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Summer of fun – 21 Ideas to keep Children Mentally and Physically Active Over the Holidays
2020 needn’t be an entire washout. Here’s a creative list of ideas to help keep children happy and healthy, both emotionally and physically, during the summer holidays. Mark them on your calendar now for stress-free days and, for additional benefit, join in whenever you can!
- Build a den! Children learn so many skills from den building, from thinking creatively to problem-solving, and they’ll develop their language skills along the way too! Use old blankets, tarpaulins, chairs, sticks, string etc… or find more inspiration here: https://kcsconnect.co.uk/sports-outdoor/den-making/
- Create chalk or pencil rubbings. Experiment with the same chalk or pencils over different surfaces – eg. place paper over bark, concrete, bricks, etc, and marvel at the different effects that may be produced. If you need new pencils or chalk, look here: https://kcsconnect.co.uk/art-craft/colouring-drawing/
- Go on a daily walk. Come up with a new challenge each day to maintain enthusiasm and excitement eg. Today we are looking for… anything yellow; as many different birds as we can find; things beginning with the letter ‘t’… etc.
- Plant and grow seeds! Engage children in gardening with quick-growing vegetables. The RHS says that, in the south of England, you can still sow quick maturing salad crops such as summer lettuce, radish, rocket, sorrel, chicory and fennel during August. If you need some kit to help, take a look here: https://kcsconnect.co.uk/sports-outdoor/sand-water-garden/gardening/
- Read every day. To help keep children engaged, try downloading a free Summer Reading Bingo Card, where children (and adults) can do as much or as little as they please, with the emphasis on reading for pleasure. Works as well for little ones with picture books as it does for older children, or even adults! Examples include: Read something before breakfast, read something in the dark with a torch, read a book with an animal on the cover. https://www.booksfortopics.com/bingo?fbclid=IwAR26lDmDXKW52Pt5jGGVQeOH4DkjTU20G5IqNBbomri8JnEpm6_87u3mKto
- Open a mud kitchen café! You don’t need to have an expensive mud kitchen. Upturn a crate and draw 4 circles on it for a hob, or use the lids from old tins of paint. Create a ‘sink’ in a bucket – the hose can be the tap! Children lovely muddy messy play, and they can become incredibly creative with the dishes they create in the mud kitchen. From mud pies to salads and soups, or from muddy chocolate milkshakes to a frothy latte, encourage children to collect natural ingredients (mud, grass, and sticks; petals and stones of different sizes) and change their mud to the required consistency with water from puddles or the hose. Talk about what changes are made and why, discuss how it looks and feels different. Decorate the muddy recipes with natural accessories – see who can make theirs look most realistic. Children will be engaging in literacy, maths and science simply through their play as they laugh, talk, measure, mix, stir, sell etc! A range of mud kitchens can be found here: https://www.kcs.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=mud+...
- Go on a nature colour hunt. Rather than using paint charts which will waste paper and possibly upset your local DIY store, use different coloured chalks to colour squares or circles on the ground. Challenge children to find items in nature (eg. leaves, grass, pinecones, stones, twigs etc) that will match the colours on the ground.
- Make marks with natural resources. Create temporary masterpieces by painting with water on a dry fence, brick wall or pavement. Or use mud (it will wash away the next time it rains!). Use sticks, stones, and leaves to make different effects. Use different sized brushes (from little ones to a giant fence painting brush) to make marks of different sizes. Along with being lots of fun and eliciting rich language, these activities will help to develop children’s gross motor skills.
- Plan and have a picnic! Who will you invite, and what will you serve? Challenge children to create a menu, to write their invitations, and then to set up the picnic and make the food required! Whether it’s teddy bears or real people, watch their confidence soar and skills develop in so many areas.
- Paint some pebbles. Find some wonderfully smooth stones and pebbles in the garden to paint and decorate. Help your child to decide on a theme – a flower, a ladybird, a rainbow, a heart, etc – and a purpose. It could be a gift, a reminder, a toy etc. Maybe have some photographs out for inspiration. There’s a helpful guide on how to get started here: https://www.persil.com/uk/dirt-is-good/arts-crafts/painting-pebbles-with-children.html
For art and craft resources, look here: https://kcsconnect.co.uk/art-craft/
- Make something yummy to eat. Savoury or sweet, for a special occasion or just because it’s a wet Tuesday, try one new recipe each week. And if you make a cake, be sure to lick the spoon!
- Plan a circuit workout. For when Joe Wicks is done and your children still have energy to burn, plan a circuit of activities to get them outside! It could be really simple, such as doing each of the following activities for 30 seconds, with a 30-second break in between each: hula-hooping, bouncing a ball on the spot, throwing and catching a bean bag, skipping. You can get simple egg timers or stopwatches that children enjoy using. Challenge children to see how many times they can do the circuit before needing more than a 30-second break! If you need some equipment, take a look here: https://kcsconnect.co.uk/sports-outdoor/active-play/
- Make a bug hotel. If you search online, you’ll find all sorts of different ways to do this with varying levels of difficulty. The one we’ve recommended here by Red Ted Art is very simple and doesn’t require any drilling or specialist cutting tools. https://www.redtedart.com/simple-bug-hotel-for-kids/
- Go to the beach! And if you can’t get to the beach, create one in your own back garden with a tuff tray, plenty of sand and some fun accessories. Find everything you could need here: https://kcsconnect.co.uk/sports-outdoor/sand-water-garden/sand-water/. Just add ice-cream!
- Make perfume from flower petals. Encourage your little one to collect their ingredients from flower beds. Mix, mash, add water. What will they call it? Provide an old perfume bottle or two in which they can store their delightful new scent.
- Cloud watch. Lie back and look at the clouds in the sky. What shapes can they see? What do they look like? Do they move and change? Draw or paint the clouds in the sky and what you saw afterwards.
- Make personalised wrapping paper! Buy a reel of plain brown craft paper, and let children paint, stamp or stencil. Friends and relatives will be delighted with the personal touch, and children will feel proud of their achievements.
- Paint with old fruits and vegetables. Don’t throw away apples and pears or vegetables past their best. Help children cut shapes into potatoes, carrots or courgettes to create fun vegetable stamps, or cut fruits like apples or pears in half to create stamps with a difference! This would be good to combine with number 18 above.
- Get on your bike. Cycling is a fantastic exercise and provides the perfect way to explore your local environment and trails. Check online for good routes near you.
- Birdwatch. Get the binoculars out and challenge children to spot as many different types of birds as they can (it can be as simple as birds of different colours). Then they could draw their favourite! There are some more fun early years bird watching activities on the RSPB site, including making paper plate birds or feeding them with ‘speedy bird cake’ which there is a recipe for and they could make themselves! https://www.rspb.org.uk/fun-and-learning/for-teachers/schools-birdwatch/resources/
- Have fun and play. Lastly, but arguably most importantly, never underestimate the power of play. In pure, unstructured play, children are free from adult direction and predetermined rules to be curious, to discover and explore. According to Help Me Grow, “it has been shown to foster cognitive development while boosting physical development and social and emotional development. It specifically helps creativity and imagination, problem-solving abilities and social skills”. So don’t feel like you have to plan every day! Have fun and enjoy your summer together.
For further brilliant ideas of what you can do with your child at home, take a look at the following websites; they offer really good activity ideas for children of all ages!
4 years ago