We seem to be blessed, this year, with gorgeous weather which means lots of outdoor games and fun outside. 

This year I have decided to help the children build either a simple treehouse or a hideaway den in the garden.  I remember, as a child growing up in South Africa, searching for and gathering up bits of wood, using a hammer for the first time and then proudly ‘opening’ my hideaway to the other children in the neighbourhood.  The den was such fun and when we went back to school my den was the talk of the new school year!  I even had a built in storage unit which was used for storing loads of secret and precious items.

Another activity which is great fun is to set your children on a mission to make music outside.  Each child needs to find something in the house that they can use to make music.  You can set a time limit for the searching.  Last year I set four children a 10 minute time limit to find something in the house and then to practise their tune. One child took all the pots out of the kitchen, another filled bottles of water to different levels and played them with spoons.  It was such a racket but the frantic running about, practising tunes and then putting on a concert was such fun.  Truly a memory that will remain for years to come. 

Glamping in the Garden is another activity which all children enjoy!  Children love camping but some adults hate it! The compromise for the children is to erect a tent in the garden and then make their own campsite.  You can then barbeque for mealtime so it feels like a real camp.  If you have the space, make a small fire for an evening of story telling round the campfire and roasting marshmallows.  And if you’re roasting marshmallows you must have to make Smores! 

Smores Recipe:

• 2 chocolate digestive biscuits, 2 marshmallows, tinfoil
• Place marshmallows between chocolate digestive biscuits. Cover in tinfoil. Place into fire.  Wait for marshmallows to melt.  Eat the gooey, sticky delicious mess!

If the weather is bad then make a campsite in your living room.  All that is required is a little imagination, some blankets and pegs.  Peg the blankets to your chairs and the children will have a ‘tent’.  You can then do story telling round a make believe campfire, etc.

Another  idea for activities for kids is to create a treasure hunt in the garden or a park.  I bought some plastic gold coins and when we go to visit a park with friends, we take the coins, hide them in the gardens of the park and then whoever finds the most coins gets a small prize; the one that finds a coin in a certain place gets a small prize, etc.  For the older children, we write clues and the older the child is the more difficult and cryptic the clues can be. 

What about something different?  So some ideas for children’s holiday activities are to take the children to a climbing wall for a supervised session.  Or if you live near the coast, what about a surf lesson.  Believe me, both activities absolutely tire the children out and you can usually sit in a coffee shop whilst watching them!

Whatever I do with my children this year, I am going to ensure that it is a holiday to remember.  They only really have 10 years of holidays where you can do all these lovely things, so make it memorable and most importantly, enjoy yourself with them!