Doing some research to write the previous posts, it was interesting to find a simple yet FUNtastic game that most children really enjoy and never get tired of, so it deserved a post of its own: BUBBLE BLOWING!

It is unbelievable how many websites have information about this classic game.

Image by Dino De Luca /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

You can buy a bubble-blowing kit or have your children make their own bubble-making tools with everyday materials. The second option is much more fun and allows your kids to come up with some creative ideas, so before you close your bags and head off to your home exchange destination, be sure to pack any items you may need to make your bubble-blowing tools during your swap.

First, take notes about the basic recipe to prepare the bubble making solution: add 2 teaspoons of dish soap to 1 cup of water. If you want long-lasting bubbles you can add 1 teaspoon of glycerin to the above recipe. Glycerin is inexpensive, non-toxic and can be purchased in most pharmacies. Baby shampoo can be an alternative to replace the soap for younger children as it won’t cause irritation if some bubble solution comes into contact with their eyes. Wearing pool goggles during a bubble battle can be fun too! You don’t know what a bubble battle is? Just a battle in which your objective is to have your opponent surrender to your bubble-making attack.

Everyday use items that can be turned into bubble wands:

- Cloth hangers (adult supervision should be a must to work with these).

- Plastic cookie cutters.

- Drinking straws.

- Strings. Cotton strings seem to work just fine. Tie the ends together forming a loop (try different lengths for different bubble sizes), soak the loop in the solution, stretch it and then blow through the film caught in the loop.

- A variety of empty containers can have their bottoms removed or portions cut off to become a simple bubble-making device: cans, yogurt containers, plastic lids. (We would also recommend adult supervision if you choose these items)

- A funnel.

- An old racket.

- A balloon. It is hard to get the hang of it but you can use an inflated balloon to “blow” your bubbles.

- An interesting item that seems to be excellent for younger children is a fly swatter. Its small holes are perfect for the little ones to make dozens of bubbles with just one swing!

- The simplest bubble wand: your hands. And a tip we found at http://www.bubbles.org: “… it is dryness, not sharpness, which pops bubbles. This means that if you get your bubble tools wet, you can touch a bubble without popping it” (where bubble tools means your own hands).

There are many options and all you need is creativity, you can also come up with competitions like: the biggest bubble, the longest lasting bubble, who can blow the most bubbles in one minute… Have fun!!!

Image by ahmet guler /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As we promised yesterday, today we continue with ideas for a great day of outdoor fun with your children.  One great advantage of home exchange is the possibility to be “at home” while you are away on vacations so your family can share a special day in the yard just as you would do in your own house. Some ideas may even be of help to your home exchange partner because you can keep his garden green while you have fun with your kids, as a garden hose or sprinkler may be everything you need to let the fun begin.

Water balloon wars - This is a classic game for a hot summer afternoon, so the next time you go shopping, remember to get some water balloons for the next time you need a fun game to cool down.

Fishing ice-cubes - If you have a kiddie pool or just a bucket, you can dump some ice-cubes into it and compete to be the most effective fisher, catching as many ice-cubes as possible but with your feet!

Ice-cube brigade - In this game, teams compete to be the most effective in carrying ice-cubes from a common bucket to their respective jars. Only hands can be used to transport the ice-cubes and the team that gets the higher final volume of water wins.

Wet potato - As in hot potato, players stand or sit in a circle and pass around a water balloon. If a player fails to keep the water balloon “alive” or if he or she intentionally makes it explode by throwing it too hard, he or she is called out and leaves the circle. The last person standing (still dry!) wins the game.

Sprinkler-jumps - If there is a rotating sprinkler, kids can form a circle within water reach and try to jump each time the stream comes their way. The last one to get wet wins the competition. If you have a single child and you and your spouse  can catch your breath after a few jumps, you can set your child a goal, for example completing 10 jumps before getting hit by the sprinkler.

Wet tag - Just as regular tag, the only difference being you get tagged when you are hit by a water balloon or touched with a wet soft sponge so wet = tagged.

We still have one more game to suggest you, but we will leave it for tomorrow.

It is official, summer is here. If there’s something we all associate with these warm times is outdoor fun. No matter where you are headed for your home exchange vacation, it’s time to enjoy the fresh air and the sunny days. No one knows more about having fun outside than children, they just love it, don’t they? And they have the ability to imagine the most incredible games, but sometimes they come to us for suggestions. So, to give you some ideas to keep the little ones entertained while you enjoy your home swap stay we have a few tips.

Bike Photo Hunt - Find a bike rental (if your home exchange partner does not have bikes and has agreed to let you use them), get a few disposable cameras and engage your kids in a Photo Scavenger Hunt. You may not even need the bikes, having their own cameras could be just enough to keep them excited while they go photo hunting. This is a good idea if you want to get to know the new neighbourhood by taking a walk around but you think they will get bored (and tired) if they have to walk for too long. Just think of an interesting list of things worth “hunting” on film.

Shape Scavenger Hunt - Another good idea that can keep your children entertained during a walk. Get them engaged in another kind of scavenger hunt: have them look for shapes. Having prices could be a good way to attract the least enthusiasts and the list may look like this: Find 2 circles, 2 squares, 2 rectangles, 2 triangles, 1 oval, 1 spheres, 1 pyramid, and 2 cubes. If you have younger children, then make it a Colour Scavenger Hunt.

The Navigator(s) - When you are on vacations, you have more time to do things,  so something simple like walking to the get the groceries becomes an enjoyable activity rather than a duty. This game will allow your children to play a game while they tag along. The idea is to have them take the navigator role during your walk: The navigator can trace your route on a map and periodically report in which direction you’re walking (learning to use a compass can be a lot of fun!) and how far you’ve walked (how many blocks). This is much more fun if you plan several stops and have them give you directions after “studying” their map.

This post is so much fun we will continue with more ideas tomorrow.

This is the final part of our tour through the South African cities where the 2010 FIFA World Cup is taking place. So enjoy these ideas for your future home exchanges.

Bloemfontein

Mangaung/Bloemfontein is the judicial capital of South Africa. Surrounded by grassland plains and low hills, its most distinguishable features are its open spaces and its flowers, specially roses. The spirit of the city is reflected by its name, Mangaung  means “Place of the Cheetahs” in SeSotho, and Bloemfontein means “fountain of flowers” in Dutch.

Name: Mangaung/Bloemfontein

Province: Free State

Population: 369,568 inhabitants

Stadium: Free State Stadium - Capacity: 40,911 - Teams still to play here: France, South Africa, Switzerland, Honduras, plus a round of 16 game.

Polokwane

The “Place of Safety” is one place where you can access the natural wonders of South Africa. This is the home of the legendary land of Modjadji, the Rain Queen, where the world’s largest baobab trees are. Some parks and reserves you can visit nearby are:

- Polokwane Bird & Reptile Park
- Polokwane Game Reserve
- Moletzie Bird Sanctuary
- Modjadji Rainforest
- Cheune Crocodile Farm

Name: Polokwane

Province: Limpopo

Population: 508,272 inhabitants

Stadium: Peter Mokaba Stadium - Capacity: 41,733 - Teams still to play here: Greece, Argentina, Paraguay and New Zealand.

Rustenburg

Located in the heart of the savannah, at the foot of the Magaliesburg mountain range lies this Rustenburg, the “Place of Rest” with its ideal climate is a perfect destination for outdoor activities. Just to mention one worth trying, Rustenburg is home to the Rustenburg SkyDiving Club, offering skydiving, parachuting, tandem skydiving, static line jump and accelerated freefall, some even for first-timer jumpers.

Name: Rustenburg

Province: North West

Population: 395,539 inhabitants

Stadium: Royal Bafokeng Stadium - Capacity: 38,646 - Teams still to play here: Mexico, Uruguay, Denmark, Japan, plus a round of 16 game and a semi-final.

Nelspruit

Capital of the fertile Mpumalanga Province, Nelspruit is the gateway to Limpopo Trans-frontier Park, which incorporates the Kruger National Park (South Africa), Limpopo National Park (Mozambique) and Gonarezhou National Park (Zimbabwe).

FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Name: Nelspruit

Province: Mpumalanga

Population: 221,474 inhabitants

Stadium: Mbombela Stadium - Capacity: 40,929 - Teams still to play here: Australia, Serbia, North Korea and Cote d’Ivoire.

Continuing with our South Africa 2010 tour, today we will cover Port Elizabeth/Nelson Mandela Bay and Pretoria. Even though there is no time to find a home exchange deal to visit South Africa during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, it still offers some great ideas for a future destination.

Port Elizabeth/Nelson Mandela Bay

Port Elizabeth/Nelson Mandela Bay is the sunniest city in South Africa and is also known as the “Wind City”, a perfect combination for windsurfing and kiteboarding that makes it a heavenly place for water sports enthusiasts. Overlooking Algoa Bay, in the Indian Ocean coastline, its immaculate magnificent beaches stretch for 40 Km. Port Elizabeth/Nelson Mandela Bay is also an eco-tourism destination, with five biomes converging in the province (out of seven present in South Africa).

Name: Port Elizabeth/Nelson Mandela Bay

Province: Eastern Cape

Population: 1,244,900 inhabitants

Stadium: Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium - Capacity: 42,486 - Teams still to play here: Chile, Switzerland, Slovenia, England, plus a round of 16 game, a quarter-final game and the third-place match.

A Must: Addo Elephant National Park - a unique park where you can see the “Big Seven”: Elephants, Rhinos, Lions, Buffalos, Leopards, Southern Right Whales and Great White Sharks. An incredible place 70 Km north of the city.

More info: http://www.sanparks.org/parks/addo/

Pretoria

Pretoria, South Africa’s administrative capital, is a dynamic university town filled with cultural events, open to tourists and offering a variety of options for spending your time. From shopping to nightlife, Pretoria is the African city you do not expect, ready to amaze and enchant you with its surprises.

Name: Tshwane/Pretoria

Province: Gauteng

Population: 2,345,908 inhabitants

Stadium: Loftus Versfeld Stadium - Capacity: 42,858 - Teams still to play here: USA, Algeria, Chile, Spain, plus a round of 16 game.

As we said a couple of weeks ago, millions are watching the 2010 FIFA World Cup, or simply South Africa 2010. This is the first time the most important football event takes place in Africa. We only have one home exchange listing in South Africa, but we can still share some interesting facts about the cities where the world is laying its eyes on these days.

Johannesburg

A tour of South Africa that can only start from Johannesburg, its largest city. Jo’burg, as it is called by its inhabitants, is a city of many contrasts, where wealth and poverty live side by side, luxury hotels and huge landfills, green parks and squalid suburbs as well as a lively nightlife. Johannesburg’s Soccer City Stadium will host the main event: the Final, on July 11th.

Name: Johannesburg (also locally called Jozi, Jo’burg or eGoli)

Province: Gauteng 

Population: 3,888,180 inhabitants

Stadiums:
Soccer City - Capacity: 84,490 - Teams still to play here: Ghana, Germany, plus a round of 16 game, a quarter-final game and the final.
Ellis Park Stadium - Capacity: 55,686 - Teams still to play here: Spain, Honduras, Slovakia, Italy, plus a round of 16 game and a quarter-final game.

Durban

Durban is South Africa’s largest port and one of Africa’s most visited. One of its most important features is its year-round warm water, and everything seems to revolve around water here:

- Durban’s port.
- uShaka Marine World- Africa’s largest aquatic theme park.
- The “mile of gold” - 4 Km of beach surrounded by restaurants and attractions.

Name: Durban

Province: KwaZulu-Natal

Population: 3,468,086 inhabitants

Stadium: Moses Mabhida Stadium - Capacity: 62,760 - Teams still to play here: Nigeria, South Korea, Portugal, Brazil, plus a round of 16 game and a semi-final.

Cape Town

Cape Town is a metropolis welcoming and stimulating a dynamic and multicultural cosmopolitan city, surrounded by breathtaking views of ocean and mountains, perfect for a holiday of sport, culture, music and nature.

Name: Cape Town (derived from its association with the Cape of Good Hope)

Province: Western Cape

Population: 3,497,097 inhabitants

Stadium: Cape Town Stadium (Green Point Stadium) - Capacity: 64,100 - Teams still to play here: Portugal, North Korea, Cameroon, Netherlands, plus a round of 16 game, a quarter-final game and a semi-final.

Image by Ian Kahn /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Every teenager enjoys traveling and teens are enthusiastic travelers, of course if there’s not an important social event they would have to miss, like a birthday party, so make sure to check with them before settling on a date. Home exchange has lots to offer for families with teenagers:

- A house has probably everything they already had available at home. You can search for offers that match their interests too, without adding extra costs. A basic example: computer and Internet access.

- You can offer to bring a friend along without extra accommodation costs. This will definitely prevent days of boredom and believe me, it is a good thing to avoid having a bored moody teen around when you want to relax

- Get them involved in planning the trip. They could help you surf through HomeForHome looking for great swap opportunities and they can help you find cool activities once you have chosen a home exchange destination.

- Let them do some things on their own, just as you do at your own home. With home exchange, if they would rather sleep late while you visit an “un-cool” place, it would be just as if they were staying at home. If you are visiting an attraction, it could be a good idea to split up and let them visit the areas they find more attractive, or even arrange different tours for a certain day. Of course you will need to agree on a place and time to meet and having access to a cell phone during your trip will help you stay in touch at all times.

That’s it for now. If you have tips or advice on home exchange for people traveling with teenagers, just let us know!

Photo by sedoglia /Flickr.com

The Cliffs of Moher (Aillte an Mhothair) are located south of the village of Doolin in Co Clare Ireland and are Ireland’s most spectacular coastal sight and one of its most visited tourist attraction. Rising over 700 feet (214 meters) above the Atlantic Ocean and extending for nearly five miles (8 Km) the site is spectacular and it should not be missed if you travel to Ireland.

Ideas for a day at the Cliffs:

Hiking - A breathtaking path runs along the cliffs covering its full length.
Birdwatching - The inaccessible almost vertical cliffs are home to a large number of nesting seabirds. These include the Atlantic Puffin, Razorbuill, Chough and Common Gull. The area was designated as a Refuge for Fauna in 1988 and as a Special Protection Area for Birds (SPA) under the EU Birds Directive in 1989.
Surfing - Waves at the bottom of the Cliffs which can be over 35 feet high, so the area has become an attractive spot for surfers.
Marathon - The first Cliffs of Moher Half Marathon will take place September 25th and a Full Marathon is to be introduced to the event in September 2011.
Sightseeing - O’Brien’s Tower is a circular stone tower which rises in the middle of the cliffs. It was built by Cornelius O’Brien, a descendant of Brian Boru (King of Thomond), in 1835 as a lookout for the hundreds of tourists who came to the Cliffs even at that time.

Whether your choose to surf, run, walk or just watch, you can start searching for your home exchange opportunity in Ireland using HomeForHome.

More information on what to see and do in the Cliffs of Moher and the Cliffs of Moher Marathon:

http://www.cliffs-moher.com/
http://www.cliffsofmoher.ie/
http://www.cliffsofmohermarathon.ie/

Image by Evgeni Dinev

Today we have a tip for those who use home exchange as part of their efforts to travel green. We have posted before on how home exchange itself helps reduce the environmental impact of vacation (or any) traveling, and we mentioned as well that planes have the highest rate of CO2 emission per traveler.

But sometimes you just have to fly. When you face such a situation it is best to choose a non-stop flight. This lowers CO2 emissions because there is extra fuel consumption during take-off and landing. There are several ways to find and book a non-stop flight, but for the Internet fans here is a list of search engines to help you find the best non-stop flights:

FareCompare - http://www.farecompare.com/ The option to view nonstop flights only is given in the results page.
Kayak - http://www.kayak.com/ Just mark the “Prefer Nonstop” checkbox. It has a downside: it shows best fares found by other Kayak users in the last 48 hours, so seats may not be available.
ITA Software - http://www.itasoftware.com/ You do not need to register, you can use the search engine by logging in as a guest and then mark “nonstops only“.
Travelocity - http://www.travelocity.com/ You will need to use the Advanced Search Options and mark “I prefer nonstops“.

Another plus of this list: They all allow for “wider” flexible travel search which means you can save a lot of money too. Usually, flight search engines offer a flexible search option but narrowed to a few days around your given date, but not these. For example, Travelocity allows you to select “Exact dates” or “+/- 1 to 3 days” or “Flexible dates” which shows you fares up to 330 days ahead. In ITA Software you need to select “Month-long search” for their flexible search.

Other options for non-stop flight search:

Bing - http://www.bing.com/travel/flights
BookingBuddy - http://www.bookingbuddy.com/
Expedia - http://www.expedia.com/
Orbitz-  http://www.orbitz.com/
Trabber - http://www.trabber.co.uk/
SideStep - http://www.sidestep.com/

We are sure with all the ideas we have been giving you, it will not be difficult for you to plan your home exchange vacation this summer. Yet, there is another thing that can be much simpler if you take some preventive measures: getting back to work after the fun is over.

The first steps you should take are related to having everything covered while you are gone: try to leave a short list of pending matters before you leave, organize your desk and clean your workspace, have a co-worker cover urgent matters while you are absent, you can easy them into the tasks they will be covering you by copying them relevant e-mails and sharing any important information they might need. Schedule a short meeting your first day back with this co-worker to catch up. Also, set your out-of-the-office e-mail and voicemail messages (if you set them to last after your return to the office, you will have time to catch up before people start sending you reminders) and inform contacts you will be gone and for how long.

If your vacations involves travelling (which we hope is the case), save one or two days to get settled back home before you have to return to work.

Image by jscreationzs /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

When you do get back to work, make a list of pending matters and organize them into two categories: cannot wait, can be dealt later. Save the second list for the following week. Then focus on the first list and choose those things that need to be addressed the first day, keep in mind the time you have available and do not overdo, or you will just ruin your “relaxed” state of mind. If you need help with something, ask someone to give you a hand.

During the day, take shot breaks to clear your head. Get up, stretch and take a deep breath. It will take some time, but you will get back on track. Remember to bring back a picture from your vacations or a small souvenir for your desk, those little reminders can help you relax if things get complicated.

Finally, as soon as you get settled back, return to HomeForHome and start planning your next home exchange vacation!