Holiday fun!

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 

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

 Amy 

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.

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.

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.

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.