Given that we have had a carppy summer, what items helped to entertain your dcs the most?

[Blandmum]

Please give us some ideads for the next time it rains!

If it hasn't rained on you for most of the summer, please do not use this thread to gloat

For my two (10 and 7) they were most entertained by Uno, a cheepo travel vestion of Guess Who and Pick up sticks.

And your best buys were?

ermm the PS2 - oh and Junior Monopoly and a few jigsaws.

ds is STILL getting most fun out of that Orchard Toys game with cards of heads, middle and legs.

Have blanked out name as I've started to hyperventilate at the sight of it.

Otherwise, bed bouncing, dens, sliding down the stairs in a sleeping bag, and Cbeebies. We've actually been reduced to making things off Doodle Do (which are great, why isn't there a book? maybe there is).

Two gameboys (for the price of £43 total, incl postage thanks to a thread on here!) were definitely the best sanity saver. Especially as I discovered I could leave "gameboy-time" to the end of the day and dangle it as a carrot to get all the toys tidied up first.

Oh, also sending them to their grandparents for a week

oh sorry ds is 3.5

also we've done a lot of cooking but it's like torture as dh and i are on weight watchers so we can't eat any of it

also Buried Treasure for the bath - pick up 3 random things from the house, 1 of which is Treasure (usually whatever is slightly silver coloured, e.g. a corkscrew, silver Christmas Tree decoration, 20p coin), wrap all 3 in foil and chuck them in the bath. Cue instant elimination of I DON'T WANT A BATH tantrums. But quite a lot of brain strain earlier in the day.

ds made iTunes playlists and cds,designed cd covers and discovered youtube (is 10

scrapbooks - about £1.25 each, plus glue, tape and felt tips, and assortment of momentoes from days out/holiday. DC (7 and 5) have spent a fair amount of time making them

also - writing letters to friends made on holiday.

.making dreamcatchers, candles and cards
. making montages of their photos and videos on OneTrueMedia and subjecting the entire family to them
. we bought them a couple of books on how to draw manga characters and cartoon characters, and some nice drawing pencils
.we've downloaded a couple of documentaries from the Discovery Channel website eg: Growing up Grizzly.
. monopoly

. camping in the sitting room
. endless bloomin' puppet shows

. PS2 and Wii haven't been utilised as much as I thought they would be, but we have certainly made use of a free trial of the Amazon DVD rental service!

felt tip pens and paper - we have at least 3 galleries worth of artwork

playmobil (dd had her birthday in the middle of the holidays, and much playmobil was added to the collection)

dressing up and film making

music sessions - we all march round the house singing 'I am the music man' and coming up with the wildest instrument possible. The only rule is it must end with the wobble board.

MB, we've been playing a lot of Uno as well. I'd never come accross it before - was a present from some friends in the States - and we all love it.

We have a fantastic play-doh recipe from DD's nursery school and have made huge bags in different colours - the children will play quite happily with that for hours.

Quite into Roald Dahl - children saw "The Fantastic Mr Fox" at the theatre, listened to "Charlie and the CC" on audio tape and then got the Johnny Depp version.

DH bought DS(5) a notebook and propelling pencil and for about 10 days we mainty communicated by handwritten notes.

The big paddling pool was a huge hit, but sadly under-used.

pinata game for xbox 360 has kept them quiet for most of the 'summer'