HELLO EVERYONE!
Welcome to my blog! This is a new venture for me and I'm very excited about it! I look forward to you joining me on my journey. Firstly, I thought I'd tell you just a few things about myself, so here are five quick facts about me!
I'm A Mini
- I'm married, with three children - we have two daughters aged 7 and 4, and one son aged 2 (yes my life is chaotic - but I wouldn't change it!)
- I live in Lancashire, by the sea.
- I have moved house six times, in the past eight years, one of them being a relocation (I am very experienced at packing up a house!)
- I have relatives in Zimbabwe.
- I launched my business I'm A Mini with the Prince's Trust in October 2017 (I design and create children's activity boxes!)
So that's a few things about me - some of those facts and many more I will talk about in my future posts! For my first however, I thought this would be the best place to start...
7 IDEAS FOR KEEPING KIDS ENTERTAINED OVER THE SUMMER HOLIDAYS
As we all know it’s the summer holidays, so I thought I’d talk about how to keep the kids entertained! I certainly know how difficult this can be, whether you work from home like me or go out to work. It certainly can be a challenging time for us parents trying to juggle working, getting time off, childcare etc.
So how do we stop the kids from saying “I’M BORED!” which isn’t a bad thing, but to give them and you some ideas why not create a Summer Holiday Lucky Dip bag – add a selection of activities to the bag and on the days, you don’t have any plans – let the kids pick one out! Here are a few ideas you could add to your Lucky Dip bag.
1. SCAVENGER HUNT
A scavenger hunt is such an easy thing to set up, it gets the kids outside and it’s free – which always helps because the summer holidays can expensive enough. Go for a walk to the park or just into your back garden and let them hunt for anything nature related such as twigs, feathers, leaves, pine cones, pebbles, petals, daisies etc. Once they have collected a mix of things, then they create their very own nature picture using what they have found – it’s amazing what kids can create when they use their imagination.
2. ROCK PAINTING
Find some rocks either from your garden/park and get the paints out – they can paint small pictures on them to tell a story whether it’s a made-up story or recreate a favourite story they know or just pick a theme for example the weather and let them get creative – once they have finished and they are dry you can always place them in the garden as a feature.
3. MOVIE DAY
Over the school holidays there are just some days when you just don’t want to do anything, whether it’s because the weather is rubbish, or you just want to chillout. These days are when the kids and you should get the duvets on the sofa, snuggle up and watch movie after movie – get some snacks too (our go to snack are big bags of sweet chilli crisps) and enjoy a lazy day – you’ve earned it!
4. DEN BUILDING
We have done this recently! Our garden is south facing, so when the sun is shining, and the temperatures are high -it can get unbearable sometimes in our garden and we have very little shade. So, with the recent weather, we set about building a den in the garden using some old bed sheets and four garden chairs. We got the colouring books and puzzles out and sat in our den in the garden. We were at least able to enjoy being outside without being uncomfortable and we also had a picnic in our den too – the kids loved it!
5. PICNIC AT THE PARK OR BEACH
I know this is an obvious thing to do but the kids do love it and it doesn’t cost you anything or only a small amount if you a buying some picnic food. If you can, invite some other parents with their kids, make it a play date. They play and burn off some energy whilst us parents can have a chat.
6. LEGO
Now I don’t about you, but WE LOVE LEGO! We can spend ages playing with Lego building all sorts of things – whether we are following the instruction booklet or using our imagination – we have such fun! Get the Lego out and see what amazing things your kids (and you) can create! The only slight downside to Lego is when you stand on those bricks – because that bloody hurts! All good fun though!
7. HOUSE CHORES
Unfortunately, all the boring jobs around the house still need doing over the holidays. It can be so much harder to keep on top of when the kids are home, what with so much more washing to do and toys constantly everywhere for you to trip over it can seem never ending, so why not them involved. This obviously depends on the age of your children as to what they can and cannot do, give each of them a job, turn the radio up and sing your way through it. Another little tip is to get them to tidy up their toys by setting a timer – I did this the other night before bedtime – the room was spotless in less than two minutes and it made it fun for them because they wanted to beat the clock.
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I hope these ideas help with surviving the rest of the school holidays and keep the kids busy. You don’t have to spend a fortune on expensive days out, the kids will have fun when you spend quality time with them. Do what you can, when you can - it’s usually those simpler days that the kids enjoy the most.
Have fun – oh and don’t forget to stock up the wine rack for you have one of THOSE days! (mine is fully stocked!)
What plans do you have with the kids? Add anymore ideas to the comments section below; I would love to know what you get up to over the school holidays!
Tagged in Parenting