Kerala's school summer holidays run approximately six weeks in April–May, with a shorter break in October. For parents, these breaks present the same recurring challenge: keeping children productively engaged without defaulting entirely to screens, without over-scheduling them with coaching classes that simply extend the academic grind, and without spending the entire holiday period in a logistical scramble.
Maker activities — specifically, projects that produce a physical object the child designs and builds — are unusually well-suited to the holiday context for several reasons. They are structured (they have clear goals) but open-ended (the child makes genuine decisions). They are completable in the holiday timeframe. And they produce something tangible at the end — which is more satisfying, and more memorable, than a completed level in a game or a finished Netflix series.
Week 1: Start with a Heritage Project
The most effective way to begin a making activity in the holiday period is with a project that has a connection to something the child already cares about or already knows. For Kerala children, heritage subjects — the Vallam, the elephant, Theyyam, traditional architecture — provide immediate motivation that an abstract engineering challenge does not.
Suggested activity: Kidodoo's Snake Boat (Vallam) model kit. The child assembles a detailed Chundan Vallam scale model, then personalises it with paint and decoration. Time: 2–3 hours across two sessions. Output: a displayable model for their room.
The heritage context gives parents a natural way to extend the activity: a conversation about Onam boat races, a short video of the Nehru Trophy race, or a visit to the Thrissur district museum if one is accessible.
Week 2–3: Science Connections
The middle weeks of a holiday, when the initial excitement has worn off and boredom sets in, are the ideal time for a science-connected making project. These projects work because they answer the eternal holiday question "I'm bored" with an activity that is genuinely engaging, not something packaged as educational but experienced as homework.
For the ISRO-interested child: The Kidodoo Chandrayaan-3 Builder kit. The child assembles the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover, using the assembly process to understand how landers actually work: the landing leg geometry, the thermal protection system, the solar panel orientation. The fact card explains what actually happened on August 23, 2023, in terms the assembly process makes concrete.
For the architecture-interested child: The Kidodoo Mini Architect kit. Traditional Kerala architecture has distinctive structural logic: the central courtyard for natural ventilation, the pitched roof for rain, the overhanging eaves. Building the model makes these design decisions tangible in a way that no textbook image can.
Week 4–6: Design Your Own
The final weeks of the holiday are the opportunity for a more ambitious project: something the child designs from scratch rather than assembles from a kit. This is appropriate for children 10+ who have completed at least one prior kit-based project.
The process:
- The child identifies a problem they want to solve or an object they want to make
- They sketch or describe it to a parent or older sibling
- They use Tinkercad (free, browser-based) to create a 3D model
- The model is submitted to FOFUS for printing review
FOFUS accepts design file submissions from Kidodoo users for printing review. Designs that meet quality and safety criteria are printed and returned to the child as a finished product. For children whose designs are particularly strong, there is a pathway to the ORCI Labs school programme, which provides structured design mentorship throughout the school year.
Screen Time and Maker Time: A Practical Balance
The research on screen time for children consistently shows that the harm associated with excessive screen use is not from screens per se but from the displacement of physically and socially engaging activities. Making — designing, building, iterating — is one of the highest-quality activities that making time can replace, because it develops spatial reasoning, problem-solving, and creative confidence in ways that passive consumption does not.
A practical holiday structure: one maker project session per day (60–90 minutes, results in completion within a week), with the rest of the day unstructured. The maker project gives the day structure and a sense of accomplishment without over-scheduling.
Browse Kidodoo holiday activity kits →
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