Eco-Friendly and Educational Inauguration Activities to Do with Your Kids
You and your kiddos have some green Obama souvenirs, right? Well, even if you don’t (and even though my four-year-old voted for McCain), there are some fun, educational, and eco-friendly ways to help your kids celebrate our upcoming inauguration–by celebrating this inauguration, in particular, but any inauguration, you help your kids understand the ceremonies that are meaningful to our society and help give them a sense of history and their particular place in it. By making your celebrations thrifty and eco-friendly, you help them learn how to live full and generous lives while honoring your family’s ethical beliefs.
Some of these activities below will require a little prep time and some won’t, but all can be participated in by kids from very young to very old:
- » See also: Grow Your Own Tree Hugger: 101 Activities to Teach Your Child How to Live Green
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- Make a recipe from Obama’s Inauguration Day lunch. This menu, created by Design Cuisine from Arlington, Virginia, is a tribute to Abraham Lincoln. Some of the courses are a little complicated (obviously), but the molasses-whipped sweet potatoes look easy enough and are vegetarian-friendly.
- Kaboose offers an easy tutorial for painting the Obama symbol on a plain white paper plate–the result is bright and cheerful and the symbol is simple and fun, but I’d suggest subbing some nice recycled cardboard (pizza box? cereal box?) for the paper plate. Or you could paint the American flag instead. Paint a bunch, and you could make a garland.
- An inauguration of a new administration always involves a lot of deep thinking about what we’d like for ourselves, our country, and our world in the future. The Children’s Museum of Manhattan, through January 19, invites children to email them with their hopes for the future (check out their site for the email address). They claim that after the election all children’s letters and emails will be compiled and sent to President Obama himself.
- Coloring pages, while not masterpieces of creativity, are useful in teaching children recognition of people and symbols. SparkPlugging offers several printable inauguration coloring pages, featuring simple outlines of Obama and his symbol, and a Google Image search will turn up several more for you–print these on the back sides of used typing paper.
- If your kids are really into it, Our White House has some frankly hard-core educational inaugural activities for kids–they provide on-line links for looking at past inauguration parade floats, inauguration artwork, and inauguration artifacts; encourage them to read and think about the poems that presidents have had read at their inaugurations; give an on-line link to a video tour of the Oval Office; and offer suggestions about games to play at a children’s inauguration party.
What will you and your kids do to celebrate the inauguration?
Hi,
Thank you for this article, it does give some incentive to do activities with children.
However, I think that some of advices could be actually against the ecology concepts.
For example, painting the Obama sign on paper plates! Using paper plates is very eco-unfriendly, and you know that.
If you have to print the coloring pages, make sure that you are using 100% recycled paper.
I would also advise to introduce some physical activities, like marching around the garden, or anything else.
Please don’t take this comment negatively, I love your blog and I am a faithful reader. I also share your articles on different forums and with my friends. I wouldn’t bother commenting here if I wouldn’t care about what you do.
Thank you again,
Andy
Thanks for your input–I hope you noticed that I advised substituting recycled cardboard for the paper plate and the backside of used typing paper for the coloring pages. It’s important to me that it be clear that my girls and I try to live full and generous lives while honoring our ethical beliefs.
This is another cool educational site for the computer-crazed kid. QuizWinners.com has free quizzes - one of which is the All-American quiz. Who knew that Flag Day was first established in 1949? Cool stuff, check it out.
I don’t know…that site does have an ad to watch before the quiz and advertises that you can play for cash.
My kids aren’t old enough to play games online, so I wouldn’t know yet about what to watch out for. Are other parents comfortable with ads and gambling?
Thanks for linking to my Barack Obama coloring pages!
I really think the best way to do the Obama symbol and likeness would be to draw them on your your hand or forehead and using only biodegradable coloring or dye.
I’m offended that someone would nitpick at your post without having read it well enough to see that you already cover all those points.
My daughters and I did make a (modified) inaugural menu for dinner last night, and we loved it! Thanks for the idea, because I was looking for something special to do to celebrate.
Oh, and you’re absolutely right–very little internet, no ads, and absolutely no gambling!
Hmmm…like a henna tattoo? That could be cool, only I can’t draw worth shoot. I can’t even imagine what poor Obama would look like if I drew him on my baby’s forehead. For people who can, draw, though, I bet that could be a very powerful activity.
I do know how to make my own temporary tattoos, though–it would be pretty fun to make a tat from an inauguration photo.
Although my four-year-old, I can’t decide if it’s to tease me or her sister, has taught her two-year-old sister that President Obama’s name is “Mr. McGregor.” You know, like in Peter Rabbit?
Sigh.