Omg what can I do thats not a walk!!!!!

[Bunnybigears]

Me, DH, DS 13 and DS 10 what the hell can we do this weekend that is not a walk or baking or board game?!

Clear out of bedrooms / wardrobes / random cupboards
Xbox / Switch tournament
Teach them to iron / make coffee / use the washing machine
Give up and let them play on their phones while you scroll through Mumsnet 😆

The state of our local parks, take a bike, have a run and swim through the flooded bits. Call it a triathlon.

I’ll prepare to be flamed, but........... go round a garden centre, choose some things to grow - maybe salad plants on the windowsill..........

Book to look round a show home on a new build estate......

Window shop at places such as tacky gift shops and compete to ‘choose’ the most ugly/funny/pointless item in the display.......

Create a ‘treasure hunt’ with clues to follow all around your local area.

Decorate a room

Don't know but thats exactly how I feel.

[quote Bunnybigears]@PolarnOPirate thanks for the ideas, I forgot to mention oldest suffers from chronic embarrassment if having to do anything outside incase his friends see him with his parents! And we have no outdoor space![/quote]
This made me laugh!

Tell him that is you spot his mates you'll refer to him as ''Darling'' and ''Sweetie pie'' in their presence.

It's ridiculous the ''Aargh'' young people of a certain age can feel if they think they likely to be spotted out and about with {Horror of horrors} Mum and Dad.

I was the same.

All go for a run like Phoebe from Friends.

Blanket fort? Set them up with films and snacks

Have you watched Taskmaster? It probably isn't age appropriate for DC (language, sexual references) but they're doing age app hometasks that children are getting involved in. Perhaps you could watch it for some inspiration or find age appropriate snippets on youtube and get them involved.

omg its so hard!! off the top of my head:
takeaway (including mcd's drive thru which is is essentially just a vending machine)
zoom call with fam or friends
getting one kid to excercise with friend
stealing/ borrowing someone's Disney plus login
lie ins followed by over-engineered breakfast
getting a pet - hampster for us

weekends are sooo hard when its pouring with rain though....

Collect firewood.
Take a saw & axe & assault some rotten wood somewhere, pile it up, bring home.
yes my 12 yr old does this... often!

Joe wickes

"Book to look round a show home on a new build estate......"
totally unnecessary, my medically vulnerable friend's job is to show people round homes. the idea you would do this just for fun (if there's a person involved) is morally crap surely??

Make your own escape room house - everyone takes a room and gets to be game master of those puzzles.

Family quiz - same as above, everyone takes a round. Very funny as teens will enjoy making you feel old and you'll best them in general knowledge. 😂

If you haven't already, have a big sort out of loft/garage/cupboards. Guarantee you'll find some memories and bonus if you actually manage to clear out some things. 😅

If they enjoy food, get them to find an interesting main meal and dessert recipe (no baking!) online (nothing too easy - something challenging or wild, like a pie or unicorn sundaes) - bonus if you get to teach them some new skills and everyone gets to eat at the end.

Geo caching

There's a book based escape room called Journal 29 which is excellent. It uses QR codes to enter the clues so that seems to add a level of excitement. And if you get stuck there is a forum with clues. It's relatively cheap for the huge number of clues great for teens.
As for making walking more exciting "treasure trails " is worth a look. We have several very close to us they've all been excellent.
Making lemon curd was last week's hit, and it's so delicious.

I'm really beginning to run out of ideas too but school sent home ideas though this week for screen free time and it included -
Researching the family tree by phoning relatives
Making a drawing of a local building or view from window
Photographing birds/trees and identifying them
Make a model of your room
Cook a meal for your family
Write to someone you admire like a sports personality you might get a reply.
Thought they all sounded good, what a great school I'm so grateful. Whether the kids are enthusiastic we will see !

Fuck all, same as the rest of us.

We went to extreme lengths in lockdown 1and purchased a 5ft fold up pool table!

Get into a new family series; ours love watching old seasons of survivor
Subscription boxes, mine have Kiwi Crate and Tinker Crate
Jigsaw Puzzles
Nintendo Labo - creative use of a Switch if you have one
Ring Fit - also on the switch and gets us active
Game Nights: highly recommend these if you want to get a new one; Exploding Kittens, King of Tokyo, Camel Up, Sequence, Ticket to Ride, Five Crowns, Forbidden Island
Baking; 12 yo now bakes something tasty for us every Sunday
Making more effort with cooking; eg Mexican night or steak night
Loom Knitting; much easier than real knitting to make a hat or scarf

Sooo hard to think of different things to do and we have also overdosed on screen time...outdoor stuff is way harder in winter...

You can’t just book while families into viewings for a nosy atm. They check you are in a position to buy etc. You can’t take kids.

It was a daft idea all round.

Sorry, that was meant to quote the reply to ‘visit a show home’

Make a film. You can record it on your phone (in individual scenes if necessary). Can be live action or animated (there are apps for that). There's lots to do in terms of coming to with the concept/story, sorting out any necessary costumes/props, and then filming it. It'll keep you busy for ages. (When we were little - back in the day's of VHS - my cousins and I were handed a video camera on holiday and our film project kept us entertained for aaaages.)

DC have rediscovered Polemon Go.

@JustLookingThanks what recipe did you use for the lemon curd? Sounds like a fun activity with a nice end result!

@mum2jakie
We used the Riverford recipe as it doesn't use egg yolks so no wasted egg. And we have their lovely veg box!
www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/bergamot-lemon-curd
Rather than 4 Bergamot lemons we used 2 ordinary lemons, so missed out the extra zest.
I don't have a suitable bowl to balance over a saucepan so used 2 saucepans. We melted the butter and sugar directly on the hob rather than over water, added the lemon again on the hob, then left it to cool a little put it over the boiling water in the bigger pan and whisked in eggs really quickly so that they went in smoothly. The egg whisking was the only bit my 12 year old needed help with as it required quick whisking.
It makes a normal jam jar and a half, in hindsight I should have doubled the recipe as we ate it all in about 4 days . It is really so much better than shop lemon curd.
Good luck!

Have a clear out and spring clean? My kids have really enjoyed doing that together today

Thanks @JustLookingThanks