Great Concepts for Outside Activities

1-  Ribbon Sticks : For this you want nothing less than some strips of wide ribbon and some bamboo sticks. One or two 4-ft sticks will do. Snap them in half and tie a length of ribbon to one end. Make the ribbon length no longer than what the children can handle. Let the children loose with the sticks and tell them to try to make shapes, circles, and snakes etc like the gymnasts do on T.V. My eight year old who has ADHD loves this one, and it is one of the few things he’ll really do for longer times of time.

2- Garden Fun : get an inexpensive plastic double sided sandbox for the garden. Fill half with sand and the other half with water. Add a heap of kitchen implements and boxes, and the children will occupy themselves for ages. Ensure you always cover the sandbox when the kids are done, or you could notice that your neighbor’s cats may think it’s their litter box…

3- Picking Berries : Find a place with plenty of berries, be it blackberries, strawberries, redcurrants, raspberries or whatever and go berry picking for the day. Often you could have to pay for the berries, but there are a large amount of places where berries grow in natural habitats and are free to choose and use. Youngsters LOVE picking berries, so take this opportunity to make it into an instructional thing by bringing along a book about berries. This way you can teach them which berries are safe to choose and which ones they have to keep away from. Use the berries you pick to make puddings, jams and cakes. Delicious fun!

4- Organize a Treasure Hunt : this may be done in the house, garden, park or on a short walk. Hide some tiny items, toys or candy in varied places. Draw up maps with “X Marks the Spot” and easily followed directions. Let the hunt begin!

5- Plant Patch : If you’ve a garden, or access to one, see if you can get the children concerned in making a plant patch of their own. Seeds are fairly cheap and plenty of veggies are very simple to grow and cultivate. Try with carrots, lettuce leeks, spring onions and pumpkins for a start. Herbs are also very simple.

Some additional straightforward ones are watercress, parsley, chives and basil.

6- Nature Walks : Nature walks are one of the cheapest boredom busters ever created. All that you need is energy and wide-open eyes. Naturally, you can make the entire walk more fascinating by having something explicit to go looking for. Fortunately for townsfolk and town folks, nature is not just about being out in the country.

Wherever there are trees, there’s going to be birds. Where there’s grass growing, flowers and weeds grow etc. Borrow a book about wild flowers, birds or animals from your local library and refer to it each time the youngsters see something of interest. Take along a notepad and pencil for every one of the youngsters to jot down what they saw on the walk.

7- Borrow A Pet : a way to beat boredom in the high school vacations is to get the youngsters concerned with animals. If you do not own a pet of your own, you might offer to look after the schools gerbils and rabbits, or for that extra bit, why not offer to take your neighbors dog together with you on your nature walks?

8- Camping Out : One thing children never tire of is camping out somewhere.

The simplest and most cost-effective place for that’s in your own back yard or back garden. You can purchase tents cheap nowadays, and you do not need something great. If you do not wish to go to the cost of purchasing a tent, you can always make your own short lived tent by employing one or two sticks, sheets and tarpaulin. Give the children tons of nibbles, a few flashlights and some sleeping bags.

Warn the neighbors that there might be some noise.

( If MY children are anything to go by, there will be lots of noise ). Please ensure that don’t lock your doors when you head off to bed, as although the youngsters may appear prepared to camp out they would probably get a bit scared late when the remainder of the gang is asleep or it would even get a bit cold and then it’s good for the youngsters to be in a position to cuddle up in real beds.

9- Toy Sail Boats : This one is a fairly old hobby, but tons of fun. Get a plastic bottle and cut it in half lengthways. Make the sail from a wooden Kebab stick and some paper. There are tons of other home goods that may be used, so look round and use your brains.

Ensure you hang some weight to the base of the ship to be certain it does not keel over. A lollypop stick with some oil based play dough will work for a short while. ( Practice in the kitchen sink to see what works best for you. ) Once the boats are prepared, walk to your nearest pool or stream, or maybe fill up the tub and go sailing. Hours of excitement for free!

10- Local Walk : accept it or not, most youngsters like to really find out about the area where they live. Take them out for a stroll in your neighborhood and let them explore the homes, parks and shops in the area. Talk about the older buildings and think what life should have been like in the olden days a visit to the local library can be good fun and handy for researching the way it was in your neighborhood, and it can use up lots of otherwise fruitless hours of children having zip to do.

11- Ring Toss : you want a few plastic bottles full of water, sand or tiny stones ( two litre bottles are best ) and some paper plates. Purchase a packet of at least twenty inexpensive paper plates. Glue two paper plates together and cut out the middles to make a ring. When you glue two together it’ll add weight to the rings. Paint the just made rings in bright colors and hand them out to the children. Make a line with chalk or rope for them to stand behind and place the bottles at diverse intervals and distances away from the children.

Anyone who manages to get a ring over a bottle takes one step back and tries again. See how far away they can get and still manage to ring the bottles.

Great Concepts for Indoor Activities:

1.  Story time : Read and debate a book or a chapter of a book, make up your own endings.

You can also make up your own stories by sitting the children in a ring and letting them “add a sentence”. We’ve made up masses of really funny stories this way.

2- Giant Easel : Go to a charity shop or wallpaper shop and buy leftover rolls of wallpaper. Cover a wall with the paper, back to front, stick it up with blu-tac or drawing pins. Give the youngsters paints, crayons, chalks pens etc and let them create their own frieze. The tiny ones reach the bottom, while the big ones can reach up to the top.

3- Wax Creations : Give the children their old, wax crayon stubs and let them make chips from them with a butter knife onto a chunk of wax paper. When they are done, rigorously take their creations to the ironing board, lay another piece of wax paper on top, and temporarily press with a warm iron. Let the youngsters watch as the colors melt together.

Put them on the table to cool down and toughen.

4- Old Garments : Sort thru your old garments. There’s sure to be something that doesn’t fit, or isn’t in fashion and that you are too embarrassed to take to a charity shop. If you don’t have anything at all ask your pals and family. Get two card boxes, one for “dress up” garments, and one for rags. Fill the “dress up” box with the most outrages garments, and cut up the other garments for the “rags” box. Let the children play “dress up”, or let them create things with the rags. Hours of fun!

5- Puppet Show : Let the children make finger puppets from paper, help them to make a “show” with a script and characters. Build a few boxes stuck along with packing tape, make the top one have an opening at the front and hang up a curtain ( you may use rags from the rag-box for this ). Let the youngsters practice till they feel truly assured then invite a few buddies or family members over to look at the “show”.

6- Kitchen Fun : Find some cookery books, let the youngsters select an easy recipe and work with each other on making dinner, puddings, nibbles or cakes. The older ones can do the main cooking, and the more youthful ones can do the measuring or decorating.

7- Mini Worm Farm : Get a big clear plastic container, some soil, leaves, a little sand, and some bits of veggies to make the farm. Dig up some earthworms. Fill the container with loose layers of soil and sand, beginning with soil and swapping the layers. Make the soil layers about 4x the dimensions of the sand layers. Also ensure the top layer is soil. Four or five layers should be adequate. Drop some little bits of vegetables and leaves on top, and then put the worms in. Add a lid of some type ensuring it has air holes. Put the just made worm farm in a cool dark place for 1 or 2 days. The worms will tunnel down thru the layers, and the kids can see just how good they are at churning up the soil. Do not forget to let the worms go when the children have finished with them.

8- Jewelry : Collect beads, buttons and string in a shoebox. When the children are bored, bring out the shoebox and let them make necklaces and bracelets.

There’s certain to be tons of beads and buttons you can salvage from the rag-box.

9- Make a Picture : Collect a complete bunch of decorative mags and some little sheets of card ( A4 size is good ). Give the youngsters a sheet of card each, some PVA glue and some mags. Let them rip up and tear the mags to their hearts content and create mosaic photographs or collages.

10- Board Games : Board games are generally a huge hit, so take care you have masses of them handy, everything from the most straightforward to the most advanced. Come up with new methods of playing the games ; under a blanket with a torch, under the table, out in the shed, or with new handmade rules for example. It’ll add that little of excitement to games the children might be uninterested in.

11- Spook Stories : If you are prepared for a sleep-deprived night, try a night of spook stories. First, find two torches / flashlights, then cover a table with a heavy blanket.

The goal here is for the youngsters ( and you ) to make up spook stories as ghoulish as they dare. Everyone crouches under the table, with just the lights from the torches and takes turn telling tales.

Depending on the age of the youngsters participating, be ready to be freaked out!

12- Growing A Seed : Children of every age love this one, as it’s not just sticking a seed into soil and hoping it’ll grow. This way you can spot when it starts rooting. Get a paper towel, fold it into a medium sized rectangle then moisten it. Put the seed between the initial layer and the remainder of the damp paper towel, and place the lot into a tiny bag. A Ziploc sandwich bag works excellent for this. Employ a strip of masking tape on the bags with each kid’s name on it so they can check on their seeds progress. Close the bag and put it sort of dark but in a spot where youngsters can walk up to check on their seeds and see the glory of nature in action.

13- Indoor Funny Golfing : Get the youngsters to sit together and design a silly golfing course to run across the house ( or merely one room if you could have issues getting them to scrub up afterwards ). Use toys, toilet stuff, kitchen implements or anything more handy to make the holes and routes. Tiny plastic golfing sets are simple to come by in most toy shops, and they are customarily intensely inexpensive. Have treats prepared for each time a kid reaches the end of the golfing course.