The school holidays are here, and that can only mean one thing: boredom for young children. Never fear, though – we’re here to help! In this blog post, we will provide you with some ideas on how to keep your kids entertained at home. From arts and crafts to outdoor activities, we have something for everyone! So read on and get started planning some fun summer activities for your little ones.
Arts and Crafts
Arts and crafts are always a great option for young children. It’s a chance for them to be creative and use their imaginations, while also keeping them occupied for a while! There are plenty of easy craft ideas online that you can do with your kids, even if you’re not very artistic yourself. Pinterest is a great place to start looking for inspiration.
How about painting with feathers? You can use real feathers or craft feathers, and it’s a great way to get those creative juices flowing. Or how about making some homemade slime? It’s a bit messy but kids love it! Salt puffy paint is also a big hit with little ones, and it’s so easy to make. The paint is simply a mix of equal parts salt, flour, and water with a bit of tempera paint added for colour. It dries with a puffy effect, and it’s really fun to play with. If you want to get really creative, you can add glitter or other sequins to the paint too.
Check out the YouTube video here.
Physical activities
If you’re looking for something a bit more active, there are plenty of options there too. Why not set up an obstacle course in your garden? You can use whatever you have lying around the house – old toys, chairs, blankets – to create an exciting course for your kids to run, jump and crawl through. They’ll love it and it’ll tire them out so they might actually take a nap afterwards!
Nature
Summertime is a great opportunity to get outside and explore nature with your young ones. Visit a local park or nature reserve, go on a bug hunt or a leaf scavenger hunt, or take a picnic lunch to enjoy in the sunshine. If you have a garden, get the kids involved in planting some new flowers or vegetables – they’ll love getting their hands dirty and will be so proud when they see their hard work bloom (or bear fruit!). Getting children to eat fruit and vegetables can sometimes be a real challenge, getting them more excited by growing some of your own may make mealtimes less of a challenge in the future. Check out this list of easy-to-grow fruits and vegetables that are perfect for kids:
- watermelon
- strawberries
- carrots
- tomatoes
Cooking
Once you’ve grown some of your own fruits and vegetables, why not expand their interest with some cooking, an ideal rainy day activity. Amazon have a selection of cookbooks for toddlers, including:
- Little Helpers Toddler Baking Cookbook: Sweet and Savory Recipes to Make, Bake, and Share
- The River Cottage Baby & Toddler Cookbook
DIY
Whilst you are spending time in the garden why not make your own birdfeeder? All you need is an old yoghurt pot, some lollipop sticks and some bird seed. Your little ones will love to see the different birds that come to visit, and you can spend time teaching them about the different species. My First Book Of Birds, available from Amazon will help them to identify them.
Science
Continuing on an educational theme, how about trying some “at-home” science projects such as the popcorn and salt experiment? You’ll need some popcorn kernels, a pan, some oil, salt and a dark-coloured piece of paper. Place the paper in the bottom of the pan and add a layer of popcorn kernels. Pour over a little oil so that all of the kernels are covered, then sprinkle over some salt. Place on low heat until the kernels start to pop. Once they have finished popping, tip them out onto the paper and see how far they have jumped!
For more easy science experiments check out Journey to Sahm’s website.
Relaxation
If you’ve not managed to wear them out enough during the day and need a little bit of help to get them off to sleep, try making your own lavender bath salts all you need is some Epsom salts, lavender oil and a little food colouring. Add all of the ingredients into a jar and shake well. Then add a couple of spoonfuls to their bath just before bedtime. Bath salts also make a great gift, collect old jars and have fun with paints, glitter and ribbon to make them look extra special.
Lavender is well known for its calming and relaxing properties, it’s the perfect essential oil to use with young children.
We hope that you manage to enjoy lots of time outside in the sunshine, but don’t forget the sunscreen. For the best sunscreen for young children go to The Mummy Bubble’s website.
Making sure young children stay hydrated with water and not sugar-loaded soft drinks can be hard. Let them choose their own re-usable water bottle and try adding some fruit to the water such as frozen raspberries or strawberries to give an exciting colour and flavour without all the additives and colourings.
In hot weather, everyone loves ice cream, but you don’t need an expensive ice cream maker. Here is a recipe that uses a mason jar and is easy for children to make themselves.
We hope you all have a wonderful summer holiday and let us know what you got up to or share any great tips and discoveries you have made.
Queen’s Gate is an independent girls’ school in South Kensington for 4-18-year-olds.126 Queen’s Gate, South Kensington, London SW7 5LE 020 7589 3587 https://www.queensgate.org.uk/
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