When you’re not sure whether the sun will shine or the heavens will open, you need to have activities planned that you can do with your children both inside or outside. Why not try out some of the following activities – we’re sure you’ll have fun, whatever the weather!
 Den day
Spend a day building and hiding out in a den. If the weathers good, a tent or sheltered corner in the garden could be an ideal site. If the forecast isn’t great, then throw a sheet over the dining room table, clear out the cupboard under the stairs or move the sofa away from the wall to create a hidey hole behind.
Make the den cosy with cushions, bean bags and blankets. Have a picnic in your den at lunchtime, and encourage the children to select some favourite music, books, puzzles and games for a relaxing afternoon there.
Holiday at home
Choose a country to ‘visit’, then find out as much about it from books, the internet and travel brochures. Search for your chosen country on a globe or in an atlas. Try cooking and eating one of its typical dishes. Find out about its culture and customs, and learn a few words of its language – perhaps the numbers from one to ten, or ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’.
How does your country compare with Britain? Is it bigger or smaller? Does it have more or fewer people? Is it hotter or colder? How long would it take to get there, and how much would it cost? Finish your holiday by making a poster using the pictures and facts you’ve gathered.
Bugged
Get some books on insects out of the library. Then find a selection of clean food jars and clears plastic pots, and make small holes in the lid of each.
Take the books and jars to the park, woods or garden to see what creepy crawlies you can find.
Lots of bugs like to hide in dark, moist places, so look under leaves, logs and flower pots. When you find an insect or other mini-beast, coax it into one of the jars or pots so that the children can have a good look, study it and use the books to identify it. Remember to put each bug back where it came from.
Hair raising
Allow older children to set up their own hair salon. Plaits, wraps and rag curlers are fun to try for those with longer hair (it may be a good idea to practice on dolls first!), while those with shorter hair styles could use gel to create a punk Mohican or funky spikes. You could complete the look with a squirt of coloured hairspray.
Café culture
Set up your own restaurant or café. First decide with the children what kind of an eatery you want to run – perhaps an Italian pizza parlour, Chinese restaurant or traditional tea room – and give your ‘business’ a name. Then the food will need preparing, the menus designing and the tables laying. Finally, the children can serve up and eat the food they’ve made, while role playing the staff and customers in the restaurant.
Source: Who Minds? Summer 2006
We hope the above ideas will provide you and your children with hours of fun and entertainment.
If any readers have there own activities they would like to share with other parents please let us know by email cis@cheshire.gov.uk or write to us at Cheshire’s Children’s information Service, Merchants House, Hamilton Place, Chester, CH1 2BE.
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