Play date ideas?

Dormouse

I would love some ideas for a play date for a bunch of 5-year-olds. (DS1 has been invited to friends' houses so much, I really think it's my turn )

The weather's not great at the moment, so they can't really play in the garden. Our house is not huge, plus I have a baby who naps twice a day so they can't run riot everywhere. So what can they do?

I've thought of activities like baking, and also watching a DVD (with popcorn and stuff), but was wondering if your lovely people have any other ideas?

Gingham_Ribbon

Baking, then decorating with icing and sprinkles will take up quite a bit of time. They can make popcorn too if you have a heavy based pan, then eat it watching a cartoon while the biscuits are baking and cooling.

I wouldn't be trying to do more than that as they'll probably take ages over it.

Becles

Pizzas go down well.

Buy loads of mini bases (or make them if you are feeling brave!) and put out tubs of toppings and let them make their own.

galvanizersbaby

How about a painting the garden fence party?:rotfl:

Obviously weather dependent but you just need it not to be raining - I did this with my 5 year old recently and they were at it for hours.
Sounds messy but just filled some pots with water and a hint of different food colouring and had them all 'painting' the garden fences for a good few hours.

I didn't put enough colouring in to stain the woodwork and before now I've just used plain water - sounds a bit silly but the kids loved it - thought they were grown up and helping!

mrcow

How many five years olds are we talking about here? If it's under 3 then you shouldn't worry too much. Any more than that I wouldn't do unless it was a party.

Whenever my children have friends over (about once a week or so), they just play in their rooms or out the garden. The novelty of having all the new toys round them keeps them amused for hours. I've had two extra children over today. There are five of them upstairs right now and you wouldn't even know they were there.

If I started organising extra activities for them, I'd just be interfering in their playtime. At aged five, they can entertain themselves between them.

FairyElephant_2

Do you have a tent, or can you borrow one which will fit in your garden?

That way they can play out there even if the weather is not too good - DH's kids used to like to 'play camping' or use the tent as a 'den' etc.

elainew

get some digestives and some of those icing pens, some sprinkles sweeties and your off. Lots of fun.
Or even if it is raining --get them down the park or garden with their wellies and rainjackets on--My wee girl loves doing that!

whatatwit

Maybe you could bake the cakes and let them ice them and cover with sprinkles etc....Tesco have 100's & 1000's on offer at the moment.

They could have an indoor picnic, on a blanket in the lounge with lots of nibbles whilst watching a dvd.

lynzpower

Im inclined with Mr Cow, wait and see what they are doing. Its their real playtime when they need and will learn to interact together, share etc, and learn and feel thier way in the human world. The more interference/ instruction/ that is involved, the less children play to get along.

As long as they are not trashing the joint, then I would leave them to it! Put your feet up for a bit If they need to be controlled, then find an activity as a back up. an age appropriate board game in the cupbaord might be a good fall back, wont take up too much space, or cause too much mess!

Dormouse

Thanks for your advice everyone, some great ideas there! :T

I do like the idea of just leaving them to it , but one of the mums I know does the most amazing playdates ever - they're more like mini parties :rolleyes: :eek: , so I was trying to think of something slightly different.

You're right though, 5-year-olds will be happy as Larry to just play with someone else's toys. :j :T

mrcow

Dormouse wrote: »

I do like the idea of just leaving them to it , but one of the mums I know does the most amazing playdates ever - they're more like mini parties :rolleyes: :eek: , so I was trying to think of something slightly different.

Yes but that's in your opinion as an adult

I bet the children couldn't really care either way. Just playing with children in a different environment is cool enough.

tbh setting up special activities etc....you're setting yourself up for potential problems.Activites like cooking/painting/make & do/certain games etc never last as long as you hope for (and some kids don't even like doing them in the first place......more than you'd think), and by then, you've already set the precident that you are going to be the entertainment for the next few hours. It's making hard work for yourself and unecessarily so.

Also, if you do all that and make it into a party type visit you're not going to want to do it again in a hurry as it's a lot of work. That doesn't really suit the purpose of having people over to play, it should be something that kids can do regularly out of school if they want to without making extra work for you.

The closest to making a fuss I ever got was this Easter when we had three extra children over. I did some party food for them and let them eat it on a rug in the living room like a picnic (then still packed them out the garden to finish their football game). They all really liked it, but I wouldn't make a point of doing it again or it gets to the stage where it's expected. I sometimes do cookery with them, but again, it's only if I feel like it at the time. They'd be just as happy playing Dinosaurs vs Power Rangers