I took last Friday off to spend the day with my little boy Kian, I had the day planned out we’d go to the park, slide down the slide 100 times, play in the garden with the dog, water the flowers and generally have an outdoorsy day.  Last week Monday through to Thursday was 75 plus degrees and blistering sunshine, however, the gods clearly anticipated my plans and when I was ‘gently’ woken at 6.30am by the musical tones of my 18month old I looked out the window to what I can only describe as ‘the end of the world’ weather, rain, thunder, lightening, we were just missing a plague of locust to round it off! So desperately I was wondering what do you do with ‘my heir to the empire’ when it’s pouring down outside? There’s only so many chocolate rice crispy cupcakes you can make before you feel like pulling your hair out!

 

Well I’ve done a little bit of searching around and realized that there are plenty of ways to keep children occupied and happy that don’t involve the TV, computer or loads of money. The main tip I keep reading is to ‘be creative and go against the grain’ so here’s a few ideas I’ve collected to help hectic mums out!

 

 

Camping in the great indoors

 

Who says tents have to be pitched outside? I know I’d rather have the kids safe inside than watching them being washed away in the rain outside! So the next step is to buy a cheap pop-up tent (which can be reused time and time again) or opt for the draping-the-bed-sheets-over-the-sofa technique to save the cash! Make them comfy inside with cushions, sleeping bags and airbeds and then follow through the whole outdoors theme with torches, not too scary ghost stories and a midnight feast to be eaten in the tent.

 

 

Go to the movies

 

Well not completely, but as taking the whole family to the cinema these days costs a small fortune I’ve thought of a much cheaper way to create the ambience without the expense. Get the children to draw a poster with the film you are going to watch on it with a time and place (i.e. the living room!) for all the family and friends to gather round. Make snacks such as popcorn, hotdogs and brownies, darken the room, get the children to use torches to show people to their seats and then let the show begin.

 

 

Playing dress up

 

Now I don’t know about you but when I was younger I absolutely loved playing dress up in my mums clothes - so much so that my mum had to create a dressing up box of her old clothes for me and my friends to raid whenever we wanted.

So let the kids raid your wardrobe, drawers and linen-cupboard (or maybe do a spring clean and find some old pieces you don’t wear anymore) and then go to town with make-up and accessories, hats, scarves, gloves and glasses. You can give them a theme, or let their imagination run wild. Once they are in character, encourage them to make up a play and film the results - perfect for the family album!

 

 

The perfect picture

 

My last idea is to lie each child down on a huge piece of paper (a large roll of art paper or the back of a spare roll of wallpaper) and draw around them.

Then, using all the fabric offcuts, paint, stray bits of wallpaper, wool, shiny sweet-wrappers, glue and creativity that you can muster, fill in the clothes, hair and face. This occupies them for ages, is deeply satisfying and looks fab as a wall display for their bedrooms.