7 Activities to Keep the Kids Happy Over the Summer

You’re late for the final school run and turn on the car radio to the soothing sound of Billie Holiday, “Summertime, and the livin' is easy.”

“Well, Billie, not if you have 3 kids to entertain over the holiday break it isn’t,” you think to yourself.

So what are your options? Trips overseas are on the back burner, at least for now. This is a year for getting creative when the kids are off school. Read on for some ideas that might help you through.

1.  Have an Arts and Crafts Day

You don’t need to break the bank to find out if you’ve got a budding Picasso or Banksy in the family. Start with a DIY stamp kit with whatever you can find in and around the house.

You’ll need a sponge dipped in ink along with shapes to soak up the colour and then press onto some paper or card. You could even use a highly concentrated instant coffee mixture if you have no ink. To make the patterns, you could use any of the following:

• Small flat stones or twigs
• Wine corks or bottle tops
• Passion fruit or raw potatoes cut in half
• Celery storks or carrot shapes

Next up, pick some interesting-looking leaves from the garden and get the kids to stick them onto the sheet of paper or card with double-sided tape. They can then paint over the entire page, remove the leaves and reveal the silhouetted patterns they’ve left.

If the garden’s in bloom, throw in a lesson about flower pressing. Arrange the cut stems and weigh them between heavy books. Leave it a week or 2 before the big reveal. Get the kids to use their creations for greetings cards to send to the grandparents.

Remember to delegate finding the paper or card the kids are going to use. Let them search through the recycling bin to find something appropriate.

2.  Get Out and About With Some Playground Hopping

If you suggest a trip to the local playground, the response from the kids might be a yawn or three. Turn it into a holiday challenge. Let them search for and make a list of all the playgrounds within a reasonable radius of where you live.

Set aside one morning or afternoon a week to visit a different playground. Combine the trip with a picnic to make it more appealing. Give each playground a score out of 10.

Before you get to the playground, see if you can combine the day with a spot of fruit-picking at a local farm. That’ll help bulk up the picnic with a healthy alternative for after.

3.  A Bake-off With a Twist

There’s no question that most kids love anything sweet like chocolate and icing. Occasional treats don’t have to be to the detriment of healthy diets. Teaching the kids to bake can involve more than a high sugar content or calorie overload.

Try out some recipes that include fruit that’s available during the summer season. Throw in some less common herbs or spices like cardamom, saffron and fenugreek. Instead of cupcakes, try an ice cream cake or a sponge topped with some frozen fruit yoghurt.

4.  Make the Most of the Garden

Give the kids a plastic bowl each. Get them to place the bowl upright on their heads while they stand under the garden sprinkler. When they think the bowl is full of water, have them run to a bucket. The winner will be the person to fill their bucket first.

Dry them off with a race around their very own obstacle course. You can make this from hula hoops, skipping ropes, sticks, stones, hoses and other materials from around the house.

Share some research about the right kinds of veggies and herbs that will do well in the garden. Give the kids their own patch to grow and tend their own produce. If it’s too late in the season to grow anything from seed, dig in some ready-grown salad plants.

Pitch a tent in the garden and let them spend the evening underneath the stars. Combine the experience with typical campsite food like hotdogs and an evening scavenger or treasure hunt.

5.  Some DIY Chalk Bombs

This is messy but fun. Use a clean soap-dispenser bottle to fill some balloons. To make the mixture, you’ll need some cornflour and a few drops of food colouring.

You can start by drawing some targets on the ground for them to throw the balloons at. It might soon descend into chaos so be ready for an extra load of washing afterward.

6.  Take a Virtual Tour

We are lucky enough to live in the most sought-after places in the world with the best natural parks and beaches. Sometimes it’s not always possible to get to where we’d like to go but there’s usually a virtual alternative. Try these:

• David Attenborough’s Great Barrier reef tour
• Virtual Tours of New Zealand

7.  A Dressing-up Fashion Show

If there’s one thing that satisfies the curiosity of kids, it’s permission to try out some of Mum or Dad’s clothes. Put away your best out of harm’s way but let them choose their favourite outfit, accessories and make-up.

Set up a place for the big reveal by using a sheet on the washing line as a curtain. If it works well, invite their friends and put on a show for parents and neighbours.

Don’t Forget to Sort the Payroll!

Whether these ideas help you or your nanny, one thing you must remember is to sort out the admin related to your nanny payroll. Holidays are an opportunity to make sure payslips, taxes and a record of your nanny’s time-off are all correct and up-to-date.

We know the issues around paying your nanny can be complex. Get things wrong and you can easily make unnecessary problems for yourself further down the road. We can take care of it all for you for the price of a couple of beers every month.

Get in touch with Pay the Nanny now and find out how we can save you time, money and stress.