Yesterday I wrote a post about the market organized with the occasion of a cultural festival. You can check it out here.
With this occasion, there were a lot of activities specially dedicated to kinds and children of all age. Activities that can capture the attention of any kid, due to the uniqueness of it. The usual, well known toys have no place here, as those are already boring, so the organizers came up with some very cool ideas.
There was this man, creating huge soap bubbles. I don't know if he was part of the plan, or he just went there to have some fun, or create fun for the kids. In any case, this little girl had the fun of her life chasing bubbles. What surprised me the most was how she approached the situation. When she saw the bubbles, the fist thing she did was to ask if she can burst them. It was very polite of her as others would have started to crush the bubbles without thinking twice, let alone ask for permission.
She already had her face painted, so imagine this was some extra fun for her.
Watching the kids chasing bubbles was a fun activity already itself.
I've never captured soap bubbles (although I've been planning to buy a device to have some fun), so this was new to me, but since these were huge, I don't think I had a hard job. Now I'm not saying these shots are perfect as at some point I was almost covered with soap as the man was coming towards me and I had to take a few steps back quickly, without knowing what's behind me or where I am stepping.
So now I was a cheap plastic toy that allows me to make bubbles. I had a few when I was a kid, but that was ages ago.
As I stepped inside the area, saw right away that it's going to be a lot of fun. There were people, especially kids everywhere, despite the heat. The truth is, there are tall trees everywhere, so you can stay in the shade and relax if you like.
I loved this banner for several reasons. This is Zalán Green, the mascot of the festival. The text says, quoting:
Zalán knows good people don't throw garbage all over the place and the rest is not allowed.
This is really funny and a fun way to let kids know throwing garbage away is not an option. The banner says Be a Zalán Green yourself! You'll see there were garbage bags everywhere, to avoid making a mess.
Most likely you are wondering what on earth that bike is, why it has a radio on it. Wait, it's possible it's a cassette player or how was it called (was ages ago)? Anyway, let me explain. For the simplicity of the example, let's call it radio. So here's how the radio worked. There was no electricity or bluetooth connection, the radio started to play music, when the kid started to pedal. The speed of the music depended on the speed of pedaling. Imagine the fun these kids had. This kid in blue T-shirt pedaled 10 minutes or so, till his mother could finally convince him to let other kids pedal too. He was a bit too old for that bike but was also with special needs, so who can blame him.
That white bike with the rear tire missing for example had some orange light lit up around the wheel when someone pedaled. Unfortunately I couldn't capture it as I got a call that I had to take and by the time I finished, the kid was gone.
This was another cool game. There was that circle attached to a string, with a ball inside and the string was moved by the pedaling. I don't know which was the end goal, to get the ball in those holes, or on the contrary, avoid the holes and get the ball to the top. Each game had a description, but I did not read any, didn't want to bother the crowd.
Another cool one. Here there was an engine attached to the pedals and a pipe attached to the engine. The engine blew the air in that vertical tube, which lifted the ball inside. The faster the kid pedaled, the higher the ball went.
The truth is, they are going to learn about what they did that day at physics classes later at school and will be easier for them to understand what's happening as they already saw it. I hope they won't forget this experience. Parents were explaining them the idea behind it and there were the descriptions too to help.
A different one, but just as interesting as the others. That phone on the bile was connected to another. The girl pedaling gave the impulse to the other phone and they could talk. This is actually a very nice way to show kids what those old phones with a crank worked.
These kids had a lot of fun for sure. They were running around, trying out each bike to see what it does.
There were other activities as well, like walking on those pillows and colored rugs, coloring, painting and playing with different toys.
This was the place for crafting, which is very important at that age. Show them how it's done and they can learn something that an give them a living. Not to mention developing their creativity, bring out their hidden talent.
This lady was teaching kids felting. If you don't know what felting is or how it's done, you can check this video out, to have an idea. This is something I would like to try out one day. You can create so many beautiful things. I see felt designs at the craft market all the time and there are a lot of tutorials online.
These kids were taught how to use straw to create different straw objects.
This scene made me smile. These two little ladies were weaving and making yarn. I wanted to go closer to take a better photo, but the lady on the right was giving an interview on camera and I preferred to not disturb them.
Here kids and parents were singing folk songs, accompanied with a live orchestra made of twp musicians.
Then there were these wooden games, but sadly, no one was playing.
A misunderstood game and a big slingshot. The kid should have done the jumping barefoot as that was the idea, but most likely no one told him. The slingshot seemed to b very interesting as there was a waiting lie :)
The best part in all this was that it was totally free. You didn't have to pay an entry fee or to try out the games.
There were companies offering free health services, like blood pressure check, diabetes test and so on.
It was a fun day with a lot of excitement, especially for kids.
If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides:
