Pleasing Kids in the middle of nowhere for £0

violetb_2

Hiya - what an interesting OP!! I sometimes write letters to the kids overnight with various scenarios - pirate treasure hunt? space explorers/ secret agent and then when they wake up we spend the day making stuff out of junk to go with the tasks set in the letter (ie make a boat to sail around the islands in the home, write messages in code that sort of thing) With a small reward at the end - like treasure or the contents of a top sret safe they have lots of fun.

debbycatz

In a similar scenario of Voiletb - make a sort of treasure hunt around the house. You start off by giving them the first clue on a piece of paper, which is a sort of riddle or quiz that leads them to the next clue on a piece of paper hidden around the house, and that one leads them to another clue hidden around the house and at the end they find a 'prize' (homemade of course - perhaps homemade sweets, cakes etc packaged up nicely)

And don't forget that most kids love baking/cooking. There are loads of good receipies out there for kids.

Good luck

rchddap1

Cooking / baking is always popular. Remember once when we made lots of different coloured cakes (using the food dyes...red, yellow, green, blue) and then I made up a selection of icing / toppings and left them to it.

If you have some colouring / painting / tissue paper etc.... you could get them to make something for various family members.

Rachie_B

even if its wet try and get out and about,bike ride,walk in the woods,all the better when its raining :P

what about setting them a challenge to plan and cook ( with your guidance) a meal of their choice for the family ?

they can look through books and websites and decide what to make / do ,what ingredients they need / what you have in the cupboards etc

de clutter the house / their bedrooms so you can hold a carboot sale ?

LittleL_4

Make pom-poms. I did this with my niece and nephew last week and they had a great time. We bought lots of scrap wool (90p in total) and made them in all different colours.

Or a wee treasure hunt around the garden. Kids just love that sort of stuff.

Good luck anyway

littleL
x

inkie

As I post my 2 (similar ages to OPs) are in the conservatory making 'secret boxes', basically houses out of huge cardboard boxes from supermarket yesterday. They've used all kinds of materials to impliment the wonderful designs that they have put on them!

Chriswil

Reading LittleL's post has reminded me of quite a lot of things I used to love as a child! There's the thread bobbin with the 4 nails in it which you create a sort of woollen snake from, and pompoms! I once created on that was about 30cm across in multicolours! (It was THAT good! )

You could start with making a small one and leave the kids to make them in increasing sizes...

Rachie_B

aww i used to love making snowmen etc out of pom poms id made

i was crap @ french knitting though lol

x-clusive

ok for some reason I lay thinking about this in the early hours ( sad I know)
I came up with the following ideas.

You say you live on the coast.

Do you have a beach? What do the kids know about the universe? get them to collect different size balls from around the house go down the beach and get them so space them out to represent the planets. Click for details

Get them into recycling. Send them hunting around the house for things that can be recylced and things made from recycled material. Explain why recycling is necessary.

If they can access the computer get them to try Googlewhacking, entering two words that only gives a solitary result

Its like Why-Don't-you this

tyllwyd

I grew up in a village outside Aberystwyth, so I know exactly how your kids feel!

If they have got friends nearby, would it be possible to arrange to swap DVDs/books/toys for a week or two so that they all get something different to look at?