Summer fun - week 1

Being the first week my 2 have been able to keep them selves occupied to an extent, so far (touch wood) I havent heard "I'm bored".

Kai is used to keeping himself occupied for some of the day so I can get housework done as he doesnt start nursery until September, but Zack is only used to keeping himself busy for the weekend and after school so I put a few things in place to keep him busy.

1. Chores
Starting on the Monday I told Zack he could do 3 jobs a day to earn 25p for each job, potentially earning over £5 a week. He would have to have his room tidy & CLEAN by 9:00pm, his 2nd job was to have the washing up done (this is anything left over from the dishwasher), The final job varies each day, hes got our back entrance way tidy & clean (it gets filled with tools, shoes & garden toys), cleaned the bath & sink (I wasnt mean enough to make him do the loo, give it time ;-), and clean doors & worksurfaces in the kitchen. Kai does smaller jobs to earn strawberrys or grapes as he doesnt understand money yet so its not much of an insentive.
Zacks actually enjoyed some of the jobs & likes the idea that hes earning his holiday money.

2. Kids Club - Odeon Cinema
This week we saw "How to Train Your Dragon" which was great, Kai wouldnt have sat to watch it so he was at his aunts, but Zack loved it, as did me & my mom. I grabbed drinks & sweets before we went so that only cost £2, and even paying for Premier seats it only cost us £8 for all 3 of us (£2.40 x2 for us to see it, £1.60x2 for the seat upgrade). Cinema experience, fab animation at a fraction of the price.

This week its "The Tooth Fairy" starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

3. Build a Tent
I picked up a childrens tent last year in the sales and took it with us when we went to see the childrens Grandparents. It kept Zack happily busy as he tried to set it up, then he & Kai sat in it doing quiz books and colouring.

4. Old Toys / Toy swap
We were very lucky that one of my Moms neighbours had sorted out the toys at her house - from both her children & grandchildren, and brought them round. Now the kids have some new board games (Kai loves Mr Pop, and Zacks enjoying Kerplunk), jigsaws, among others.

I also popped into the roof to get the Technic lego of my brother given me for when the kids were old enough. And some of Zacks old Jigsaw like tracks for Kai. Now they both have "new" toys to enjoy.

I was thinking if theres friends with similar aged children, with toys their children are bored of they could do a toy swap, obviously the toys would have to be in good condition but it would save money & space, and keep the children entertained.

5.Cooking
Previously I've made Hot cookie dough with icecream, which everyone loves, but we've only got mint choc chip icecream in at the moment which I didnt think would go very well - so I came up with the idea of double choc chip hot cookie dough with mint choc chip icecream **wipes drool from chin** It was simple for the kids to make & though sickly if you ate to much it really was delicious. I shall post the recipe on Monday.

We also made flapjacks, nom nom.

So what have you done this week to keep the kids entertained?
If you've blogged about it why not put a link to your blog on Mr Linky below & give others some ideas.