With all the wet weather we’ve experienced lately it’s hard to know if the weekends and school holidays will be full of sunshine – lots of outdoor play and good times, or rain and being cooped up inside. If you don’t want to hear ‘I’m bored’ or ‘what can I do now?’ it’s a good idea to plan ahead and have some ideas up your sleeve. Here are some ideas that might help you out.
- Build a cubby house – bring together chairs, couches, blankets and pillows and let the kids make a cubby house or fort.
- Board games – get your collection of board games out of the closet and have some fun with the whole family.
- Dance – put some music on and let the kids have a little dance party. You could even turn it into a dance concert and have the kids do a performance after they make up and practise a dance. This will provide hours of fun!
- Sort through the toy cupboard – get all the toys out and decide what to keep and what to donate to goodwill. The kids will find toys they haven’t seen for ages and be occupied for a while.
- Make a book – ask the kids to think of a story and then make it into a book with the text and illustration. This could be a great gift idea.
- Re-decorate the kid’s bedroom – try a new theme for the bedroom, maybe add some more wall stickers or posters. You could even rearrange the furniture and try a new layout.
- Plan a treasure hunt – write down clues for around the house and have the kids find the treasure.
- Make a vision board or collage – cut up old magazines and paste pictures on a piece of cardboard. The older kids could paste pictures of things they want or places they want to go.
- Bake or Cook – ask the kids to help bake cookies or a cake, let them do most of the work while you supervise with a cuppa. Let the kids make all the meals for the day. They will learn new stuff and you get a day off from cooking.
- Have a picnic – lay a blanket on the floor and have a picnic at home. Pretend you’re all in a park on a fabulous sunny day and have some quality time together talking about anything and everything.
- Watch home movies – the kids will love seeing themselves when they were younger. This is always a winner and it starts long conversations about past holidays.
- Write letters – ask the kids to write a letter to their grandparents or aunts and uncles and decorate them with stickers and drawings.
- Masking tape on the floor – buy some cheap masking tape, the kind that that comes off easily and make hopscotch, make a road and then get the cars and toys and make a little city, spell out words and just get creative!
- Art and Craft – get the pipe cleaners and glue and beads and fabric and… The list is endless! The kids can make gifts for family and friends.
- Movie marathon – grab some popcorn and watch movies together, you never know – you may even be able to sneak in a nap.