Are these sensible activity ideas for a six and eight year old?

[TryingnotTobeBoring]

Are these good ideas for 6 and 8 year old?

I’m trying to figure out a schedule for next week. So far I have :

-Local park and picnic (has a play area, cafe, duck pond etc and a nature trail you can get a chart from the cafe), so should cover a whole morning.

-Garden day - I’ve ordered some garden toys and a little planting set and a little sand/water table toy (worried this is too ‘young’ but I think 6 year old dsd will at least like it).

-thinking about cinema maybe moana or minions?

-baking and I’ve got some arts and crafts bits.

They will be here 730am-630 pm every day. It’s the first time I’ve looked after them on my own but dh is away with work and their mum has her childcare cancelled last minute. I’m a bit nervous but they are lovely kids

Does your garden need weeding? Maybe you could plant some herbs or tomatoes with them?

Stepchildren. She is married to their dad.

Given she’s married to their father, i’d assume him?

@TryingnotTobeBoring i think this sounds lovely. If they are not used to being alone with you your instincts are right and keep it low key. No theme parks or crazy activities, just nice homey stuff. You sound like a lovely stepmum x

Local museums and galleries are worth looking into. Usually free.

Get some glue sticks, sellotape and child sized scissors and challenge them to build a robot or car or boat or whatever from your recycling box.

Kids that age will usually enjoy board games - if you don’t have any pop to your local charity shop for a selection of books and games (take the kids, they will enjoy choosing and it will cost pennies.)

Kids will actually enjoy helping with house work (especially in someone else’s house). Give them a duster or a cloth and some window polish with music playing and they’ll be thrilled.

Don’t feel you have to schedule every moment, my favourite memories at my Great Aunts house where there were no toys, garden or art materials were playing dress up with her shoes, old handbags, scarves and costume jewellery. Kids are great at finding their own fun.

And it’s fine to occasionally stick the TV on, especially at the end of the day when you are all tired and fed up with each other!

Definitely factor in chill time - the days are long so be ok to watch TV/film at home.

As others have said you have some good ideas but if it's a week then those would be used up quite quickly. You need a morning and afternoon idea. E.g. you mention garden 'day' but I don't think even with new toys and planting seeds this would be more than a couple of hours.

Are there any free museums to visit?
I would add in a trip to the library.
Are there any local free/low cost events happening?
What about board games?

I think the attention span can be small, especially for the youngest, which is why in schools there is a lot of movement e.g. if the 6 year old has just finished year 1 then carpet time would be only around 20-30 mins and then they would do the activity (so e.g. 20 mins of input, 20-30 mins doing English/maths, followed by a movement break then change of subject).

I think you need to be prepared to do more things in a day.

Good idea re supermarket. My nephew loves sourcing ingredients for cupcakes (or dinner) and he knows the local supermarket layout off by heart.

Yes we have the same car seats as they have in their mums car as they are erf

even normal basic things like taking lunch with you to the local park (my kids love a picnic under a tree, or even on a blanket in the garden)
Water fights,
dont be afraid to put something on tv for an hour if they’ve spent the rest of the day doing things outdoors,
(also my eldest is 10 and likes all the activities you’ve mentioned still so im sure it will be fine!)

You sound lovely as do the activities but just remember that you don’t need to be doing something constructive all of the time!
Let them use their own imaginations playing in the garden etc and ask them to bring some toys/games from home that they can either play with individually, or the pair of them together.
It’s ok to let children be bored sometimes and to find their own entertainment.

I was coming here to suggest charity shop puzzles or games too! Or libraries will often have puzzles.

There are lots of (free!) podcasts for kids - mine are a bit younger so I don’t have specific recommendations, but you could pop on a podcast or audiobook (again, library or libro.fm) and all do a puzzle together.

Just a heads up Sainsbury’s own big friendly giant cake and biscuit mixes were reduced to 85p at the weekend. And someone also said there were reduced chocolate in Sainsbury’s a new one for 25p.

Get kids to help you (they should) re crockery, knives and forks and fridge/cupboard stuff. Do not believe them if they say like my nephew said, he wanted hummus spread on bread for him (muggins here did it for him).

Depending where you are, city farm, animals in countryside, stream. Kids often muck around in places like a stream as long as it’s safe/clean. There could be nice walks around/along stream/wildlife places, encourage them to look for things and pick up for scrapbook/bedroom.

Take them to a newsagent and get them to choose one magazine each and one SMALL bag of sweets. The magazines can last all week.

Try and avoid taking them anywhere else where there are shops. Do you have ice cream in your freezer?

Make sure you are given sun hats and sun cream for them.

A bucket of water, some biggish paint brushes and a clear run of fence, garden path or patio can occupy them for a while - they can 'paint' it and splash each other.

They all sound like terrific activities to me Op!

Those are long hours so try and pace yourself and build in a little structure so that you get some down time too!

Eg breakfast, tidy up, go out for an activity, home for lunch, quiet time while you enjoy a coffee and they are allowed to watch a couple of age appropriate You tube programmes. followed by crafts or playing in the garden, some reading individually and together. followed by dinner etc (or healthy snacks if you are not feeding them in the evening).

A few other boredom busting ideas are:

• a den, made of duvet covers, blankets, tables and step ladders either inside or enormous cardboard boxes in the garden
• a roll of old wallpaper or lining paper which they can lie on and you draw an outline around them and they decorate life size portraits of themselves
• a dressing up box (only bring out in emergencies as a special treat)

Good luck 💐

Good idea re den. My nephew’s last play date my DB had some plastic pole things which stuck together and a blanket or throw or sheet over the top made for a good den which kept them amused for hours.

Dens are great and can last hours as once made you can chill out in them with some snacks, books etc. Those large pegs for holiday towels, banisters, tablecloths or sheets, pillows/ cushions/ bits of the sofa. Fun fun fun!! (My DH used to be unimpressed at the state of the house when he got home from work, but the kids and I loved it so 😜).

Thankyou these ideas are all brilliant ❤️

Although she enjoyed time at the park, and arts and crafts activities, my daughter just wanted to spend most of her time during the holidays playing with her toys with me on the floor.

Look up slime and play dough recipes cheap and can ve done outside .. always a big hit!

Honestly, I wouldn't bother with cinema unless you can get some really cheep tickets. Mine are as happy with microwave popcorn and blankets on the sofa for 'movie night'. It's lovely that you want to buy all the garden games and make your home welcoming, but it's also fine to ask their mum to pack up a box of toys for the week, which then go home and arn't cluttering up you house forever.

I agree you don't need to entertain them, but if you like your house, it can be beneficial to get them to do burn off their energy elsewhere for a couple of hours each day.

Any local museums are often free and usually run summer activities.

Beach, lake, river or forest, depending what you have locally

Library or community center

A rotation on parks, even if one is 'better', mine seem to enjoy a change of seen. Bonus points if you can find one with a splash pad, we sometimes drive to the next time over for one (about 20 minutes), but free to use and feels like a big day out.

Op Lego is always good for any age. Also cheap board games from the charity shops were a hit with my sons when they were younger.
We used to make dens from a clothes airer and blankets and have a picnic lunch

Building dens is a definite winner for most ages. Every cushion off the couch and a throw as a roof. It might be genetic my younger dc spent hours on it and their 3 year old is now started.

See I disagree with the cinema point, mine will sit in the cinema and watch a film just fine, but at home tend to get distracted and don't really sit and watch it.

@TryingnotTobeBoring I have only just realised you are the stepmum - do the children not normally visit? I don't know why but I was thinking you were a grandparent having grandkids alone for the first time 😂

Do they have their own toys at their dads? What do you usually do when they visit? Can you keep some of that normal routine?

I did a lot of activities with my daughter like homemade play doh, arts and crafts, digging in the garden, playing with water up until she was four/ just five but at six now she is a bit old for most of that. She does crafts at school, after school club, camps etc. so she’s not bothered with me doing a relatively half arsed attempt at home (after being at home for six years playing imaginary games and doing all of the above I am pretty much done with it anyway).
My advice is if you’re going to spending a lot of time with kids at that age, don’t try to be a kids tv presenter or act like you’re working in a nursery or something. Most people do not have the stamina to keep this up all day plus 6 and 8 are not toddlers, they’ll see through it and probably run you ragged. Kids prefer it when you’re real with them. Let them choose some of the activities. Get to know them and then choose how to spend the time. Kids are all very very different in terms of energy/ behaviour/ likes and dislikes, abilities etc.
At that age they are beginning to do more and more independently and I find with mine, they are starting to not want or need me involved as much.
They mostly want me to bring them to places where they can play with other kids while I’m on hand if they need me or want food etc but not actually involved as such. They like the cinema but can get restless if the movie is long or they find it boring.
They are beginning to push my buttons a bit to get their way or just imitating other kids and that so need to be told off if they’re being too rude or demanding.
I think you’re being a bit unrealistic, ambitious and definitely some of what you’ve planned sounds a bit young. At the moment my six year old is into loom bands, roller skates, Zara Larsson 🙄, Barbie, checkers, soccer, making crafts and drawing pictures (but I’m not allowed to be involved or see most of them), secrets (lock diaries and boxes, invisible ink etc) and magic tricks. Oh and K pop demon hunters of course.

From about 6 I did proper cooking with my DGC rather than just baking sweet stuff. We would make the meal we were going to eat that day. Obviously something really simple when they were very young, and I would do the chopping if it was with a knife (something like an autochop or a food processor they can use for themselves). Beefburgers and meatballs were particularly popular to make (proper home-made ones) as they just LOVED squishing the meat with their fingers (yuck). We made fish pie, quiche, roast chicken, chicken and ham pie, barbeque ribs and potato wedges - all sorts of things. Since I also had 2 DGC one of them made the main and one the pudding and they alternated. They could choose what to make, within reason, and we went shopping together for the ingredients. Once they were old enough I gave them a list of what they needed and they went and found it for themselves, and they picked out the vegetables etc.

Before Christmas we made and decorated gingerbread shapes and they took some to my neighbours, as well as taking some home.

I do have my DH to help, and he would keep the non-cooking child occupied with drawing or stickers or something - one memorable time we saved up cardboard boxes and loo rolls and they made a cardboard castle together. I was very impressed!