A thread to help do more with the kids

[Tamadot]

I thought it might be a good idea to have a thread of support for mums like me who tend to not do much with their kids at home.
I've heard quite a few mums on here say they're happy to take their kids out and about but find it difficult to spend time doing stuff with them at home.

Maybe we can make a commitment to do at least one activity a day with them, or get ideas about things to do?

I really want to try to do more with my lovely boys but I do find it hard. I don't want to ever look back and have regrets that I thought washing the dishes and doing the laundry meant that I put off doing anything with them.

Thanks for links sarah
We made wooden spoon people a few weeks ago.
Doing arts and crafts is all well and good, but where do you keep everything you make?

Sarara I think its a good idea to write things down.
I'm hoping writing here will help too. It's just clearer in your mind that its one of the 'jobs' you need to do that day iykwim.

I like this thread already! It amazes me how we get to 5pm and I can't rememebr anything specific I have done with my 2 DS (aged 3 and 1). Things we do in case it helps others: play doh, (occasional) painting, planting seeds, eating lunch in the tiny play tent, having a 'shop' whereby DS1 sells all our empty food boxes to DS2 and I (or a tea shop with the tea set!), tea party with teddies, making a den (putting a blanket over the playpen!), cutting and sticking old greetings cards/bits of kiddy wrapping paper, making cakes, making ridiculously complex train tracks (for the benefit of keeping my brain ticking over!)from a cheap box of brio bought on ebay (for DS1 to run trains on and DS2 to pull up as fast as I make it!!) Hope this helps - looking forward to more ideas to borrow too!

So, this is my plan...............................magic maize tomorrow.
Then at some point through the day or in the evening, I am going to sit down and write out 3 activities that I am going to do with the boys next week. Then on saturday we will go into town to pick up any extra bits that we need.
If I find any good activities, I'll post links. Could everyone do the same? Keep up motivation? Thanks

beth Like the planting seeds idea. I wanted to do that last summer with ds1.
We don't have a garden, so anything we do has to live inside, unless we do enough to warrant a window box...............what could we plant that might not need to go outside?

Sarara great links. Thanks.

Planting seeds is a lovely idea. I think you can get them from supermarkets too, can't you? I've been wanting a little herb garden for a while. Thats definitely something we can all do together (Is May too late to plant herbs?)

SilveryMoon I'm sure you can plant herbs indoors.

Will have to google it I think.
there is a rack of seeds in my local supermarket and I know poundland sell some little pots etc.
Think my kids will love it!
That's mondays activity sorted then

I've just had a google.
See if this is helpful?
www.doityourself.com/stry/3-easy-indoor-houseplants

This is a good idea, we've got into a bit of a TV rut and it's also hard with a 3.5 year age gap between my boys (2 and almost 6) to find activities to interest them both.

Would it be a good idea for us to post a weekly activity plan a bit like the weekly meal plans posted on the food section?

Silverymoon you can grow salady stuff in a window box indoors. Or what about a cress head?

With arts & crafts stuff we often don't set out to make anything specific. I just get a selection of stuff out and let them get on with it. This means no planning or preparation is needed.

Oooohhhh, that's a great page Tam
Now, where would I put a plant pot........Maybe we could do something small to put on their window ledge in their bedroom????

For those with little girls you can cut the middle out of paper plates decorate with glitter and paints and make tiaras/crowns.

Toilet roll kitchen roll tubes glue on sand and make castles.

Tea party's or picnics with toys/teddy bears

Have a half hour of nursery/song time like hokey cokey, head shoulders knees toes etc. DS loves gran'd old duke of York

Steal some recipes from I can cook (they seem quite easy)

That's me out of ideas now.

We planted courgettes and grew them indoors last year. They were very easy to grow and fun for the dcs because they flower before they grow the big courgette so lots of stages to enjoy.

Then you also get the activity of cooking the courgettes which is great fun.

Hi thom That's a good one too!
That's exactly what I'm thinking re the activity plan similar to food plans.
Will post mine saturday at latest for next week

Trixy have you looked at the recipe section on here? You can tick boxes for egg and dairy free and kids can help and you'll get a list of recipes?
Have you tried making bread? That can be quite fun.

I think I am going to stick up a list of ideas on the kitchen cupboard and get the dcs to add to it as they think of things.

Mine seem a bit older than everyone elses. They still love board games, art and craft, baking, cooking etc.

One of the most fun things we did was to get a roll of lining paper from a paint shop and draw a zoo scene. Dh even joined in. We did it as an aerial (sp?) view for all the enclosures but then drew the animals as if we were on the same level as them.

The end result wasn't anything special but we had a great time drawing together and chatting away and everyone kept coming up with ideas for more animals and enclosures.

Big roll of paper - roll it out and draw round them then let them draw and colour themselves in. My boys love doing this time and again. Or they draw round me and make me but this isn't good for my ego.

Making clothes out of newspapers is a good laugh as well. Start with a big cone princess/wizard hat and you are away. Wizards can also have cloaks and princesses can have long dresses.

Again they look awful but the dcs love them.

You can also do hula skirts very easily.

Just marking my place, great thread, thank you for all of the ideas.

Cheap t shirts from the supermarket and fabric pens are good fun too.

Put a sheet of card inside the t shirt so it doesn't go through.

If they are very young then you can write their name and then let them decorate.

You can do it with cotton bags too so "Mummy" can do a shopping bag while dcs do their t shirts.

You can always use them as pjs if they are too wild for day clothes - or make them their craft clothes.

Another great idea, thanks Celery :)
That sounds like so much fun, even for me.

Last week we made a kite. It was pretty rubbish but we had loads of fun making it and trying to make it fly.

OvO
We did that at the school I used to work at. Was alot of fun.
We stuck on different coloured fabric for clothes and used wool for our hair.
Wtf would we get a roll of paper that long though?

Omg, I'm a bit simple, cheap wall paper would do.

Trixy - thanks. I'll give it a go with the highchair up at the table. I do think he's getting to the stage where it's much more interesting for him to copy big brother rather than trying to destroy everything so perseverance is the key, I think.

Tamadot - Little one sleeps when big brother's at Nursery so no can do I'm afraid!