As the summer holidays draw to a close, you might be running out of ways to entertain the kids. I normally use up all my ideas over the summer, then I’m clutching at straws until they get some new toys at Christmas!
I spent a while wracking my brains for some creative ideas, so I thought I’d share with you the unusual ways to entertain kids that I came up with. I guarantee you won’t have thought of some of these!
5 Unusual Ways to Entertain Kids
1. A driving experience
You might not know this, but if you’ve got a child aged 11-17, they’re old enough to drive a full-size fancy car! If you take your child for a junior driving experience, expect squeals of glee as your child gets the chance to drive a dual controlled dream car of their choice with an instructor by their side. I’d have absolutely loved this when I was younger (actually, I’d love it nowadays if I got the chance). Definitely an experience to remember!
2. Climb a Mountain
Don’t worry, I’m not suggesting you attempt Kilimanjaro with your little ones in tow, but mountain climbing can be fun with kids. There are some relatively child-friendly mountains about, the favourite being Mount Snowdon in Wales. I’ve not yet taken my family, but it’s on the to-do list and I hear it takes a bit of patience, and a lot of snacks. Swot up on mountain safety before you set off and check the weather predictions too!
3. Paint a mural
Stick (preferably with Blu-Tack) plain white lining wallpaper to a wall in your house and put some old sheets down on the floor. Plan the mural with your children, help them sketch out the design directly onto the covered wall, and use water soluble poster paints to fill in the pencil lines and colour the mural. This is great creative outlet for your children and a task that will likely take up a good chunk of the day (which makes it a total winner in my book).
4. A Working Farm Holiday
This is more of an ‘unusual holiday’ rather than a ‘thinking outside the box for entertainment’ kinda thing, but I think it falls into both categories. There are loads of child-friendly working farm holiday locations around the UK, and it’s likely to be something the kids will remember fondly for years. Your children will love to sleep in a cosy, converted barn for the night and help the farmer with his daily tasks in the morning. They’ll usually go around the farm with the farmer, collecting eggs, feeding animals and helping to milk the cows.
5. Write and perform a short film
Let your children tell a story by acting it out. Sit with them while they plan the scenes and help them get props and costumes changes ready. Smartphones have great video cameras now, so use your phone to be the camera-person, and get a free editing app to put it all together. Once it’s finished, use your phone to cast the short film to your TV, so the kids can enjoy it like a real movie. It’ll be lovely for the family to look back on in years to come!
Can you think of any other unusual ways to entertain a young family? I bet some of these suggestions hadn’t occurred to you!
make an animated film with plasticine
I do lots of arts and crafts with my children – one activity we love is to paint and varnish pebbles and stones we find on our local beach. They make great paper weight pressies for family members/teachers at Chrstmas!
we have been know to get out the dressing-up box and and do impersonations of friends, neighbours and TV people.
We use some recycling to see what we can create it helps a few hours go by
Oh my, what a great idea! I just battle through the recycling on my own. Two birds, one stone with that one!
We decorate Rich Tea biscuits with icing sugar, hundreds and thousands that type of thing, they think they are cooking and then they eat them
Go to the beach and collect shells, driftwood and pebbles and make pebble pictures. There are loads of ideas online.
Any thing to do with dressing up ! We like writing our own stories and bringing them to life
The rels love when we perform the final scenes
Making art out of feathers, stones & leaves
Gosh, those are really good ideas. We have a stables near us and I wonder if I could ask them if they could give the children a lesson on horse care followed by a ride.
Getting your children to recreate old photos could be fun. They could dress up as other family members or as themselves as a baby to Create copycat scenes. It’s fun and often hilarious!
Recreating family photos from the past is fun and often hilarious
I find that learning about wildlife & then reacting how your fave animal acts is a fun & educational way
It will be gardening with everyone having his own little plot and look after plants, fruits and vegetables. Love it as it teaches patience and care.
Our local national park do organised welly walks and also a pumpkin trail for Halloween which is good fun x
Playing skittles with plastic cups a rolled up paper
My son has enjoyed decorating different pebbles/rocks and hiding them for friends at school to find and vice versa. Loves finding one and hiding somewhere else again
we play x factor, or a fashion parade
I get them to help with the cleaning, in a fun way I’ll make a game up “who can pick up the toys the quickest” or something along those lines. There is not a more important life skill than learning to clean! Haha x
We love going out with the camera and let them be in charge of the camera and their photographs. We make colleges of their photos … They have got really in to it now and the designing of it. Really pleased they enjoy it..
We often go on walks where they make journey sticks. It involves finding things along the way and sticking them to sticks so we can recall our journey.