Things to do with kids...

Thought i would start a thread for anyone that wants some new ideas of things to do and keep their kids occupied.

I will add some every so often and also if anyone else has any ideas they want to add.

We did this at twins club the other day.

glue 2 toilet rolls (empty ones!!) together to make binoculars and then once dry get the kids to decorate them using paint or sticking stuff on them.

In most Early learning centres, they do a free play sesion for the kids to go and play with all the toys. It is on a Tuesday morning from 10am.

Good for pre-schoolers

Yeah I've heard about that havent yet taken Sophie but might do....

No i havn't taken mine because with the 2 of them its difficult to watch both at the same time and i'm worried they will run out the shop!!!

But would definatly do it if i had 1 toddler/preschooler

An old favourite Chocolate crispy cakes, but this time of year you can make them into nast shapes and put a couple of mini eggs inside.

Decorate cakes or biscuits, put some icing on then let the children put raisins, chocolate buttons, jelly tots, smarties andything you want really.

Or make their own pizzas, chop up a load of different veg for toppings and let them put it on the pizza bases.

mmm yummy!

Were making chocolate rice crispie cakes today, all u need is a huge bar of chocolate and some rice crispies, simply melt chocolate, mix in rice crispies, put in to cake cases, chill and enjoy!

Wooden Spoon Men/Women

U can buy real cheap wooden spoons from asda/tesco/morrisions etc, use what crafts u have, pen's and wool and let ur kiddies make men/women with then with the spoon part being the head and the handle being the body!

Oh thanks for all these ideas....

@ Amy, About the choc krispies, i did this when i was doing my nursery training but with shredded wheat......(brough back memories)

OOo never done it with shredded wheat, i might try that one.

gardening!! go and buy a big bag of compost, some pots and some seeds, and let the kids plant them, i can guarantee most kids will love doing this, then they can make sure they water them every day and watch the flowers grow

we planted tomato plants with eliza last year, every morning she would run outside to see if she got any tomatoes she was always so dissappointed, so one day i bought some tomatoes on the vines and sneakily put them in amongst the tomato plants, i will never forget how excited she was!!

another thing is sunflowers, each member of the family can plant a sunflower in a pot each, with names on the pots, then see who's grows the biggest!!!!

did this with duncan last summer and he never wanted to water them so they died.....

I got some sunflower seeds the other day, but we havn't got round to [planting them yet.

Cress is a good one with kids cos it grows really quick.

If ur not in the creative mood (Sometimes im not) I have DVD days with my kids! We choose a few DVD and watch them, ave snacks and chill for the day!

we have that too.....especially when the weather is bad...xxx

oohi love dvd days!!! although charlie wont watch telly, eliza loves to snuggle up with a dvd. i also have friday nights i let eliza stay up and we normally snuggle up with a dvd then, she loves staying up when charlie has gone to bed - gives us that quality time together without charlie around (i have quality time with charlie every day when eliza goes to school)

her fave films are narnia, the polar express, and bedknobs and broomsticks

Aw bless her. I love DVD's too. Were a huge fan of most the disney ones, PeterPan and The Little Mermaide being the best!

treasure hunts,

eliza loves doing this, i make it quite simple for her, i hide a few clues around the house in envelopes and she brings them to me to read, then she finds the next clue. some clues i use are;

wash your hands here
build castles here (sandpit)
put the wet clothes in here
you can make ice in here

you can adapt clues to suit your childs age. i have a bag of sweets at the end of the treasure hunt for her to enjoy!! she loves it!!! the best part is she never knows which clue is the last one, until she finds the sweets!

awww cant wait to do something like that for Sophie when shes older

That sounds like fun, I do this for my son at easter!

The thing i loved doing as a kid was scavenger hunts (i think thats what they called) where you give a list of things they have to find whilst out for a walk.

Or at home find things beginning with each letter of the alphabet.

Now the weather is lovely we did some painting in the garden (not brave enough to do it indoors!!)

I got a long roll of paper from wilkinsons (cheap wallpaper is also good) painted their feet and let them walk along the paper, they loved it.

yeah they did look like they enjoyed it

i do this in my house with duncan, it makes a mess but he has so much fun it's great...xx