Anyone who has ever had to look after a child knows they are FULL of energy and need a variety of activities to keep them occupied. Whether you are a parent balancing work or a grandpa on child-minding duty, the long summer holiday can be an expensive time and you donโt want to just stick them in front of a screen!
To help, here are ten ways to keep them occupied that wonโt result in a Trust Deed.
1. Tournaments
This activity is better for a number of kids, so it might be good if youโre looking after a number of children. This is an easy activity as it can take something they already love and give it another dimension. It could be a video game they enjoy or if you want to discourage them from staring at the screen, a sport or skill. Draw out a league table for them and maybe a prize for the winner. But this activity comes with a warning! Some kids are more competitive than others โ there is no shame in avoiding competition when you know there could be tears!
Tip: change them into their swimsuits beforehand to minimise the number of washes you have to do!
2. Fashion Show
There is nothing more fun than a little silliness and creativity, and creating a fashion show can be a great combination of both. All you need are their old clothes, your old clothes, sheets and bin bags (remember โ donโt give them anything precious!). Give them some felt-tips, keep scissors away from younger children and put some old newspaper down to protect any surfaces, and let them run wild! You could even make a real event of it โ invite neighbours, friends and family round for tea. You could turn a coffee table into a catwalk, or why not use pillows? Big sofa pillows can make a great (safe) cat-walk. This doesnโt have to be a โgirlyโ activity either. Kids can create Knights, Robots and Dragons โ the limit is THEIR imagination!
3. Water Fight
On a hot, summer day there is nothing better than a water fight, and you donโt need to bother buying those expensive water guns! Water balloons, buckets, paddling pools and a hose are all that is really needed. Toddlers can just kick around in the water, while older kids try and fight it out!
Tip: change them into their swimsuits beforehand to minimise the number of washes you have to do!
4. Healthy Cooking
Getting your kids to help out with food is a great way to get them involved in healthy eating and spend time doing something you would have had to do anyway, but with more fun! My advice is to go for a picnic (little actual cooking required!). Your kids can make sandwiches, make their own fruit kebabs (skewering strawberries, banana pieces, or anything!), put Jelly into fun moulds, make fruit-juice ice-lollies or decorate a cake for their dessert. This isnโt the only โgrown-upโ activity that you can get your little ones involved in. I once knew a two-year-old whose favourite activity was the washing-up. Sure, the sink would need a wipe down afterwards, but while he was โwashing-upโ, his mother was able to get the real dishes done (albeit a little slower than usual).
5. Museums
Many parents can be put off by their own not-so-fond memories of being dragged around museums as children. But find out what they are learning in school, or just what they are interested in general, and you might just find yourself having a fun-filled day out! There are plenty of museums and galleries that are free to the public, some of which are not often thought about. If youโre in London, try the Bank of England Museum (more kid-friendly than it sounds, I promise!) or the National Maritime Museum. Both are free and have lots of hands-on fun for kids of all ages.
6. Gardening
If you or your partner are very garden-proud then this is probably not for you. I know of many occasions where flowers have been accidentally uprooted, herbs have been sat on and plants have been drowned. It may be a good idea to designate a child-friendly patch, then it is simply a matter of making the job age-specific. Young toddlers can just dig their way to Australia and pour water all over themselves, while older children can be given seeds to plant. You can use it as a tool to begin teaching them the basics of biology!
7. Book Club
For kids who are really getting into reading, starting a book club can be a world of fun. Getting a group of kids to pick out a book together and read it, perhaps chapter by chapter, over the summer can be educational and fun. Make sure the book they choose is exciting and action-packed and approved by all the parents involved. Classics, depending on the age and ability, can be Roald Dahl, Anthony Horowitz and Philip Pullman. The discussion can be as simple as: โWhat do you think will happen next?โ โWhat would you have done?โ. Encourage their imagination as much as possible. If you have a range of ages, abilities or interests, you could easily do more of a โbook reportโ style, with each child doing a different book in their own time and telling everyone else about it.
8. Start a Blog!
A great way for kids to engage with technology in an educational way is to let them create a blog of their own! This should be done with some close supervision, perhaps by creating a joint โmummy and meโ blog written together. It can be a project for the summer, to record all the fun activities they are doing.
9. Games
There are thousands of good game ideas for kids, and Iโm sure you could also invent your own! My top three suggestions are โfootsieโ (throwing and catching with your feet and legs) โpick-upโ (dropping things (like pens) in a pile and challenging them to remove the objects one by one WITHOUT moving any of the other pieces) and โforty-fortyโ, (a twist on hide and seek in which kids have to make it back to โhomeโ or โbaseโ without being seen by the catcher). If in doubt, on a tough day โ there is always sleeping lions!
Tip: using a beach ball indoors MAY just save you from breaking anything!
10. Crafts
Last but definitely not least, crafts are a great go-to for a rainy day. Let all those old cardboard boxes, sponges and clothes have one last use! My favourite was always a puppet making. You can make simple sock puppets, by glueing faces onto socks, or more complex stick-puppets with lolly sticks. You can also play around with shadow puppets!
What do you think of these ideas? Which one is your favourite? Do you have more ideas to add to this list?ย
*Disclosure: Collaborative Post
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