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Stuck in the house during the weekend of the middle of the school break is not only boring but stressful. While trying to find something for yourself to do, you need to find a way to entertain the children. I remember a whole summer of rain with two very active children in the house and had to find something for them to do to get them away from the computer and the TV. Here are five great activities for the whole family to join in with.
Go on a Treasure Hunt
Treasure hunts do not have to be outside. While you can’t dig a hole to bury the treasure, there are plenty of other ways to hide objects. Create a small box of “buried treasure,” such as pennies, plastic stars and paper shapes, and hide it somewhere in the house. Then, all you need is a map and a series of clues for your children to work out to find the treasure.
The trick is to place clues to more clues around the house until the final clue goes to the buried treasure. This could take all day, depending how many clues you have.
A Mini Obstacle Course
Move some of the furniture out of the way and create a fun obstacle course within it. This could involve climbing underneath dining chairs and running around beanbags. You could clear out two rooms to make it longer, depending on the layout of your house.
This works for large families and small ones. You can either have teams or each person competing against each other or a single child compete against the clock.
Make Time for Arts and Crafts
Clear the dining table or coffee table, or cover the living room floor with a sheet that you don’t mind getting glue, glitter and everything else on, and make an arts and crafts space. This is fun for the whole family and you can create all sorts of things, including gifts, cards or jewelry.
Think about the type of things that you want to make so you have the right materials to start. There are some great craft ideas online. If you’re not too sure about buying items for crafts, have some coloring pencils and paper to do some artwork instead.
Do Some Logic Puzzles
Build up the logic skills even while the children are off school. These puzzles include crosswords, word searches and Sudoku. You can buy books, magazines or download them from the internet and print them out. Have a range of puzzle styles for different abilities to suit the whole family.
Take on a Jigsaw Puzzle
Do you have any jigsaws in the house that you have always wanted to finish? Now is the time to do them; just make sure you find the space to complete it and somewhere that won’t need to be cleared during the process. If you don’t have any jigsaws, don’t worry. There are many pictures available to download online that you can create into jigsaws. You will need some sturdy card for this.
A rainy day doesn’t mean the children have to sit and watch TV or play on computer games all day. Get them active around the house with these ideas. Do you have some ideas that you do with your children? Why not share them in the comments below?
