Holiday ideas from the Home and Kindergarten

Holiday Activities List.

 

Thank you to everyone who contributed their favourite activities for our bumper holiday activities list! 

 

The recent coffee session on ‘Play’ was also a great source of ideas and information about play. Our guest speaker, Calvin Mckechnie, from The Incredible Years parenting programme (coming to Geraldine later in 2013), talked to the attendee’s about the importance of quality play.

 

Spending some dedicated time each day playing with your child “helps to build a warm relationship and to create a bank of positive feelings and experiences that can be drawn upon in times of conflict.”(Webster- Stratton, C.) Calvin also reminded us that it is the process of play and not the product which is most important.

 

Play is one of the few areas in their lives where children have complete control and it is they who should lead the way.  Your role is to be an appreciative audience and give your child your complete attention – they will be delighted!

 

We hope you enjoy the holidays and find these ideas helpful:

 

·         Join pinterest.com – a website where you can collect and store things you love – for example find and store lots of play/craft/fun activities to use when you need inspiration

·         A walk in the park  - pick something that you can search for on the walk e.g. find a feather

·         Making forts using furniture round the house and blankets

·         Colouring in or painting – paint something for each other and present it

·         Baking (muffins, cookies, sweet pastries) – let the kids choose the flavours to go into the recipe, let them measure the ingredients and mix together, name the recipe after them going forwards e.g. Jimmy’s jammy muffins

·         Cycling

·         Torch adventures – close the curtains and let the kids loose with a torch

·         Scavenge fruit and nuts (apple trees on the side of the road, brambles at the reservoir etc.) and bake using the fruits of your adventures

·         Play in the park

·         Squishy bags – in a heavy duty plastic bag add hair gel or paste as well as food colouring/glitter. Seal with tape.  Supervise and let the kids enjoy the squishing!

·         Blow bubbles and let the kids chase them round the room trying to catch them

·         Put paint in a zip lock bag and tape to the table.  Let the kids move the paint around and make shapes and designs without the paint leaving the bag

 

 

 

·         Gardening – give them a task such as planting or weeding and issue the tools for the job.  Work alongside them and talk about what you are doing

·         Fill a tray with sand or saw dust and put cars or animal figures in it and let the kids explore

·         Play mini golf on the lawn

·         Play a game of bulrush

·         Carpet picnic on a rainy day

·         Bake potatoes on a bonfire

·         Matchbox rugby

·         Battleship islands

·         Bush walks at Peel Forest

·         Fish and chip supper at Waihi Gorge

·         Egg cartons – put marbles, cotton balls or stones in the grooves.  Use tongs to transfer and pick up (great for fine motor skills)

·         Throwing a Frisbee

·         Building huts in the bush or at the beach

·         Jumping off logs

·         Looking for wild kittens

·         Paper Mache

·         Gather up all the crunchy autumn leaves in the park and run through them, throw them, roll in them

·         Hide and Seek

·         Treasure hunt with a map to follow

·         Hopscotch

·         Collect something on a walk e.g. shells or pinecones and make a display when you get home

·         Make bird feeders using a pinecone, coat in peanut butter and roll in birdseed

·         Make masks and/or hats then dress-up and have a meal wearing the outfits.  Even better if the meal is the same theme as the outfits

·         Put on a play or skit for each other

·         Use chalk outside to draw all over the footpath, driveway etc. and let the art wash away with the rain

·         Get the kids to paint the outside of the house using paint brushes and water – hours of fun and no mess!

·         Act out a story e.g. ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’

·         Play shops – keep old cartons and use pretend money

·         Listen to an audio story – snuggle up under blankets and listen

·         Pretend to be animals or dinosaurs and crawl round the room

·         Make birthday cards for family members

·         Get your child to pick a story idea and some details and then make up a story in your head and tell it to them – great at bedtime

·         Use pillow cases as jumping sacks and have races

·         Play statues to music

·         Watching ‘You Tube’ together

·         Put a scarf in someone’s back pocket and then everyone chases them trying to get the scarf.  The person who gets the scarf becomes ‘it’.

·         Use bean bags as a base and jump onto them from the couch or some other place that isn’t too high – fun with a bit of risk and excitement involved

 

 

Proudly compiled by the Home and Kindergarten Committee for your holiday pleasure!