Summer is here, and that means outdoor fun and lots of time spent in the garden. If you’re looking for ways to entertain your kids this summer, these awesome backyard ideas should give you some inspiration for a fun and frugal summer that memories are made of.
Big Little Tent Festival was created last year during lockdown, since we aren’t able to be out there exploring just now, Caravan Club came up with this idea to allow families to have fun and continue the excitement of camping at home. The festival aims to bring the great outdoors to you – in the comfort of your own home.
This year’s Big Little Tent Festival will be taking place over the Easter weekend, 3-4th April and includes lots of fun filled activities as part of the festival schedule, including a Zoom party to meet The Mermaid Princess and The Friendly Neighbourhood Hero for games, superhero training, and a campfire song!
You can see the full events schedule here, and start planning which bits you most want to join in and get involved.
Sink or float is one of the most popular classic science experiments for kids. It’s so easy to set up, and a great way to introduce them to basic experiments at home. This fun twist on the classic experiment uses surprise eggs to add another element of fun to the activity.
This sink or float surprise egg STEM activity was part of our #NickJrBlaze Twitter party. We’ve been trying out the new range of Blaze and the Monster Machines toys from Fisher Price, click the link to find out more about them.
Every child is different, and with these varied personalities and interests you will need different toys to best keep your child occupied and entertained. Recently, I was having this discussion with one of my mum groups about which toys are most used by our 4 year olds these days and it was really interesting to see the different trends.
Depending on your child’s personality, we will guide you through some of the top toys categories that will hopefully get plenty of play time, rather than sitting unloved on the shelf.
Have fun making this Kaleidoscope craft with the kids. This simple kaleidoscope works best when it is held up to the light. Move the tube around to see the pretty colours, glitter and sequins dance around.
A kaleidoscope (/kəˈlaɪdəskoʊp/) is an optical instrument with two or more reflecting surfaces tilted to each other at an angle, so that one or more (parts of) objects on one end of the mirrors are seen as a regular symmetrical pattern when viewed from the other end, due to repeated reflection (definition from Wikipedia)
Kaleidoscopes work by reflecting light, so this is a fun science project for kids, as they think about how the light bumps into the shiny surfaces, changes direction, reflects back and forth and makes the kaleidoscope work – with such cool results.
We have all been stuck indoors for a while so it is always good to have some ideas of how to keep the little ones entertained during lockdown. We still have only a few months to go until things go back to normal – hopefully – so read on to get some inspiration. Anna and I collected a few activities we have done with our little ones that could probably help you out when you are feeling stuck.
It’s fantastic to see World Book Day grow year on year, teaching children about the joys of reading in a fun and playful way and getting them to engage with characters and literature is an amazing idea and it’s fantastic it has become so successful here in the UK.
Truly highlighting the joys of reading to a younger audience, it’s a shame such a day comes around but once a year. This time, why not take it as a fantastic opportunity to extend the Book based fun beyond the School day by taking part in some extra activities at home?
To help you host your own after school World Book Day event, we’ve put together a list of fun and enjoyable games and activities that can be done at home and with minimal effort and fuss. After all, World Book Day only comes around once a year, so we may as well make the most of it.
If you are a parent and like me struggles to come up with ideas to keep the little ones entertained read on. To be honest I think even the most creative parents are running out of options of what to do with the kids after all these lockdowns and time off school. It is hard and we have been very proactive during these turbulent times and tried our best to come up with some ideas. We have been really lucky to be approached by amazing people and companies that offered some brilliant options and this time we will talk about Eva & Rose boutique.
Guest post from Dave at YourCub.com
Do you love to play with your children? I know I do. But many of the toys that my preschooler likes to play with will only keep me engaged for a few minutes. You’ll find that the more educational and creative the task or the toy, the longer we as adults are able to play with our little ones without getting bored or distracted. And when parents are engaged in the toy, so are our children. And that’s when they learn the most from us.
Toys are a great way for parents and children to bond because they allow us to talk with one another, understand what each other are thinking and what they are trying to accomplish. And then also how that might be done! There are many times during play where we can talk about our interests and find common ground. This allows us to appreciate our children more and form a stronger bond together.
So in order to enjoy these benefits you need to have engaging and educational toys! One of the most popular toys for people of all ages, both children and adults, is LEGO. Nearly every household has a box of LEGO or maybe DUPLO hiding somewhere! You’ve probably picked up countless LEGO pieces from the floor in your parenting journey. I know I have.
LEGO is so educational that many schools are starting to use it every day in their classrooms. It’s ideal for children who are interested in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics). That’s because LEGO allows children to use their imagination to build pretty much anything they want.
A simple task like ‘building a bridge’ challenges a child in ways you may not appreciate. They need to think critically and plan ahead. They have to take into consideration a wide variety of issues, like structure, availability of parts, strength of joints. If you can get your child engaged in this type of activity from a young age you can spark their curiosity and possibly impact their future for the better.
We all need a little help keeping our kids busy during this stay-at-home period, and Bing has plenty to offer to help out families with this. As well as over 100 episodes available on iPlayer, Emmy award-winning and BAFTA nominated family favourite Bing offers pre-school children and families multiple ways to keep busy and entertained during this stay-at-home period. With activity sheets to download and games to play, Bing is helping families who will be spending more time together at home in the coming weeks. My preschooler is a big fan of Bing, so these have come in handy for us and I hope you find them useful too!
This app is great when you want something fun and educational to entertain your little ones. I have been trying it out with my 3 year old, N, and we loved the variety of content – having multiple games, including colouring activities, memory match, dress up games and more, alongside the video content means that there is plenty included to keep it fresh. I also appreciate that there are no adverts, and the app is very easy to use
Sometimes while her older brothers are all doing online schooling on their laptops, my youngest wants to feel like she can join in too so playing a few educational games like these during that time is really nice for her.
