Mini-Fete
Organise a day to meet with other school chums and parents where each of you will be running your own stall. Stall ideas are: homemade cakes and buns; throw the beanbag the furthest and win a prize; drinks and cookie cutter sandwiches; pin the tail on the donkey; clothes, toys and books; homemade cards; guess how many sweets are in the jar.
Give the children a rug or table to show off their wares. The children will love getting organised for the day, setting up their table/rug and recruiting customers. Plus they will feel great when it is all over and they have earned a little money for the hols!
Category: Outdoor best but can be scaled down for inside if you have the room.
Do this at: Home or the
park Treasure Hunt and Map Making!
Get the children to draw a map of the garden including exciting names for various parts of it ie. The Snake Pit. Make small signs for these areas and put them in their place just before the hunt begins – even decorate the garden up a bit if you have time/resources.
Write down clues, which can be questions, riddles, puzzles, etc. and make the first clue give the location of the next and so on, eventually leading to a simple reward such as a book or very naughty – sweets!
To throw a little more excitement into the mix give the hunt a name/theme and ask all the participants to wear fancy dress.
Category: Outdoor best but can be scaled down for inside.
Do this at: Home or the
park or for a birthday party
Indoor Camping
Arrange chairs, furniture and blankets into a tent and let your imagination go wild - have picnics there, "explore" the rest of the house with binoculars, etc. Keep a torch for lights out and then let them sleep there overnight.
Category: Indoor.
Do this at: Home
Story Telling Tea Party
During the summer ask your children to write a short story. Then with a few friends organise a tea party with cookie cutter sandwiches, bite size sausage rolls, mini muffins and cup cakes, marsh mallow and fruit kebabs. Before and after the tea ask each child to read or tell their story to the group. Give a prize to the best one chosen by the children.
Category: Outdoor/Indoor.
Do this at: Home or on holiday, in the
park Summer Holidays Diary and Collection
At the beginning of the holidays supply your children with crayons and a scrap book. Ask them to write and illustrate a diary for the summer including a collection of ‘things’ they want to keep to remind them of their time. This is a great idea for repeating every year and brings much fun in later years reading them through.
Category: Outdoor/Indoor and on the move.
Do this at: Home and on holiday
Toy Box Swap Shop
Ask the children to sort out all their old (but in good condition) toys and books they no longer want or play with. You can do the same with their clothes. Get together with some friends one afternoon or morning in the garden. Let the children display their toys on a blanket like a shop window. Everyone one can then swap their toys so that for the summer holidays there are plenty of new things to play with. Whilst this is going on you can be sorting their new wardrobe.
Category: Outdoor best but can be scaled down for inside.
Do this at: Home or in the
park or community centre.
Style Child!
With all the make over programmes flooding our TV screens at the moment why not make a game of it for the children? Girls or boys they will love dressing up and showing off their new looks. Give the children a heap of dressing up clothes and accessories and then ask each of then to choose an outfit for the other and then style them. Afterwards have a catwalk fashion show to music and follow it up with dancing the morning or afternoon away! Don’t forget to take loads of pictures and if you only have 1 child get the grandparents round to be involved.
Category: Outdoor/Indoor.
Do this at: Home or on holiday with the whole family. You can buy some cheap accessories to liven it up.
Adults and children swap roles for the day!
Children in charge – mums and dads must do as they are told!
Category: Outdoor/Indoor.
Do this at: Home or on holiday – let the children decide where they will take you for the day – they have to pay though!
Summer Designs
Buy in a heap of card, crayons, glue, glitter, buttons, ribbon etc. and some cheap plain tee-shirts. Spend the day or longer making cards for all occasions and decorating and customising tee-shirts.
Category: Outdoor/Indoor.
Do this at: Home or on holiday
Mini-Olympics
This can be made into quite a grand affair depending on how many people are involved and how much organisation you can put into it. Whatever time you have it can be very simple if it has to be.
If you want a grand affair you can get the children working on it before the event which will take up a few days especially if the weather isn’t very good.
You can make: Olympic flags for all of the participants; customise tee-shirts; medals, choose music for the opening, medal giving and closing ceremonies, photo frames for pictures taken during the event.
Games
Pillow Case Race
Raid the airing cupboard for all your old pillow cases!
Backward Race
This is very easy for even the youngest children. Just walk fast backwards trying not to bump into each other to the finish line.
Blindfolded Three Legged Race
Another old time favourite with a twist, add in a blind fold. It might be worthwhile making this race shorter to reduce the risk of running into other couples.
Feather Race
With one shoe on and one sock off tuck a feather between two toes. The children must walk to the finish line without losing the feather, if they do they go back to the start and try again.
Wheelbarrow Race
A classic, good old fashioned race.
Hug-the-Balloon-Friend Relay
Place a balloon between two children's tummies, the children then need to hug each other tight and move sideways to the finish line without dropping the balloon.
The Egg Race Relay
Children will try to walk fast holding the egg in the spoon on to the finish line with the other arm behind their back. Place one child in the middle of the race line waiting. The children transfer the egg to his relay partner's spoon and go! Use wooden eggs or hard boiled – although of course regular eggs would be good messy fun!
Pebbles in the Bucket
Place pebbles in 4 positions up the race track. The participant then runs to the first pebble picks it up and runs back to the start line to place in the bucket. This continues until all 4 pebbles are in the bucket, the participant then runs all the way to the finish line with the pebbles and the bucket.
The Balloon Between the Knee Race
Inflate the balloon, but not too much so that it fits comfortably between the knees of the child. Have the children put the balloon between their knees and run or hop to the fish line – again this could be a relay race and even could be incorporated with the egg race as a version of the obstacle race.
Dress Up and Race
A version of the above except as the participants head down the track they have to put on the clothes they find on their way. Once they are fully dressed they continue on to the finish line. Use: hats, big flat shoes, large tee-shirts and aprons or similar.
Other stuff
For the medal ceremony play some music and choose a child who perhaps isn’t joining in the games to award the medals to the winners.
For the closing ceremony parade the children around the garden wearing their medals. Perhaps some of the children would like to perform a dance. Then all sit back and relax with some sandwiches, cakes and some cool drinks! Phew!
Category: Outdoor or in a community centre
Do this at: Home,
park or good for a birthday party