Summer Holidays Week 1 & 2

The first couple of weeks into the summer hols are usually fairly quiet. Its spent rediscovering toys at the back of draws, at the bottom of tubs and reclaimed from the shed. This way Zack (12) and Kai (4) can normally keep themselves entertained. Of course for something a bit different I'll make a suggestion or grab something from my holiday stock pile to help them out. So what have we been upto?

The first few days of the holiday were spent visiting the grandparents. While at my moms I was helping sort some of our old toys out and decided to take my old My Little Ponies home to alter. They havent reached that point yet as Kai has taken a liking to them.

Kai gave them a bath...

...& drew them....

Before playing with them. So with finding my old toys out we have had 3 activities, washing them, drawing them & playing with them.

I told Zack I wanted him cooking a lunch, tea, & snack/dessert once a week (I think its very important for children to learn how to cook) so a couple of hours were spent scouring through my cook books & typed up recipes looking for ideas.

He has so far made Wesh Rarebit, prawn toast and both children have helped add topping onto a pizza.

One of the favourite "toys" of the fortnight has been playdough. I shall be posting a link to the recipe late today but it truely is fab stuff ... just like the bought stuff. Both children have played with it and a range of cookie cutters, rolling pins and other items to make imprints. Everything I needed to make it was already in the kitchen, and it took a mere 10minutes to make 4 balls, red, blue, green and yellow.

Homemade skittles! I saw this idea on pinterest so started saving up bottles. Due to having a smallish garden I opted for the smaller drinks bottles, peeled the labels off and swilled them out. When we had 12 I filled them all with water, then add red food colouring to 6, & green to the other 6.

I gave Kai a football and set him up with a set.

Over the other side of the garden I gave Zack a tennis ball to make it harder for him. He opted for a throwing motion to knock them down. They have tried this with them altogether and in placing them in different patterns.

My SIL kindly took us upto Carding Mill valley, I recommend taking the kids upto a stream on a warm day for a picnic (you can read more about it HERE)

A lot of shops are selling off their summer stock already at reduced prices. I bought this sandpit for £7.50p (was £15), and a few toys to go in it for £2.20p - I have since seen it sold with toys for £20 :-O
Kai bought himself a simple plastic golf set in a caddy for £2.50p

The sandpit took less than 1 bag of sand, and being spilt in 2 means there are less "he's got my bit of sand" arguements.

I know a lot of people out there arent keen on kids spending time on video games but I think as long as the amount of time they are on them is controlled then they can have a positive effect - obviously games should be age appropriate. It can help with their hand to eye skills, working out strategys, & working as a team.

My two had fun playing on Mario Karts, a firm favourite in this house.

I had previously thought there werent any cheap, local clubs this year for Zack to attend that would appeal to him, they were either sports he didnt enjoy or too young for him .... until my brother invited him to join his son at a Karate club near my Moms. So twice a week Zack is going to Karate. I've read him the riot act that if he uses it against ANYONE except in class then its over, but I think he's mature enough to use it wisely.

Check back later when I will be picking a few items on my long holiday list to explain a bit more &/or leave links to recipes.

How has your summer holiday been going? Been upto anything fun? Leave me a comment telling me all about it, or if you've blogged about it leave a link, I'd love to hear from you.