Originally posted at whipup.net on 4th of July

School holidays are soon to be upon us – or are already in some parts of the world – for me its winter and for others its summer. Whatever season though – if you have kids you will need to think of some activities to keep them occupied. Here are my top 10 activities for kids to do in the holidays. These are things that 6 year olds and up can do without a lot of supervision – although there will always be questions and chatter. And best of all these activities are bound to keep them occupied for longer than an hour.

1. Reading and drawing takes up a lot of my kids time and I like to enable this by providing interesting drawing materials – nice pencils, fancy crayons, and lovely books.

2. I love sewing and usually my kids like to have a go if they think it looks fun – my daughter especially is into making her own clothes and with my recent sewing machine acquisition I was able to pass on my old machine to her. Why not let your kids experiment with making some costumes or dressing up the family cat.

3. Felting is another fun family craft – we went through a bit of a felting craze for a while – and the kids loved it – why not let them try needle felting or making some simple felt balls even felted soap – such a lot of messy clean fun.

4. Playing shop is a major favourite activity in our house – give them some materials to really make it authentic. Collect empty food packaging, cardboard boxes – they can even make their own currency.

5. puppets, masks and other dressup / theatrical opportunities can last all day. My kids are now directing their own movies using the digital camera. Hilarious.

6. Playdough has always been popular in our house – we make it ourselves and playing with warm fresh playdough is so tactile and nice. We have graduated slightly from this and now the kids beg me to let them play with real dough so they can bake funny shaped cookies and then eat them.

7. Paper crafts are also popular – give kids some recycled paper, scissors and glue and just sit back and watch. If you want to direct them or give them some creative ideas – try making flowers, boats, paper dolls and a doll house to go with.

8. The shower curtain playmat is a great idea – we do a papier mache version – making cubby houses and pretend houses – whatever your skill level as a parent – getting your kids to use their imagination and crafty skills will keep them happily busy for hours -

9. A yarn craze has entered our house – with competitions running for the longest finger knitting. We are doing 1 finger knitting, whole hand finger knitting, French knitting and are about to move onto bigger loom knitting projects.

10. Getting outdoors – this is a must no matter what the whether. Collecting leaves, stones and bits of bark to make things with later – try rock painting, bark boats and nature collage. So many possibilities.