25 WAYS TO KEEP YOUR CHILDREN BUSY THIS HOLIDAY

The holiday is here!!  How are you going to keep your kids busy? Here is great ideas for you and your children!!!!

1. PAINT GIFT PAPER WITH FINGERS.  Use small brown paper bags and paint beautiful pictures on them.  If you do not have brown paper bags, you can fold a white A4 paper in half and paste two of its sides.  Paint nice pictures on it and place small gifts in them.
2.  MAKE A NEW PLACE TO PLAY IN. This can be any place! Blankets that are tied together with laundry pins stuck on the laundry wire or ...throw blankets over the dining- or porch table. You imagine it - they build it! Just provide them with everything they need. Little ones must be helped. Put blankets and pillows in the new "house".
3. ACTIVITY BOOK.  Print activity books from the Internet and let them work through it.  Please go here to get activity books that you can print out:   :  http://www.colorcutandcreate.com/printables/games_activitybook_001.pdf
4. TREASURE HUNT.  Fill a plastic bag before the time with chips, Easter eggs and other sweets that is in packages. Go and hide each item individually in the garden in different places.  They must now go and find the treasure.  Nobody can eat until every body's treasure has been found!
5. CARTON CASTLE     Get big boxes at the cafe and make the castle as in the picture.  They must plan where the doors and windows are and draw everything. 
   
   They can paint is or just leave it like that.  Just help the little ones with cutting out doors, etc. But... leave them for a while to figure out everything on their own!!!
6. PAVEMENT ART.  They can draw on the pavement or any other smooth cement area - maybe the garage floor??😓😓
7. PICNIC IN THE BACK YARD.  Let them help to prepare the food like hamburgers or hot dogs and go and eat it on a blanket in the back yard.  Sweets and cold drink is essential of course!!! 
8. SHOE BOX PASTED WITH PICTURES.  Get a small shoe  box or small box from cafe. Children cut pictures from magazines and paste it all over the box.  They can also cut out their names and paste it on the box.  They can add all kinds of "souvenirs", pebbles, movie cards, newspaper or magazine clips, etc., which they gathered during the holidays, to the box. At the end of the holidays they can take everything out and remember the holiday !!!!
9. SPIT AND PASTE.  (SPOEG EN PLAK IN AFRIKAANS!) Choose a theme like:  Things that I like.  They page through magazines and look for pictures of things that they like the most like chocolate, beautiful dresses, cars, etc. Older children can also cut out words that describe the things they like. They cut the pictures and words out nicely.  Write at the top of an A4 page:  THINGS THAT I LIKE. They now paste their pictures and words on one or more pages.  They can put it in their personal box, the one pasted with pictures, or you can put everything for them in a flip file!
   
10. CRAYON SCRATCHING. Let them put a paper over a rough texture for example a rock, rough wall and paving. They scratch over the paper with crayons so that the texture of the rock is transferred onto the paper. They can test several other surfaces also!
11. PAINT WITH A COOL DRINK STRAW.  Great one for the moms too!!!  Kids can draw their own picture or you can print a picture for them.  They put a little bit of paint - very runny - on the hair of a girl or boy picture. Now they take a straw and blow the paint to different sides of the hair! If they are happy with the hair, then put some more paint on the clothes and blow the paint with the straw!
12. GOOD MOVIE AND POPCORN.  If you have channel TV, you can watch a good movie together. Or you can take out a DVD or two.  Make some popcorn before the time, carry a big mattress to the lounge and watch a movie together.  For a little bit of spoiling Astros or Smarties can be added to the package!
13. VISIT  A PLANT NURSERY.  It is free to visit a plant nursery so it is light on moms pocket. Some nurseries have playgrounds where the kids can have fun.  Others has animals that the kids can look at.  If your nursery does not have either one of the two, just walk around for a little bit.  You can make a game out of it.  Example:  I see something that is yellow.  The kids have to run and show you the yellow flowers. At the end of the time at the nursery, they can choose a holder with flowers to buy, plant and look after.(normally 6 in a holder.) (Good advise :  Succulents needs little water!)
14. CLAY. Clay is always a winner!!  Buy clay in the shops or make this homemade clay:  2 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt, 1 cup water, 1 tablespoon of oil and  food coloring - if you want to.(Good advice!!!  Give each child a cookie pan or tray they can play in.  Everything stays clean and they only make a mess in one place!!)
15. BUILD AN EXERCISE COURSE.    Place a bucket or two on the grass - a short distance  from each other. They must run around the buckets, walk over a plank , crawl underneath a garden chair and swing on a rope in a tree! If you do not have everything on the list, think out of the box!  A Big log in the garden can maybe be the end of the exercise course.  You can also monitor them to see whether they can improve their time!
16. DRAW ON LAMINATED A4 PAPER.  Laminate a white A4 paper. (See example of laminated A4 page under 23. Doodle.) You can add a frame or just write each child's name on the paper.  Buy whiteboard markers that write very thin and give to each child.  They can draw on the paper and wipe it off with toiletpaper.  Then they can draw something else or doodle and wipe clean again.   This is also an excellent activity they can do in the motor on their way to the holiday destination.  Just take cookie pans with so that they have something sturdy to write on.  Works like a charm!!!
17. OFF TO LIBRARY.   Most libraries has programmes during the holidays.  Our library has activities on a Wednesday.  So... plan an outing for the next couple of weeks to the library.  You all get out of the house and they might just meet new friends!!!
18. POTATO PAINT.  Cut different forms out of a potato such as a circle, a cross, etc.  Put in paint and  push onto paper!!  They can also make gift bags or gift cards with this!!!!
19. BALLOON IN AIR.  Very simply a balloon is filled with air.  They hit it very lightly with the hand and another tries to hit it with the hand.  The idea is that the balloon does not touch the ground.  If this becomes to easy for them, let them lay down on their backs and try to hit the balloon laying down!!
20. OBSTACLE COURSE FOR RAINY DAYS!  Throw a few cushions on the ground.  They must now jump from one cushion to the other.  Then crawl on their knees to another cushion a little bit further from the others. Pull a blanket over chairs.  They must crawl underneath the chairs. Jump up and down five times, throw a ball in a washing basket, turn around three times and crawl underneath the table.  Let them help to plan this obstacle course!!  Just think how much they are going to laugh if mom has to demonstrate the whole obstacle course!!!!!
21. MARSHMALLOWS AND EN PRETZEL STICKS.  Push pretzel sticks into marshmallows and build houses, stick men, cars or anything they can think off!  
22. RUN THROUGH THE SPRAYER!  Even if you have a swimming pool, it still remains a great thing to run through the sprayers.  In the meantime you are also watering the grass.  Just be sure to move the sprayer now and then to give water to another part of the grass. 
23. DOODLE.  Show them how to doodle  on an A4 paper by drawing circles or the letter 8 that intertwine.

    

    Voorbeeld van krabbel gedoen op blanko gelamineerde papier!

    Let them doodle the morning.  The afternoon they can use different colors paint or crayons and give each doodle another colour.  Even nicer:  paint it with fingers!!!
24. DANCE AND FREEZE   Put some music on.  They must dance wildly as if they are one or the other animal.  The wilder the music, the wilder the dances.  Then stop the music.  They must freeze in the position they were when the music stopped.  Nobody must laugh or fall down.  Put on another song and do it again!!!
25. EAR BUD PAINTING.  Take ear buds and put in paint.  Now they can put dots on the outlines of pictures or make a spiral.  Small children can even go down the lines of a number one and repeat... one.... one.  They can use different ear buds for different colors of paint!

I wish you all of the best for the holidays!  Let me know what you think of the ideas or send me some more ideas of how you keep your children busy in the school holidays!  Enjoy every moment with them.  Before you know they are out of the house and you will miss all the holiday fun!! 

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