all of the programs are geared towards kids, but older kids of all ages who are interested in art technique and history might be interested in the talks and workshops.
You can also check out artist presentations and interviews and explore some of the gallery’s permanent collections on the art gallery’s YouTube channel (tinyurl.com/y9pr3mt5).
Between all of those options, the new toys, games, bike rides, visits to local parks and Netflix and the Disney channel, there might just be a moment or two for you.
Happy holidays.
