How shall I entertain my children today...?

[SoupDragon]

With the summer holidays looming and stressed mothers appearing on threads everywhere, how about we suggest activities here to keep our little darlings entertained? Any that involve 15 minutes of "feet up" time for the mother are eslecially welcome!

Remember to include ages when making your suggestion.

Water Painting

Age : Pretty much any
Ingredients : One sunny patio, a bowl or water and a paint brush
Method : Hand ingredients to child and let them paint the patio with water. Sit back with an icy glass of Pimms and occasionally make appreciative comments. The pictures dry eventually, as does your child. Always watch your child if they're playing with water though.

Same idea but with less chance of them getting soaked and running to mummy before she gets a chance to sip her pimms, big chalks and a patio. Get them to draw round each other and colour in the clothes. Age: Pretty much any

Age: Up to 7
Ingredients: Washing up bowl, water, washing up liquid, and toy plates etc.

Get them to 'do the washing up'

Put child-friendly cd (pref. music you can stand too) in cd player. Turn on music, sit on sofa, leaf through Heat magazine and occasionally look up and laugh indulgently at child dancing frantically. Turn off at intervals using the remote control and admire child's amazingness at being statue. Age: from 3 years. Duration: one cup of coffee and most of Heat.

great idea soupy!!
filling balloons with sand

youll need balloons,the ones with ears and a mouse face are the best and sand,tell them to fill the balloons with as much sand as possible,then tie a knot,now the balloons can be shaped,pulled,etc,its great fun!!i took some on holiday and did them on the beach,then i gave them to some morrocan kids and they had hours of fun too
ages from 2 1/2

Ooohh, whymummy, I'm going to take some on holiday with me! What an excellent idea and an excellent thread.

Shall be watching this with interest. Will be starting to work term-times only from July and am VERY scared!

good for you, tinker, how did you swing that?

at my daughter's preschool(montessori) they used to give the children toothbrushes and let them "polish" the playground equipment. totally weird but all the kids loved it. i find any sort of cleaning things work with under fives!

I wonder if I could get DS (22 months) to clean the oven

It's always worth a try, Furball.

I have appreciated all these tips. A close friend of mine (pregnant) finds herself alone with a 2 and a half year old. No hubby on the scene. Any 2.5 year old tips greatly appreciated. Needless to say, money is tight ....

Enid, the cd/dancing combo works for us too. We have a small trampoline (from Argos) and sometimes he bounces on that to music which gets rid of lots of energy too. I sometimes manage to make it last through Heat and OK!

Also for older children: 3 up ish but the older the child the more time you get
Ingredients: a film, video/dvd player, curtains, popcorn, home made cinema tickets
Method: Go and rent a film they've never seen before (or dig out an old one they've forgotten about), make or buy popcorn or a bag of sweets, draw the curtains, put on surround sound (if you have it), and a reading light for you. Tell them the cinema is now open. This can buy up to an hour and a half of reading time. You can do this when friends come round with similar aged children and get them to make cinema posters too. You can also be the usherette which means you get to leave the room once you've 'admitted' them.

My ds (2.5) loves a den being made from the kitchen (or garden) table with bedding over the top and on the floor. He loves it and fills it up with his things and will play in it for ages and ages. He pretends it's a house, a space ship, & a boat.

Making a fairy house in the garden. They are only allowed to use natural things and have to make a little house, in a flowerpot/tree root etc, grass/petals for carpet, twigs for chairs etc. Even better if several children and announce prize for best one- really takes them ages then Supervising adult gets to sleep in a deckchair whilst awaiting judging.

These ideas are so good. I will be hunting out balloons with ears now.

Mine's a water idea too - take one hose, one nearly 4 year old, one sit-in plastic car and put in the garden. Turn on hose, watch as child cleans the car and puts 'petrol' in it. Good for 15 minutes at least.

My other idea does in involve spending out about £6.00 - or £12.00 in my case, but I know I can guarantee an hour's peace if my sons have a new beyblade each - half hour to make them and at least another half hour to battle with them. The oldest (9)is ace at putting them together so never has to call on me.

My 6 and 4 year olds like to do "cooking" in the garden. They take out a couple of old bowls, spoons, etc, and make cakes and puddings with leaves, grass, earth, water, etc.

They enjoy chalking on the patio too but get covered in chalk dust so have to be cleaned up before coming in.

We keep a few toys in the loft and only get them down occasionally. This makes the toys really exciting and the kids will play with them for ages. When they lose interest, they go back up to the loft. Saves bedroom space too!

I'm about to try the balloon one myself I think you can use flour too - at least that's what the one I used to have was filled with when it burst all over my desk at work!

Woolworths sell mouse shaoe balloons (and elephant ones too). I'm off to buy some. Cant add any new ideas, we too favour the water / garden combo.

Paint brush, water and bucket in the garden to "paint" the garden fence etc, which of course drys in to nothing.

Potions class aka Harry Potter. Bottles of water coloured with very small amount of food colouring, bowl, semolina, washing up liquid, sand, soil, fizzing Vitamin C tablets, etc. etc. Best done outside in old clothes (food colouring does stain slightly). It can get very adventurous and messy! Really sparks my 7 year old's imagination

This book is absolutely brilliant, ignore the po-faced title, it is full of great ideas that don't cost a thing! I have the babies one too and highly recommend them. The babies one recommended sanding down, rounding the corners off and varnishing a small plank of wood - sounds a pain but was probably my elder daughters favourite thing when she was little, she balanced along it, slid down it from the sofa etc, it was really good fun!

Enid, looked at all the reviews and everyone is raving about it! They do a combined volume as well - both preschool children and babies/toddlers but unfortunately Amazon are out of stock. Found this but only 4 left so hurry

you could try this book too. the link is for the toddler version, but there is also a pre-schooler edition.

My 4 year old ds has a cat litter tray (clean!!!) full of tea leaves (dry and unused!!!) in which he puts his little toy diggers, lorries, tractors, etc. He has great fun making them build roads thru the tea, etc. I put it on the vinyl floor in the kitchen so it's quick to sweep up. I nicked this idea from playgroup. Rice and lentils are also good as long as the children don't eat them.

Has any one got an old style clothes horse/airer? If so out it on it's side and through a sheet over the top - instant tent. I remember hours of fun as a child doing this.