OS outdoor entertainment for kids

fuddle

Short of buying in a load of plastic garden toys, I'm at a loss at how to keep my little ones entertained over the holidays.

What games did you play when you were younger? What games would they have played in years gone by?

I can only think of chalked hopscotch on the patio. Any help would be great

quintwins

cheapy hula hoop or skipping rope

tag

give them a paint brush and a pucket of water and let them paint pictures that don't need cleaning up

bubbles

Islandmaid

Fuddle - what age are we talking about?

Much depends on the weather, but when my kids were younger, a sprinkler in the garden gave them hours of fun - supervised of course

If you can get your hands on a huge cardboard box, kids can make anything out of it, a camp, spaceship, shop, hospital the list is endless.

Indoor activities - an arg@s catalougue and some safety scissors can be fun, making wishlists, picturebook stories etc a king size sheet and a table makes a good indoor camp, then there,s HM playdo, painting etc

Carpet picnics, pyjama day (popcorn and a good DVD), I did here on the radio that Bl@ckbusters were doing a £5 for the summer rental scheme, one dvd a time from their kids 99p range

A mini safari is a good one too a plastic tub, and see who can find the most or most varied insects.

We live by the beach so one game was to hunt for mermaids purses, who can find one first, if not the roundest pebble, the flattest stone etc collecting shells with some glue at home to make things out of

Hope this helps x

fuddle

Thanks, so much to think about already. My two girls are 7 and 3.

stormbreaker

Make skittles out of empty plastic bottles. They could decorate them first.

Soworried

Paint pebbles or stones.

Plant a sunflower or some cress.

Rice filled balloons as punch balls.

Pasta necklaces.

mumonashoestring

Games4Life, Kaboose and Activity Village all have downloadable activity sheets for kids - things like colouring sheets and scavenger hunt ideas - I'd post links but the forum won't let me!

I remember when I was little my mum bought a load of cheap rolls of wallpaper from a charity shop so we could draw, paint and finger-paint on the back of it

pinkteapot

Are you near any nature reserves, woods, etc? The I-Spy books are still good and fairly cheap. There are a few different ones relating to British wildlife.

RAS

Defo camps, houses and shops.

Do they have toy kitchen gear, or shop goods (or can they use clean container that are now empty?

Sling a sheet or tarp over a rope (above neck height) and let them make camp. or set up shop or "keep house."

If the weather is nice and they are lively kids - make a waterside using a long piece of plastic and water - wet it and they run at it and slide all the way along.

Water play for the younger one? Washing up bowl and containers. bet the older will get involved.

Basic bubble blowing?

If you have a long strong piece of wood - balance beam even if it is only 5 cm off the floor. Tumbling? handstands?

PixieDust

bark (or "texture") rubbing using wax crayons and paper
junk modelling - collect together all empty packaging and interesting "stuff", give them a roll of sticky tape each and let them loose
garden canes and an old large bedsheet or large piece of material can make a wigwam in the garden
make a miniature garden....give them a chocolate tin lid each and show them how to make miniature "trees" from small twigs, paths from gravel, a "pond" from a piece of silver foil surrounded by soil......endless fun
if yo'ure having scrambled egg one day, blow the eggs rather than crack them and let the children paint and decorate the eggs
give themscraps of material and a stapler and they can create all sorts of weird and wonderful "fashions" - you can take a picture to capture the creations
fruit and veg printing (or Daddy's shoe sole, or their own hands andfeet - anything you let them, really...close supervision needed!!!
do you have a button box? Let them make patterns on the table with them, or on top of a piece of paper or material. Let them make collages with anything interesting they see around the house (or that you give them), - no glue, no sticking, just creating on the table and take apicture afterwards
picnic- even indoors - letthem make the food and choose where...I think we had a picnic on thelanding once because that's where the sun streams in!
have them draw around an everyday object...a hand, a pairof scissors maybe....and then make a picture out of it. For example, the outline of an open pair of scissors could be a person....
go on a nature walk. Take a small but sturdy bag or basket each and let them fill it with any [STRIKE]junk and detritus[/STRIKE] treasures they find along the way

midnightraven3

elastics?

did no one else play elastics?
join lots together, looping them through each other
then make into one giant loop
put them over the legs of chairs (or 2 childrens legs)
there were lots of rhymes
jingle jangle, silver bangle, inside, outside, monkeys tails

you move the elastics up a couple of inches in height each time
please tell me someone knows what i am on about


balls? against the wall (might drive you nuts after a wee while though
when i was at school, if you were poor you had solid rubber ones, i must have been posh, i had 2 tennis balls
again lots of old fashioned rhymes
i taught my girls when little, and they had all the children here playing
i had a great time :rotfl: