WITH just a few weeks of the summer holidays left, and the back to school timetable still uncertain, we are all still looking for ways to keep the little ones entertained
Norland Nanny and maternity nurse Louenna Hood (www.nannylouenna.com) , has shared some of her top tips with Good News Liverpool readers.
Indoor play:
- All About Me booklet – you can download this from my app for children to fill out. Save one every year, they’re nice to look back on and see how your child’s writing and drawing skills have improved. It’s also interesting to see how their likes and ambitions change over the years.
- Foam play (shaving foam!)
- Ice Excavation – freeze some treasures or small toys overnight in a silicone bowl or in big ice cube trays and ask your child to rescue them! Use warm pipettes, spoons to dig and salt to see if it helps the ice to melt.
- Make a bank – Recycle a cardboard box to make a bank. Use real money and ask your children for change or to swap £1 for 10ps – it’s all fun play and they are learning their maths at home too!
Outdoor play:
- Hide and seek
- Mud pies – all you need is soil, a few buckets, spoons and water – let you children get muddy and not worry about the mess!
- Make a bird feeder
- Shadow drawing
- Rock painting
- Press flowers
- Nature box – make a personalised box for your child from an egg box. Let them take it in to the garden to collect flowers and treasures. Talk about the colours, smells and names of each thing they find.
Local area activities:
- Feed the ducks
- Picnic in the park
- Visit the Library
- Pick blackberries
- The National Trust – they’ve got some amazing places to visit with children, often with adventure playgrounds, lots of outdoor space to run around and always some interesting history facts to learn.
Tips for car journeys:
If you venture on a long journey, here are my survival tips to make sure it doesn’t drive you to distraction!
- Plan journeys around nap times. I always try to leave on a long journey just before babies and toddlers are due to have their afternoon nap.
- Don’t leave in rush hour traffic – it’s better to wait. Babies especially love the motion of the car, so it’s better to leave when you can hopefully keep moving. Sometimes having tea and bathtime and getting in PJs and then leaving home is a good way of having a quiet journey as everyone will sleep.
- Put a pull up nappy on toddlers who are newly potty trained. Their bladders are still small and they often don’t give you much warning if you need to stop.
- Sing songs, play games like I Spy and spot the yellow / green / red car
- Point things out to children on the way so it makes them engage, look out the window and encourage them to search for things themselves. For example, ‘can you see the tractor?’ or ‘look at that big lorry’
- Take children’s shoes off so they are comfortable but ensure they wear socks to stay cosy.
- Discourage them from reading or looking down, particularly on winding roads.
- Take some chopped up snacks
Credit: The Nanny Louenna app is available to download from the App Store and Google Play with subscriptions starting from £4.99 a month