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Ideas please for entertaining a 5 year old in 40 degree heat

14 replies

GoodtoBetter · 07/07/2013 22:19

We live abroad and it's around 40ºC all summer. We used to have aircon but we've moved house and now don't have any.
All July DS goes to summer school in the mornings (paddling pools, painting, colouring, crafts etc) and I work til 2pm. In the afternoon, after lunch DD (2) has a loooong nap but DS doesn't sleep.
The first week of this month he's watched a film or kids tv in the afternoon, but it's too much tv everyday.
Normally in term time either he has sports or we go to the library (closed in the afternoon all summer) or we do baking (too hot now).
It's too hot to sit by the paddling pool for long, the air itself is so so so hot,even in the shade and the local pool is too expensive for everyday (and anyway DD is napping).
I've got a recipe for no cook flapjacks for tomorrow and we can do a bit of cutting/sticking and he likes to do my make up with his kiddy make up set.
What else can we do, preferably that can be done in the living room in front of the fan? I've let him do my nail varnish before but it was soooooo messy and took aaaages to clear up afterwards.
We have a "craft box" with bits of feathers etc.....

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GoodtoBetter · 07/07/2013 22:20

Needs to be reasonably quiet too as DD asleep upstairs.
We do stories too obviously.

Bubble blowing I suppose....

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invicta · 07/07/2013 22:23

Jigsaws, board games, model making, make-up stories, Nintendo ds

GoodtoBetter · 07/07/2013 22:24

He likes jigsaws.

It has been too tempting to let him google box while I lie on the sofa.

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GoodtoBetter · 07/07/2013 22:25

hard to summon up the enthusiasm when it's soooooo hot.

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fishoutofchlorinatedwater · 07/07/2013 23:22

We made bubble snakes a couple of days ago, that was fun. Cut a plastic bottle in half, and use the top part, i.e. the part that you'd usually drink out of. Cover the cut end with a jay cloth, and secure with an elastic band. Dip the jay cloth end in a solution of washing up liquid and water, and blow into the bottle from the drinking end. See who can make the longest bubble snake (the fan might add a new dimension!).

Other hits here: board games, snap, Hama beads, shrinkies, sticky mosaics, fuzzy felt, 'science experiments' (get a book, we have the Usborne Big Book of Science Things to Make and Do, or google), junk modeling, good old fashioned drawing. We also do (loosely speaking) topics, where we'll read about / draw things to do with a topic for a week or so - maybe Space, or the season, or a country, or recently sealife (DS's choice!), and look up info on the computer, then make fact sheets over the course of a few days.

DS has a few apps on the iPad too - some educational and some just fun.

Set4Sport has some good "sporty" ideas using household stuff, although you may struggle to summon up the energy in the heat.

We are about to move back to somewhere that level of hot, and I plan to resort to my old trick of sitting with my feet in a basin of cold water while I do stuff at the table...

ThereGoesTheYear · 07/07/2013 23:33

Can you do a long cool-ish bath in the afternoon?
How about changing everyone's sleep routines? My DC were slightly younger than 5, but in similar temperatures I would have longer days, getting up early to play outside or go to the park at 6-7am, have long naps in the afternoon, then let them stay up a bit later at night.

GoodtoBetter · 08/07/2013 06:17

Not really possible to rearrange their sleep. I leave for work at 8.15 am so going to the park before that not feasible. Besides, the parks are all locked shut til someone opens them at about 8am. Also, DS edpecially is one of those children who does really badly on a late bedtime. He won't nap (hasn't since he was about 3) the closest he gets is gazing hypnotically at the tv...which is what I'm trying to avoid. A late night is just followed by early waking (he's always up by 7.15) and then he's in a foul mood.

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GoodtoBetter · 08/07/2013 06:20

Those ideas sound good, fish. Thanks. Where are you moving to? Sometimes I'm tempted to let him just watch tv but it ends up being so much of the day cos it's hot for so many hours and it's just way too much tv.Sad

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GoodtoBetter · 08/07/2013 13:00

bump

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SavoyCabbage · 08/07/2013 13:04

I used to let mine play in the shower without the water running with a bucket of water and loads of containers.

I also have showers fully dressed several times a day.

RobotBananas · 08/07/2013 13:07

Put some towels down and get one of those water play tables?

GoodtoBetter · 08/07/2013 14:40

We have a paddling pool and he's very splashy in that, think he'd trash the house if we had a water table. Could let him wash up at the sink, he used to love that.
Today we're going to make a rocket from his craft box and some toilet rolls and make some no bake peanut butter flapjacks from a recipe I got off facebook.
Thanks ladies, any more ideas most welcome, it'll be this hot til mid September :(

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JoandMax · 08/07/2013 14:49

How about Lego?? My nearly 5 year old has got into it massively recently and it keeps him amused for hours..... We are high 40s at the moment but have AC thankfully.

Also we're doing loads of crafts and build a dino/robot type kits to keep away from the TV! And 9 weeks of holiday from school to fill.

GoodtoBetter · 08/07/2013 15:13

Currently preparing for rocket building. Don't own any lego, will get some for Christmas.

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