Childrens cooking or craft ideas.

skint_spice

Hama beads if they're old enough, you can buy them cheaper from craft shops but they provide blissful periods of peace and quiet and we have an endless supply of colorful coasters!
Pizza is fun too for kids especially punching the dough back and choosing toppings.

boo81

My favorite to make was cornflake cakes with my mum or I would help make fairy cakes and then they are great to decorate, all the supermarkets seem to do a nice range of decorative bits.

As for activities:

Finger and foot painting, dont forget to write thier age on so you have something to keep.

Nature day where you go and collect things like feathers and pretty leaves, you can set tasks of things to find too. Afterwards sticking them on a collage or in a book is really good fun.

Musical instruments - a rice shaker, water in bottles that you hit, elastic bands over a shoe box like a guitar, saucepans for drums

Collages with pulses, use pva and stick lentils rice etc to make faces

I loved dressing up in my mums clothes and also playing tents! It was 2 sheets pegged onto a clothes drier. I would set it up like a house with a bed and have toys to come and stay

Cutting and sticking with pictures from magazines. You can arrnage into colours or themes and make it educational

Make postcards and imagine you are in the places you say you are, like the jungle or the seaside. Try and theme things that day to the pretend outing.

Get them a cheap disposable camera and let them take pictures round the house and garden. You can then develop them and have fun sticking them.

Get some chunky beads and make some jewellery or just sort them out. I had a big tub of them and loved sorting colours and shapes.

Home made play dough. You can use cookie cutters for shapes too. Salt dough is good and can be baked and painted, it really looks lovely. You can "varnish" with PVA glue as a coating afterwards

OK im idea-ed out for the moment. Hopefully that might help a bit

troll35

Children of any age love making bread, mixing in the warm water with their fingers then kneading it by bashing it flat and rolling it back up.

For collages using big items like pine cones, beans, big pasta, poppy seed heads etc I find it useful to mix a bit of flour into the pva glue to make it thicker and less likely to run off bulky items.

You can make very nice flower pictures by collecting flowers, grasses, seed heads etc from the garden. We often put a strip of double sided sellotape onto a piece of card and stick the flowers to it. If all the tape is covered you can press the finished picture to make it last longer. Again this can be done with very young children.

Any recipe that involves the rubbing in method can be done quite well with little children eg rock buns, scones, shortbread.

Will keep on thinking. Love those websites mentioned.

silverbabe

It depends on the age of your children, as to what activities and crafts would appeal to them.
Art Attack always used to appeal to those over five. There is a load of art attacks at www.hitentertainment.com/artattack
Shaving foam play and cornflour play are popular with the younger ones.
Collect safe packaging and other odds and ends for some junk modelling. Remember it is their imagination that needs to be used so encourage them to not always be ruled by 'instructions', it's so much better for them to make something all by themselves.
I used to enjoy making marble alleys or setting up a domino rally. I also loved treasure hunts, either setting one or following one. I still make one for my daughters at Easter, although they are in their twenties.
To keep interest going through the summer holidays, why not write lots of different ideas on pieces of card, put each one in an envelope and have the ritual of choosing one each day and doing that activity. You could try and get them to guess what it might be before it is opened.
With cooking, get them to help prepare lunch or dinner. Have fun shelling peas or making silly sandwiches.
Have a lovely summer and enjoy those children while you can.

LJM

weve spent the day making playdough and playing with it,made magnets and painted those,plus lots of painting,busy day,i love crafty days

Rachel021967

Thanks everyone alot of ideas to keep them entertained. My girls are 2.5, 11 and 13 years old.

Alison_B

This is a fantastic site http://www.pinkfairycake.com/

sloth

apple crumble is very easy to do and the kids will like rubbing the butter into the flour - it's really simple to make too - I used to make it with my nan when I was small

rock cakes are quite easy too

shell2001

Fancy doing some salt dough with the littles, but quick question - what sort of paint do you paint it with once baked? Will normal poster paint do or does it have to be acrylic?? Its many years since I did it and cannot remember.

Thanks

boo81

I think if you paint before baking it will need to be acrylic but if you paint afterwards it can be anything. Dont quote me on that though as its ages since I did it too! Im sure my ones I made in school were poster paints though