As a stay at home mom of three kids, I am always looking for fun and inexpensive activities to keep them busy. My friend, Lindy also has three kids about the same age as mine so she suggested we take the kiddos blueberry picking.
Blueberry picking all by itself is not enough to fill a morning of fun for all six of the littles so we needed to add a few more things to the day. First, we stopped to feed the animals on the farm. The little kids had fun trying to name the animals. The babies enjoyed "talking" to the animals.
My friend then read "Blueberries For Sal" by Robert McCloskey to all six kids. She and I both loved this book as kids and she thought it would be the perfect book to introduce blueberry picking to the kids.
As you can see from the picture below, the kids really got into the story. The bigger kids especially liked the part about the bear and wondered if we would see a bear on our adventure that day.
The littler guys liked the "keplunk" sound that the blueberries made when Sal dropped the blueberries into the pail. We even brought our own tin pails for the kids so they could make their own "kerplunk" sounds.
After reading the book, I wanted some things to do with the kids based on the book. I searched Pinterest and I found a website that offered FREE printables based on "Blueberries for Sal,"
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| Blueberries for Sal free printables from Homeschool Creations |
I laminated the printable matching cards and gave one set to each of the two little boys. I used them as "word hunt" cards instead of a matching game. I would ask the boys to, "find the picture of bear, etc." The cards all contained words from the story.
The older kids needed more of a challenge so I printed out and laminated the free puzzle page. They worked on their puzzle while the little boys did their word activity.
After our story and activities we spent some time checking out the tractor. Both the little and big kids enjoyed that!
The actual blueberry picking was so much fun! The two babies (both of them are 16 months old) did not blueberry pick. The four older kids really enjoyed picking the blueberries. The two oldest kids were very particular about which blueberries they picked.
The two little boys (both almost 3 years old) had so much fun! They both made "kerplunk" noises when they dropped their berries in their tin pails. It was so cute to see that they had paid attention to the story!
I wish that the entire day was a positive one! It is a shame when an almost perfect day has to be ruined. I wish I didn't have to write about this part of the day but it would be a disservice to others to ignore it.
We chose to go blueberry picking at Emery's Farm in New Egypt, NJ. It was about a 45 minute ride from our homes. We will NEVER go back there again. They are not happy when customers come in with children.
They have a 2 children per adult policy. I have 3 children and my friend has 3 children. We realized they weren't going to let us into the blueberry fields! We strapped the two babies into a double jogging stroller and informed the workers that we would only have the two oldest kids picking the blueberries. They still would not let us in!
I had to wait by the tractor with the babies and two of the kids while my friend entered the fields with two of the kids. After they finished, we switched places and let the other two kids into the field. It was really sad that the siblings could not blueberry pick together.
So if you have a "larger" family, please check the reviews online before heading out to Emery's in New Egypt, NJ. You can see from the reviews that they will send your business away if you have more than two children!
