5 kids, pouring rain, what to do for 10 hours!

[BigGlasses]

I’m looking after 5 kids today , my own 3 and my friends 2, they are 11,10,10,9,9. It is pouring with rain here, forecast to continue all day and I am completely stumped on what to do keep them entertained.

Cinema- they have seen everything suitable at the moment.
Soft play - too babyish
Trampoline park - £55 for an hour seems a bit excessive
Baking - there is 5 of them, i’m not mad!

I have had a really busy week at work and haven’t had a chance to put any thought into it. Any suggestions? Please help, it’s not even 9am and they are currently attached to their tablets, they can’t do that for the next 9 hours

Lego competition
Shot by shot animation with play dough, make play dough, do a comic script before to plan ideas.

Make pizzas

Any indoor crazy golf near you? Laser quest?

Decorate biscuits/cupcakes

I'd tell them to put the tablets down and have a brain storming session what do they want to do?

But limit screen time.

I haven’t tried it but I saw an app called Muvime the other day which lets you make your own cartoons, add audio and so on. It’s free and it looks like it might kill an hour or two.

Bowling?

If they've all got waterproofs I would get them outside for part of the day, it's not cold so it's not the end of the world of they get a bit wet.
I wouldn't rule out baking either, at those ages they should be capable of following a simple recipe, weighing and mixing on their own - just help them with the oven. Deciding what to make, making it, clearing up afterwards then eating the end result should pass a good few hours.

Those ideas sound like hard work for the OP.
Swimming if you can get enough costumes sorted
Film with popcorn
Otherwise I would just get board games out & suggest they entertain themselves. Mine do things like hide & seek still at that age.

Also do you have shop nearby? They could head out on their own to go buy sweets in. Mine love this if they have friends over - but shop is only 5 mins walk.

Thanks for the suggestions. We are going to walk into town and they can each buy a cake from the local bakers and walk home again. It’s drizzle at the moment, though no doubt will turn to rain again when we go out.

I agree that at this age they don’t need the whole day mapped out for them, it’s more me that need some structure ! The whole day is stretching out in front of me and i’m panicking a bit! The previous times we’ve done this i’ve had one trip out (swimming, cinema, country park etc) planned just to break up the day, i’m just a bit out of ideas for today. It’ll be fine though, they are good kids.

Why on earth would a group of kids that age need scheduling?

Totally ridiculous isn't it 🤷‍♀️

Is your car not big enough to take them out? Lots of free activities to do where I live such as museums, art galleries, the library etc. Bowling is fun too.

If you’re housebound then baking should be pretty easy with kids that age. Crafts, if you have a tablet download some educational apps such as duolingo. Alternatively just let them use their imaginations for a bit- it won’t kill them!

Alternatively op, you could google "why it's good for kids to be bored"