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Original poster

A thread to help do more with the kids

208 replies

Tamadot · 19/05/2011 20:44

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.

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Tinkerisdead · 19/05/2011 22:38

PMSL at doing nothing but Ben10. Sorry..I meant its easier around themes as others put more eloquently. Not for the Dc but for you to think up more novel ideas. My DD is obsessed with rabbits this week after last weeks dancing rabbit character at a holiday park. So i'm going to do more around pets, Clean the fish tank out (with supervised help!) visit the pet shop, do an activity where I'll get her to match pictures of pets to their homes etc etc.

On double degrees water idea, the woman on the imaginationtree blog has a posting on there where she coloured the kids bathwater and added essential oils so she did a purple bath and lavender oil or green with a menthol smell. You may not count it as an "activity" but something like that is still engaging your kids and makes it a memorable thing.

SilveryMoon · 19/05/2011 22:39

Oooohhhh OvO You are just full of fab ideas!!
ds1 has his sports day with the nursery next week, so if he enjoys that then I will talk to him about doing it with Luke. Maybe we could invite some friends to join us.
Then give out certificates and rosettes like you say

Carrotsandcelery · 19/05/2011 22:40

I just remembered salt dough.

We made some at Christmas time and cut it out with cookie cutters, dried it, painted it and varnished it. Ours were tree decorations but you could make anything you liked.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

Families General parenting
OvO · 19/05/2011 22:41

Why thank you. WinkGrin

OvO · 19/05/2011 22:42

Ooo, hopscotch! Mine love making the 'board' on the patio and when bored of hopscotch they just like drawing on the paving with the chalks. No cleaning up after as you just wait for it to rain and wash off.

Carrotsandcelery · 19/05/2011 22:56

Great idea - I have just ordered some jumbo chalk on Amazon Grin

OvO · 19/05/2011 23:29

Oobleck. To make oobleck you just need cornflour and water and mix them together. You end up with a weird substance that when you move it/stir it/ squidge it fast it's a solid but when at rest it's a liquid. So you can pick it up and roll it into a ball but as soon as you stop it liquifies and runs through your fingers.

Just don't add food dye to it to make it more interesting. I ended up with bright red palms that I couldn't get clean for DAYS! Grin

EdwardorEricCantDecide · 20/05/2011 00:02

This thread is great, my DS is still young for a lot of the crafty ideas but I'll be off on may leave so maybe start them around November should be easy to make Christmas themed things for a few weeks, (and maybe save me money on cards presents etc)
The food colouring in the bath thing? Would that not dye your skin?

SilveryMoon · 20/05/2011 07:50

OvO I love Oobleck. My ds's hate it, they won't even tough it so that session is just me on my own! lol
Edward I don't think so, not if it's diluted, you'd only put a bit in.

sarararararah · 20/05/2011 08:15

Like the coloured water idea! Will put that on the list for next week. DD loves pouring water and also loves painting and mixing colours to see what'll happen. Don't know why I didn't think of it before!

ComeWhineWithMe · 20/05/2011 09:24

You can make poster paint with flour, water and food colouring.

DD loves emptying the food cupboard and playing shop.

We have junior monopoloy and scrabble, which are good and get them used to the bigger version.

Washing in the garden dd's love this. A basin of water with some bubbles in they can either wash dolls/old baby clothes or bath their dollies.

Shaving foam-give them a can in the bath they are quiet for ages.

As I said in another post the bouncy balls were quite cheap and so easy to make about 5 minutes from start to finish and you can make huge ones in case anyone is worried about the small ones being a choking hazard.

We did the painting stones a couple of years ago and my dc loves it too, you can also buy them a planter and let them make their own little patch of garden.

Naked egg- put and egg in vinegar and after a couple of days it will have lost its shell and you can see inside the egg, great because they can watch the egg over a couple of days and take note of what is changing and it feels really weird which kids seem to like Hmm.

Coconut bites for when they want to bake but you are busy or looking after another lo- dessicated coconut, condensed mild (the one in the tube) cake cases and stuff to decorate, pour coconut into a bowl, squeeze milk over and stir then roll into little balls and put into cake cases, decorate with sprinkles and put in fridge for an hour.

Mine also like peeling and grating and mashing stuff.

Carrotsandcelery · 20/05/2011 19:29

Good evening everyone. What has everyone done today?

I enjoyed the home spun sports day activity suggested last night. I was going to do some craft but it was a lovely evening so we did races instead. It was great fun, cost nothing and has tired them out nicely for bed Grin

Thank you to whoever recommended it.

SilveryMoon · 20/05/2011 19:36

Hi carrots we did the magic maize stuff this morning. We ended up talking about colours and shapes and what letters we could make.
Was nice, but when I got up and looked at the clock, it'd only been 20 minutes!

I have decided what we'll do next week, we're going to do the decorating t-shirts, plant cress seeds, and have a puzzle morning.

sarararararah · 20/05/2011 19:37

We have had a lovely time. We painted a big cardboard box that had my food processor in it. DD painted it with lots of different materials, including pulling the paint along with a bent pipe cleaner and trowling it on with lolly pop sticks. They were the definite favourites!

In the pm we went to a friend's house (surrogate grandmother) and she helped dd feed blackbirds, robins, starlings and sparrows meal worms! A first for me too.

Neither of those things were on meal list though. A welcome distraction from poor ds's teething. Sad

tummytickler · 20/05/2011 20:05

Hi everyone - can I join? I have 4 dc (10,8,5 and 3) and really struggle to find activities for all of them to do at once, but I will be pinching some ideas.
I like the idea of a sports day, but will have to be non competitive with my lot or will be a horrible afternoon of moaning!

Sometimes I host a surprise party (very rarely!), and we make some party food, decorate the living room, make some party hats, and then play some party games (musical statues, the mummy game, Simon Says) before eating the food we made. The dc really love it, one of the few things they all enjoy together. I like to plan it for the end of the Summer Holidays.

I too find going out easier than staying in, but intend to resolve this!
Those with Junior Monopoly - what would you say the age range on that is?

TheHouseofMirth · 20/05/2011 20:32

Today we've been mostly making tents! Largely instigated by the DSs rather than me, I have to say. Started this morning when they came into bed with me a stupid o'clock and started pretending to tunnel under the duvet on an expedition to find my feet, then it kind of snowballed from there.

We've also made some cakes and they enjoyed doing the washing up after it.

spiderlight · 20/05/2011 20:40

We made Oobleck. Weird stuff!! DS absolutely loved it though, and loved washing down the garden picnic table with soapy water even more - that kept him busy for a good hour. We now have a very Ooblecky patio and quite a lot of the stuff in the dogs' hair though.

geordieminx · 20/05/2011 20:44

Today we have made a rocket out of the recycling, then covered it in foil...it looks frikkin ace.

Also made jelly with peaches in for after dinner, and wee rocky road cakes.

We also had a games night when dh came home. Kerplunk, connect 4 and snakes and ladders Grin

SilveryMoon · 21/05/2011 06:27

Sounds like you all had loads of fun ladies.
We're not doing anything today, we are going into town to have a look around the shops. Will pick up a few bits for future activities though.

trixymalixy · 21/05/2011 19:33

This morning we made rocky road and DS layered up the lasagne from the bolognese and White sauce I had made last night, which he really enjoyed although the layers didn't really survive as he decided to whisk it Hmm.

Then we wrapped a present and he made a bow for the top. Then we played "wrapping up" with a scrap of leftover wrapping paper used over and over to wrap up various toys. Then out to a party for the afternoon.

geordieminx · 21/05/2011 19:50

Good effort mrs.... Now as a reward go eat rocky road!

First weekend in a month that we haven't got a party...whooo hoooo

I founds some wallpaper in the cupboard, so we drew round him, made clothes for it out of tissue paper, and coloured him in.

Although I think he enjoyed it, he did loose interest after about 10 minutes, leaving me to finish up and tidy up.... Hmm

Dosey · 21/05/2011 22:37

hi can I join you, hi to carrots and silvery . Before I found this thread I had brought down from dds bedroom some board games to play tomorrow. Some which were pushed to the back of the wardrobe and forgotten about, we have wobbly chef, fruity bugs, junior scrabble, dominoes, snap and guess who. So looks like tomorrow morning will be a games morning. It can be hard at times to put house work (and mumsnet!) to one side and just play with the kids. I do, no matter what, read to them everyday have them read to me. I love this and could spend all day reading with them.

I will be keeping a close eye on this thread for ideas x

Carrotsandcelery · 21/05/2011 22:53

Hi Dosey

We read together every night too.

Ds gets books from the reading chest as the school can't see past his problems and accept that he is a better reader than they realise. He loves it and reads one of them to us and then we read a book to him.

Dd is a fluent reader but we still read her a chapter of her book every night. Once again it is one of the times she is most likely to chat to me.

I can only read non-fiction during the day though - I am so chronically sleep deprived that if I start on a story I feel all woozy. I try to keep a couple on the coffee table in the kitchen but I do get a bit flylady and declutter them upstairs in a frenzy. It doesn't work to have the house too sterile with dcs around though.

Today dd and I were helping out at a fundraiser so we had a lot of fun together. We didn't do an activity in the house though as everyone was shattered.

Mummyloveskisses · 22/05/2011 00:04

WOW - I have just filled 3 pages (in my notebook) with lots of lovely idea's, Thank you ladies :)

Its soooo late right now but I will be back really soon to hit you with some of my ideas x

MissGreenEyes · 22/05/2011 11:15

Haven't read all of the thread will do so now, the reason being that the first few posts inspired me to get off the pc and go to my kitchen and bake sugar pastry "biscuits" in the shapes of farmyard animals and a batch of fairy cakes with stars iced on the top with my children, they were absolutely over the moon. I do this stuff on occasion but not nearly as much as I should. This is a great idea for a thread.