For the school holidays
The Holiday Survival Kit
When 'I'm bored' strikes on day two, this is your rescue pack, dozens of low-prep, high-joy ideas plus a few sanity-savers for you.
Indoor adventures
- Build a blanket fort and read by torchlight
- Indoor treasure hunt with drawn clues
- Bake together, let them measure and mix
- DIY obstacle course with cushions
- Sock puppet theatre show
- Kitchen science: bicarb + vinegar volcanoes
Outdoor fun
- Nature scavenger hunt in the park
- Chalk hopscotch and mural on the path
- Puddle jumping (welly boots on!)
- Grow something from seed together
- Bug hunt with a magnifying glass
- Picnic, even in the back garden
Rainy day rescue
- Junk-model city from the recycling
- Home cinema with popcorn and tickets
- Board game tournament
- Bake-off with a silly judging panel
- Write and illustrate a tiny book
- Living-room camping with a story
Screen-free creativity
- Salt-dough ornaments to paint
- Start a holiday scrapbook
- Design a comic strip
- Make music with pots and pans
- Pressed-flower art
- Cardboard-box anything (car, rocket, den)
Ten-minute quick wins
- Freeze dance
- Would-you-rather questions
- Sorting games (buttons, socks, colours)
- Simon says
- Draw with eyes closed
- Balloon keepy-uppy
Sanity-savers for you, mama
- Lower the bar, a 'good enough' day is a win
- Rotate toys so old ones feel new again
- Build in one calm quiet-time block each day
- Say yes to help, and to easy dinners
- Screen time isn't failure, it's a tool
- Get outside daily, even for ten minutes