When camping, make sure to take for kids sidewalk chalk and bubble solution. This weekend, we experienced how chalk and bubbles help kids make friends.
For most families, there isn’t much room to take toys along when going camping. Hopefully, there won’t be much time to use them anyway. After all, the idea is to spend the day outdoors. Nature supplies some things to play with in the form of rocks, sticks, grassy hills, and trees. Campgrounds have paths for hiking and biking. Often, there are playgrounds with other kids.
In a campground, kids don’t have to know each other to have fun but for some, it can be a concern. While some kids meet everyone close by in just a few minutes, other children are not comfortable around people that are new. They might feel anxious and unsure. Even children who are not shy may not have strategies to interact and connect with unfamiliar kids. Somehow, both chalk and bubbles help kids make friends.
As we walked around the campground, we saw a few places where other kids had drawn hopscotch on the ground. What do you do if you see a hopscotch where you are walking? Adults may go around but kids try it out. If the child who drew it is close by, s/he may come over and jump too or at least stand there hoping to be noticed. It’s easy for another child to ask, “Is that your hopscotch?” And so a connection is made as two kids who do not yet know each other’s name begin to play together.
Bubbles are a sort of magnet for kids. As soon as a few float by, the hunt begins to see where they are coming from. Once that mystery has been solved, kids can chase and pop them. If your kids are the ones blowing bubbles, it’s almost guaranteed that other kids will follow the bubble trail and end up watching. At this point, it’s easy to ask another child if s/he would like to blow some bubbles too. Set up a pan on a table and some bubble wands. Or, small straws will blow bubbles and each child can have a small dixie cup or other container for bubble solution. Soon, your kids will have made some new friends.
Wonder if science or math has this formula for how chalk and bubbles help kids make friends?