School Holidays? Already!

Can you believe it's time for school holidays again! Where has the time flown this year? I'm about to embark on my first child free week as Mr PA takes Emily to Canberra to spend time with her cousins. I am both excited and nervous about how next week will pan out. Will I miss her like crazy and want to jump in the car and go get her? Or will I enjoy the full nights uninterrupted sleep that I've missed for the last three and a half years? I've already made lists of things I want to achieve while she's away....like get the sewing machine out, RUN EVERY DAY, eat healthy and at an adult time (not 5pm!). 

So what is everyone else doing for the holidays? I think one of the hardest things is keeping the kids occupied and using up some of their endless energy. And if it rains.....well you just don't want to think about that! 

I have a few holiday ideas for keeping the kids occupied and I thought I'd share them....

I found this at Vibrant Designs and thought it was brilliant! How many times do you here "Mum I'm bored" during the school holidays? Add a bunch of paddle pop sticks with different activities on them to an empty jar. Every time you hear that annoying sentence get them to pull one of the paddle pop sticks out of the jar and what ever activity is written on it is what they will do. Here are some examples:

Ride your bike

Pick up 10 things and put them away

Draw

Play hopscotch 

Have a tea party

Make a collage

Read a book

Clean two windows

Dance

Watch a movie

Play dress ups

Vacuum one room

Explore the garden

Play in the cubby house for one hour

Build a sandcastle

Make mud pies

Water the plants

Hide and seek

Elastics 

Do a puzzle

Make a kite and fly it

My list could go on and on but you get the idea... Just make sure you mix some housework up with the fun stuff!

Remember this? Daju is bringing back the fun with Elastics! They've been featured in so many blogs and magazines lately and they're really are fantastic to keep kids active and occupied. I remember when my sisters got sick of playing with me I'd attach mine around the bottom of some chair legs and do it by myself. You can get your own Daju Elastics here, complete with instructions and song list. 

Glottogon make an awesome range of puzzles and Emily can sit on the floor and play with hers for hours. We have a whole new range coming in for Christmas (which is less than 100 days away now!). My favorite is the Knights Big Puzzle which is so beautifully illustrated. Every time I look at it I find some new detail I never noticed before. It's a huge floor puzzle and a great way to encourage independent play. 

Last summer if I wanted to get some housework done, I would put Emily in her swimsuit and give her a bucket of water and a paint brush and tell her to paint the cement under our pergola. She would spend a good hour, sometimes two, painting that cement. Amazing! 

Lastly my theory with kids and keeping them occupied is that the more kids you have, the easier it is to occupy them. So pre-plan some independent play activities, invite some friends over and watch them go for it! As a bonus it probably means you can offload yours to those friends houses and get some valuable "me time". Win! 

Share your best holiday activities. What's your favorite thing to keep the kids busy? Is it so wrong to dump them in front of the TV every now and then?