Forum home Toddlers & older children Schoolchildren
🚨 Advance warning 🚨 This forum will be closing on 1st May – please see our pinned thread for more information.
Options

Holiday fun!

What do you do with the kids in the holidays??

I have a 8yr old, 6yr old and 3yr old.
We go on walks, have cinema days at home, play wii, garden days, making days with paper and glue etc among other things

Its hard to entertain the kids in the summer hols - I know I will run out of ideas within the first week!!

Replies

  • Options

    Hi Toes - You could organise a treasure hunt in the garden and the clues could be shapes, made out of brightly coloured paper, which they have to follow, with the final one leading to some treasure i.e. cookies, sweets etc

    Or you could spend an hour exploring the garden or the local park and get them to draw pictures of who or what they see.

     Looking forward to seeing what other ideas get posted here 

     Amy 

  • Options
    yes - my daughter likes to make up her own treasure hunts for the younger 2.

    We usually make a book of the holidays too - a page for what we did each day. with a little picture and a few words. nice to look back on!
  • Options
    my girls love obstacle courses. They spend as much time making up the course and the rules ('here you have to stand on one leg...') as they do going round it, but they can spend hours doing it.

    especially if it's hot and there's a paddling pool involved!

    I try to have one thing loosely planned each day so I'm not forced to think on the spot by wild children, but most of the times it's nothing more than small things, like going to the library or making cakes or gardening or 'writing a book' (3 pieces of A4 folded and stapled makes them really feel like they're writing/drawing a proper book...). Oh and washing the car. My goodness they'd do that every day if they could...
  • Options
    yes - washing the car is popular in my house too!!! (well, on the driveway haha)
  • Options
    I wonder if hoovering the car would sound like a good game.... lol
  • Options
    yes audrey - i might try that one!!

    I did give the kids those dashboard wipes last year and they cleaned everything - including the windows!! They were a nightmare to get clean, the streaks were there for ages!!!
  • Options

    Hi Sarah - I love the idea of an obstacle course, that's a really good suggestion....

     Amy 

  • Options

    Painting the fence with water works well on a hot day.By the time they get to the other end,the first bit needs a recoat.

    The sand table's a big hit in our garden this year,even with the older children.My 9 year old is currently making sand birthday cakes with my 2 and 3 year old.

    I give the kids ordinary wipes for cleaning.We don't clean our car,it's a minibus so I park it on my parents drive,that being a convenient slope, and jet wash it out the back doors but seat dirt will come off quite well with your basic baby wipes.

    Making camps is another big hit.Our shed is full of safe" stuff".Curtains,a windbreak,things they used to ride on,just stuff.Indoors we have plenty the same.We have a toy chest full of hats,bags,wigs,blankets as well as the proper costumes.The imagination is a wonderful thing.

    The wii,ps3 and xbox are always on somewhere,just seems a shame to be inside wasting such lovely weather that kindly arrived for the holidays.

  • Options

    Go to B & Q (or similar) and get some of the free paint cards with all the vaious paint shades on them.

    Get the kids to find items in nature - leaves / bark / grass / stones / feathers etc - that match the paint swatch.

    They love it when they realise how many different shaeds of green there are!

    The garden is a rainbow of colours.

  • Options

    Oh forgot to say - get the kids to join the library story trail that is usually run by your local library every summer.  It's a really good scheme.

  • Options

    I've tried to organise a bit of a play date rota with my eldest daughters friends.  After 2 days they are asking to see their playschool friends anyway so 3 or 4 of us tried having a coffee and letting them loose in the garden this time, worked well, everyone hosted one day so we only had to think of something to do on Monday this week for our turn.  The kids weren't bothered about the baking we had planned and messed about in the ball pool and playroom the whole time with their imaginary games.

    We've mentioned it to a few other mums we have seen out and about and there will hopefully be a few more join us for the summer holidays.

Sign In or Register to comment.

Featured Discussions