advice on activities to do with a 4 &half boy

[preciousmum]

Hi there.

I am finding it hard to keep my 4 and half boy occupied during this holiday,i mean indoors.We do play some role-play game which he loves,also we do some reading,and he plays with his toys.He's not interested at painting or drawing...Any advice will be aprecciated.
Thanks.

things that ds1 enjoys doing:

lego

jigsaws

treasure hunts (doesn't even have to be treasure at the end, just hiding a toy he already has is fun enough for him!)

playdoh

cooking

making paper aeroplanes

cutting and sticking

Can you not get outside at all?

let him play with your camera, upload the snaps, print and collage them; blow up one, stick to cardboard (ceral packet cardboard works well) and let him cut into a jigsaw

threading with pasta/cheerios to make bracelets or necklaces

bake cakes, make playdough, choc cornflake cakes

does he like playing snap or memory

my 5 yr old loves playing Hot and Cold - hide an object and he has to find it. The closer he gets, the "hotter" he is, further away is "cooler" etc ..... sorry if you know this already!

train sets?
bit of gardening?
print out masks / pictures etc for him to colour (it may get him interested in colouring if he can choose his own picture or mask)

(BALD: love the photo ideas regarding collages and jigsaws - you clever thing )

I do have my moments

Thanks to all mumsnet members for their advice.My son is madly obsesed with all the things that involve some mecanique,or any tecnical side.We spend hours pretending that we are calling engineer to come and fix our boiler ,or and angineer to fix our electricity suply,or the phone line...And he's very i mean very good at that,the vocabulery he uses is just amasing.Also he like to be a rabbit in the cage,he spend some time on the computer,He likes to make playhouse out of the cusions,and i do take him out to see the stables,or to cycle,he play in the garden,we do a lot of reading ,and i start to involve a bit of wrinting as well,eventhough he hasn't started school yet.But the thing is i am feeling i am not doing enaugh.Sorry for all the spelling mistake and my phrases are not well linked toghether.English is not my first language.
Once again thanks to all of you.).

you are welcome

The camera idea is definitely a good one, I have a 5y/o mindee that loves using the camera and I also suggested to a 10y/o mindee that she make a poster titled 'my day in photographs' which she really enjoyed taking pictures for, best to give them a spare digital camera though rather than your best one [grim face!]

Also I find older kids like having a reason for painting/drawing - such as saying to them that we're going to the park later so 'paint something you think we might see there', then go searching for whatever they painted once they've done it.