Wet Feb half term activities

A couple of items to add to the imaginative play list
Masking tape or insulation tape to mark out road or rail lines on the floor or carpet.
Thin head scarves I bought a cheap set of plain coloured ones years ago (and my grandson still plays with them) for dressing up, covering or wrapping up toys or juggling with. This is how circus people train jugglers as the scarf moves slowly and can be easily caught.
A ball or balloons have endless possibilities.
As someone else suggested sorting out drawers/ button boxes or any old collection of junk is always fascinating to children failing that old photographs.
Water and a paintbrush to paint on walls outside if the weather permits.
Look on Pinterest for an endless supply of ideas.

NotAGran55

So many great ideas here but no sign of the OP returning?

She's probably too busy doing all the enjoyable things with her DGC which were suggested on here!

It's not half-term here although they keep announcing on the TV that it is half-term this week in England and Wales.

I’ve got grandchildren from 4 to 11. Plan to put wellies, wet weather gear on and go out and enjoy the rain. The eldest loves the feeling rain on her face, always has. Have plenty of things to do inside, usually the g children will have my & dw day planned

Easter bonnets?

So many great ideas here but no sign of the OP returning?

Before my youngest Gd started school, she loved to play birthday parties. We'd make a 'birthday card' from a sheet of printer paper with a drawing on the front and a greeting inside. She'd get one of her toys to wrap in plain paper as a present, then another toy wrapped in layers of newspaper for 'pass the parcel'. We'd lay out a few chairs to play musical chairs (or musical bumps if I had the energy to get up and down from the floor), just the 2 of us with me turning the music up and down on the cd player. Then it was pass the parcel with music on cd and then we'd dance and play with any balloons that were regularly lying around. Great fun and totally exhausting so she'd then sit quietly watching a dvd while I had a very welcome cuppa.

When my granddaughter was about 20 months we put cushions on the floor to make seats of a train eg in a line, one behind the other with a gap between. Then we sat dolls, teddy bears on the cushions as well as one for each of ourselves and off we went on our train to the sea-side. When we got there after lots of “ Choo, Choo’s I had a striped beach towel which we spread out were the cushions had been. We “pretend” splashed in the sea, made sandcastles etc. Then had picnic lunch - real food and juice. Packed away the towel, put the cushions back down and set off for home. Then we had a quite time, story book and a nap.
To my utmost amazement my granddaughter gleefully informed her Dad, when he picked her up, “We’ve been to the seaside.” Such is a child’s imagination. Her father really thought we’d been on a trip and I had to quietly let on to him. I used to love those days looking after the little ones. They can teach us so much - simple imaginative games with no cost whatsoever.
Happy holidays

Baking, hand painting, origami, knitting, crochet, hunt the thimble, hangman, board games, walking in the rain!

Kids do love being outdoors in the rain. When my grandson was small we used to get wrapped up and wellies on and find puddles to splash in we both loved every minute and it's memories to treasure. Then back for hot chocolate with squirty cream and loads of different bits to decorate it. Baking cakes or decorating store bought fairy cakes. We play a game with a strip of paper. You both draw a head but don't let the other see it. Then fold the head over so you can't see pass it to the other person then do the body fold it over again pass it to the other person then do the legs then open it up and see what weird picture you come up with. Or pick a letter and see how many things you can eat drink or wear begining with that letter. Titles for each lists underneath. All done separately to see who gets longest lists.

Picnic on a rug on the carpet indoors.
Baking cakes, biscuits etc depending on the ages to eat at the above picnic
Making play dough , loads of recipes online
Games
Jigsaws
Loads of films appropriate for age
Making musical instruments out of jars, toilet rolls, milk cartons etc

Our grand children always liked painting stones with acrylic paints. It doesn't need much artistic skill as simple stripes or polka dots can be effective. Simple origami is also interesting.

Hi. A lot depends on how old they are and how often you see them. We see our 2 ( ages 3 and 6) a few times a week. Also on their genders and how much money you have to spend. Because we see a lot of ours and because we know there are more to follow, we have bought over time toys that will last and keep them occupied.
. A box of Playmobile keeps them entertained for hours. We add to it whenever they come to stay and even have some that belonged to our AC when they were little. Our DGC like the animal and zoo themed ones best.
We have also discovered Bigjig toys. Lots of the old classics, but beautifully made. Snakes and ladders and Shut the Box are favourites. As well as big solid jigsaws.
Orchard Toys make lots of small, simple games. Ideal for younger ones.
Try the "You Choose" books. We sit and talk about these for hours. Discussing what our choices would be.
And don't feel you can't let them sit and watch the tele for a while. You will need some peace and quiet, and they don't want to be overloaded with activities. Try some of the old Disney films. They may not be as sophisticated as the new ones, but they are less frenetic and calmer and the GC may not have seen them. We actually rediscovered Swiss Family Robinson last week and my GD loves it!
And if you do decide to go out, check your local library. They may well have a morning of activities.
Wishing you good luck. We have just survived having ours for a week while their parents celebrated a special birthday by going to Iceland. So I think the other GPs are helping out at half term.
Oh! Don't forget to treat yourselves at the end of the week. You will have earned it!

Give them a couple of £ to spend in charity shop on a book or ghastly toy of their choice. Take back to charity shop when they’ve gone.
Roll of wallpaper - get child to lie down and draw round outline of child. Then they paint or colour in their “self portrait”, hang up with masking tape and take a pic of child next to their picture.
Big cardboard boxes have a multitude of possibilities - make a house/ shop/ train / bus etc can take all day.

Kim's game is good.
An indoor scavenger hunt as suggested by Hobbycraft.
Both can be adapted to suit ages of children.

My littler gc love being £2 or £3 each and choosing something in Poundland..............then we go home and get busy with bubbles or making things with what they've bought. The greatest success I had with gc was giving them a packet or 2 or googly eyes, and some blutak (again from Poundland) and letting them loose in the kitchen. The whole of my kitchen is now covered in pairs of googly eyes from quite a few months ago..............!! the blu tak can be used to make a mouth or some ears if needed...........

More difficult with young teens , who, given the choice, would stay on their screens all day. I'm going to make a skirt or pyjama bottoms with my 12 and 14 year old Gds this week, go to a wacky art gallery which has some rather strange exhibits, visit a small museum and do a shopping trip. One of them confessed to not knowing how to make tea, so that is on. my list too.

Wet days on holiday in the caravan my kids did things with pencils and paper. Colouring books, drawing, noughts and crosses, battleships, etc. I guess that today’s children are more sophicated.

A lot of great ideas, here’s a few more suggestions that go down well with my younger GC
Making Pom Pom animals, Easter chicks & rabbits are easy, just an odd ball of yellow or grey wool and a bit of cardboard.
A trip to the library
Making cookies with them in various shapes or pancakes with lots of different toppings.
A potatoe head with a real spud.
A cinema afternoon at home with popcorn and a few sweets
Dominoes always goes down well and helps them with numbers.
Board games, I picked a Don't Wake Dad game up in a charity shop, like new & it went down well & you can re-donate games when they’re fed up of them.
Snap & Pairs card games
Hide & Seek
If the weathers ok a walk, maybe collect some cones or catkins.
Get an old roll of wallpaper and some big wax crayons, roll it out (plain side up of course) & let them draw on that.

Kim19 don’t forget the sticky back plastic!

My grandson is 3 1/2 loves being outdoors but also loves arts and crafts. I play in the garden with him with waterproof snow suit and wellys on, even if it's raining. Then indoors, cup of tea(which we both love) and do some crafts, making things and painting. Loads of cheap things in The Works. I also make a den over 1 side of settee with blankets. We sit in there reading together. Doesn't cost much but you all enjoy yourselves and its great fun. It's precious quality time together. Enjoy lovely lady x

For toddlers:

Making musical instruments:
Shakers: Empty yogurt pots, dried beans/peas and large paper circles to cover the top. Use sellotape or elastic bands to keep the paper in place. Paper can be coloured before being used.

Guitar: long empty tissue box, kitchen roll cardboard insert, elastic bands, sellotape. Elastic bands will ‘pling’ over the hole of the hollow box and produce lots of sounds.

Drums: different sized plastic bowls, cover the same way as the shakers, or just turn upside down. Hard plastic or wooden spoons for drumsticks.

Bug Hunt - after it’s rained is good - if you can’t collect, take photos, talk about the bugs and take the photos home to look at then draw pictures of what they saw. Include the Nature Hunt on the same walk.

Nature Hunt - go out and collect twigs, leaves, cones, feathers (wash them at home) etc for making nature pictures - add pasta/dried peas/beans/lentils,

Chunky Chalks for the garden - washes away easily after.

Junk Modelling - lots of empty boxes, paper, tubes, string, sellotape (glue if you dare!) crayons or pencils to colour.

Play dough - microwave recipe is great and will last the week if kept wrapped in the fridge. Pastry cutters, small plastic bowls, empty tubes, hard plastic cutlery for cutting and crimping the dough.

Home Corner - set up a little kitchen with plastic items and provide a washing up bowl, sponges and towels, and a little bit of water with bubbles to do the ‘washing up’ or dolly bath time. Pop aprons on, sleeves up and put a mat down to catch the water drips.

Cut triangles of thick paper/card or material, to make bunting. Use zigzag scissors for the edges, and colour with pens/crayons/paints, or stick on scraps of material. Add string to hang them up then save until the next time they come to re-hang them.

Paper Puppets - cut a basic puppet out (shape around handprints) and glue or tape two pieces together. Use a little pva glue and some buttons, wool, string, felt scraps, ribbon, etc to decorate. If you’re ok at sewing, sew cloth puppets. Make puppets for a story the child knows and put on a puppet show.

Painted peacock - lots of painted (or crayon) handprints in different colours. Adults and children’s. Cut out a basic shape of a peacocks body and two legs. Colour and put on the wall. Cut out the handprints and add them to make the feathers of the peacock.

Lots of things to do with toddlers, these came from years of being a playgroup/pre-school owner - but bare in mind things could get (very!) messy. But a little mess and disorder is nothing compared to lots of happy memories ?

Remember to take random photos in between times to look back on and to show Mum and Dad.

I recently showed my 10 and 7 year old GC Clock Patience, can be played together or alone.

Lots of great suggestions here, especially for the younger ones. But if they're a bit older (7 and above) why not let them do some jobs around the house for you; cooking, cleaning, tidying or decorating perhaps. On one of their visits two of our GC cleaned the skirtings for me (I find it difficult to kneel to do them), we made it a competition and the one to finish first got a treat. They have since asked to do it again!

My GD (then 10) papered two walls for me (with a little tuition and help), she now knows how to measure accurately, climb ladders safely and hang wallpaper properly, and she thoroughly enjoyed herself. The next time she came she pointed to the wall and told her cousin "I did that and it's still there." I might never be able to change the paper now!

Tidying drawers and cupboards could be another option, or sewing seeds in trays for the summer. Or face painting - that includes you too! - older kids are often very good at it. Just remember you're wearing it before you pop out to the shops, I speak from experience.

Children often remember these 'different' activities with their GPs far better than expensive shop bought games etc.

Whatever you do have fun!

When my sons were about 6 and 8 we spent Feb half term making a paper mache Tracey Island as per Blue Peter. Only cost was a few paint tester pots, making and subsequently playing with it kept them occupied for hours. In years following we made a Bat Cave, Ghost Busters headquarters etc. We also had indoor picnics with food they put together or baked (supervised by me) themselves and eaten sitting on a blanket on the floor. They are now 34 and 36 but still talk fondly of those days

quickly quickly ring round friends and call at places like phone shops or carpet shops and beg lots of bubble wrap. collect it all together. So the idea is firstly do potato printing. .
1. a largish potato for each child
2. You cut the potato in half (no cut hands or fingers)
3. have some pots of guache - powder paint. just the three basic colours
4. Show them yourself how you can make two sorts of patterns. hold an object - say small dinky car, pressed firmly into the potato. use whatever safest so small knife, sharipsh edged spoon , icecream scoop, soup spoon, Use these to scrape potato away from the car, so you then the car off carefully and you should have a car shape standing proud of the rest of the potato. In the other half you could either get a piece of paper first, fold it in half and half again. Cut a shape from the centre- open the paper out and you will have a pattern. If you dont like it do another one. Can use newspaper, old envelopes etc for this. Place the pattern onto the half cut potato and pin with either cocktail sticks , earbud sticks , lolly sticks. Then carefully scoop OUT the pattern. Now each child has two different patterns each.
The next thing is where they should be enveloped in aprons or easier is to wear very old t shirt and shorts that dont matter. Put cover over the floor . whatever you use put old newspaper down to soak up spills, so dont dump all the papers in the recycling bag this week.

Then I find it is better and saves arguements that I make up the original colours in the guache and they have old dishes or bowls or saucers, old china is best as it is heavy enough not to tip up easily , but older children could use old tinfoil containers from takeaway stuff as they can just be thrown away after the have finished. Be quite strict in that you are the only one allowed to pour paint into each childs pans. This way you can be sure that the colours do not get mixed up and spoiled. Then if there is any spillage or the colours get very muddied you can throw those away and begin again with new colours. Use heavy bottomed mugs or vases for the clean water for them to rinse the brushes out and keep those changed so that it keeps them going longer.
Then they each have quite a big bit of cartridge paper and they then dip the potatos into the colour and then print onto the cartridge paper. Use some rough newspaper or whatever to try it first. They soon learn about the idea of matching up or making a diagonal pattern with the own designs. If they use one pattern firsr and that is allowed to dry then the second pattern can be used separately or to be printed on top of the first one. You can either just let if be freestyle or older children quite like the idea of suggestion what kind of pattern would you like in your room - the loo or whatever. I once did this with a class of junior children and one child cut out rather a good shape of a lavatory and was able to print that on top of the first pattern, (I actually thought it was so good he should have sent it to the wallpaper people for that little outside loo, or downstairs cloak room!. If they choose to they can then mix and match their patterns , swapping one of someone elses and see what different things they can make. There is also showing them the difference when the pattern is held sideways or upside down and gets them to see there is more than one way of looking at something. I find all ages can enjoy doing this in different ways and am sure that the toddler will also enjoy having a go. You will have a wide variety of end results and everyone can have something to take home and show mum and tad. This is always a good fall back on wet days so you could have a themed thing, so perhaps you will make parking for bonfire night and they can make patterns they would like to see in fireworks etc.
So if they are in the right mood this can last quite a long time but it does take quite a bit of concentration and they need to let off steam. So this is where the bubble wrap comes in. So choose the most appropriate room to use , if it wet, if you are lucky and it is dry and you have an old paddling pool or perhaps you have a garden on two levels. So choose the best place, clear away breakables and keep it free to get to, then chuck all the bubble wrap into the container. Check for safety and then if you have a small, pair of steps or a little footstool , place them near the pool. Then either just a free for all where the children stand on the steps and leap into the bubble wrap making satisfactory bangs. Alternatively if you have time before hand to make a little quiz about your house so which room is the old landline telephone. Correct answers give you the right to a leap into the bubble wrap, rather like a soft play centre thing. This can be handed over to the oldest child to run and give you a chance to sit and watch or do something that you need to do without an audience. They want to answer the earliest questions as there is more bubble wrap in to make more noise at first (if you are lucky enough to have loads you can refill it after a while) Hope these might be of use and give them a chance at something simple but enjoyable.

Wet weather welly walk. Torch walks in the evening. Look and listen walks.
Indoors. Bake, cutting and crafting painting, board games, love the treasure hunt idea, Making up stories. Good old favorites like pick a rain drop on the window and see whose wins the race to the bottom of the window. Sit and chatter, Endless possibilities rain or shine. But what we like best is snuggles with the children while we all have quiet time. Bliss.