6 weeks off is so good for kids.

[Fraxinus]

Agree or disagree?

I agree! My kids seem so much more themselves after only 10 days off school. Less stressed, more communicative, more fun, less whinging. LOVE it.

[sheridand]

There is no easier task in the world than giving your kids a crate of lemons, a bag of sugar and some water. It takes them hours to squeeze the lemons, dissolve the suggar and mix it. You can kick back and supervise. It's joy!

And junk modelling: superb. Just mix up a ton of PVA glue with the paint and it goes sort of waterproof-ish and shiny. I allow them a quarter of the garden each Summer to destroy/ create. Last year it was just massive holes but this year it's cities out of junk. As long as you're not too precious about paint on your grass, it's an easy activity to watch!

Last year my best one was putting a bit of paint and food colouring into buckets of water, giving them a big paintbrush, and letting them paint the house. Hours of fun, while I sat in a chair with a glass of wine. I'm all about the ease of effort!

[Elibean]

Paint the house? Your house? Respect!

I don't think I could relax while our whitewashed house turned purple, but I definitely go with the junk modelling. On a smaller scale, usually, but still - dd1 always has her nose in a recycling bin and wants to be a designer.

I love the lemonade idea - will try that. Thanks.

[Elibean]

slight divergence from thread topic...

[pointythings]

We're in week 2, mine are just starting to unwind. We pay for holiday childcare, are very lucky that it's subsidised through DH's work and very very high quality. They are so much more relaxed and less tired, they need the long break in the summer.

The DDs usually start talking about wanting to go back at the beginning of week 6.

[sheridand]

Elibean: the genius is that the food colouring washes off brick! (after several downpours) No wiping down required. Don't do it on stucco or pebble dash though!

[Periwinkle007]

mine paint the patio with water and it just dries clean

[sonlypuppyfat]

When they were little we did the park library thing but what do you do when they are teenagers, when they want to go out with their mates and want money.

[BabiesAreLikeBuses]

periwinkle i totally agree with you about boredom and creativity. Not from scientific research but in my own experience as a teacher creativity is on the down - and hard to put back in later. It worries me that so many don't know how to occupy themselves. I'm lucky that i get the holiday too and i'm not bored, the change of pace is doing me good, schools nowadays are intense for all involved and we all need a break from that to rediscover what we like doing. It's nice not to rush the kids away fromwhat they want to do.
Mine like chalk on the patio, multicoloured and washes off in the rain, they've been setting up a cafe and writing up the price list for their plastic food...

[Elibean]

food colouring, chalk, lemons. I'm going shopping.

There are some fantastic workshops around here for teens and pre-teens, the dds are desperate to be old enough to do them - run at a local Arts Centre. Everything from Street Dancing to designing Avatars to recycling sculptures (!).

Mine are starting to read because they want to - after refusing to look at a book for a week. And (finally) learning to ride bikes. And doing art workshops, jumping in paddling pools, and designing weird cartoon characters

[sheridand]

Weird cartoon charcaters is great! Have you got a camera where you can take shots and then run them together? Make a film! Plasticine models do well as well. Thankyou, Artzooka guy! Bike riding is fab once all your kids "get it". I can now cycle to the next village along through footpaths and cycleways and take a picnic to the river. It takes a whole day and is free. As they get bigger things get so much easier, but when they are not toddlers anymore (which are fairly well catered for, I find), and not yet KS2, they get a bit lost. There's really nothing much for KS1 where I live, you have to make your own fun. Todays big hit has been quid plant misters from the pound shop. Tommorrow, I'm going to make sugar syrup water trails on the patio and see if we can get the ants to go through a twig maze to get it. Kind of gross, but i'm hoping it will be fun, as long as they don't choose that day to go all flying ant on me. What I really need is a stream shallow enough to dam. That can fill a week!

[Periwinkle007]

plant misters are a great idea Sheridand. like the twig maze idea too but I fear I have just killed off lots of our ants because they started flying into the house so I boiled the kettle and dealt with them - oops.

today we have been to the shops (had fun calculating how many mini boxes of cereal packs we would need for our week away if 3 people have one every day), library (again - the 5 year old is doing book track so has to read 100 books. she is reading 4 a day so we have to keep going back as to get them logged she has to tell a librarian all about them. She only started it last week and her confidence in discussing the books with the library staff has rapidly increased which is brilliant, certainly the incentive of stickers and badges at certain points along the way is encouraging her to read otherwise I don't think she would be). they have played with some wax strip things my mum bought cheap in TKMaxx and you can model things out of, we have had jewellery, candy canes, a fish, a pyramid, flowers and more.

must get some more chalks, the last ones got left out in the rain and disintegrated.