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1. Penny Toss

Provide pennies and bowls, mark a shooting spot on the grass, every penny in the pot wins a prize. [from Having Fun with Kids by Marilee LeBon]

2. Penny a Weed

We did something similar with snails when I was younger! Two pence for a snail though, it’s a dirty job.

3. Peanut Hunt

Buy a pack of monkey nuts, mark some ‘winning’ nuts, and then hide all the nuts. Give prizes to any kids who find winning nuts. [from Having Fun with Kids by Marilee LeBon]

4. Home-made Skittles

5. Face Painting

6. Bingo

7. Happy Sun Craft Project (Easy)

8. Short Tennis

You can buy children’s sets relatively cheaply. Get set up with some strawberries and cream and pretend you’re at Wimbledon.

9. Ripped Newspaper Art Project

10. Bike Rides

Pack a picnic and make it an all day outing.

11. Build Sandcastles

In a sandpit or on a beach, make flags from paper and straws for the top.

12. Make Homemade Birthday Cards

Most superstores have pre-packed sets for a few pounds/dollars, which usually include card, glue, stickers and glitter.

13. Make Chocolate Fondue

14. Day Camp

Set up a tent and provide picnic food, and have a day camp in the back garden

15. Karaoke Competition

Hold a karaoke competition, or go one further and host a ’stars in their eyes’ final with all the kids imitating pop stars.

16. Blind Taste Test

Blindfold each child in turn and provide a few different foodstuffs, mark down which ones they get right. Provide a small prize for the winner.

17. Play Hide and Seek

18. Ice Cream Picture Activity

19. Egg and Spoon Races

Use the plastic eggs from the toy kitchen, if you have one.

20. Visit a Science Museum

21. Put on a Play

Provide a good story book and get the children to choose parts and act it out.

22. Read-athon

Hold a read-a-thon, see how many books they can read in an alotted time.

23. Play Marble Mania

24. Backyard Cookery Class

Hold a cookery class in your own back garden. Tailor recipes to the appropriate age, but perhaps homemade pizzas, fruit kebabs and fairy cakes would be a good place to start.

25. Visit a Farmers Market

Pick ingredients and make a homemade soup or ratatouille.

26. Sponge Painting

Provide a length of plain wallpaper, some sponges and some paint. Hey presto!

27. Sand Art

28. Colour-in Printouts

There are various sites to get print-outs, just search in google.

29. Stencilling with Doilies


30. Visit the Library

Try and arrange to go during story-telling time.

31. Model with Play-dough

32. Go Swimming

33. Make Chocolate Krispie Cakes

34. Build an Obstacle Course

Build an obstacle course in the back garden and time each other. Use and play equipment you have, ie tubes, climbing frame, bikes, hula hoops, skipping ropes with household items like sheets as scramble nets.

35. Chalk Drawing

Use white chalk on black paper, or the patio as a canvas!

36. Go Bark Rubbing

37. Build Cardboard Robots

38. Jigsaw Puzzles

Do jigsaw puzzles and then try and make your own from card.

39. Water Play

Fill water balloons and pistols for older kids.

40. Make Homemade Musical Instruments

41. Sticker Picture

Provide stickers and plain card, it’s that easy!

42. Make Sock Puppets

43. Fondant Icing Characters

Provide a few different colours of fondant icing (colour with food colouring) and let your children make animals and characters from cartoons.

44. Start a Herb Garden

45. Listen to a Story CD

You can usually borrow these from the library.

46. Make Painted Pasta Jewellery

47. Make an Alphabet Scrapbook

Use a page for each letter and find magazine cut outs of the letter to stick in, great activity for preschoolers.

48. Play Card Games

Uno, snap and pairs can provide a couple of hours of fun.

49. Photography

Buy them a disposable camera to practice taking photos of wildlife and scenery.

50. Summer Scrapbook

Make a scrapbook with photos, pictures and comments on everything you’ve done over the holidays.

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Feeling much better now, thank you for the well wishes. It’s about time we had some news from elsewhere…

Education Junction has a great post within their Science Saturday feature - Distilling Water

If your flirting with the idea of homeschooling Earnest Parenting’s How To Start Homeschooling should help make sense of things.

A two children only limit could be controversial, and in practical terms couldn’t be enforced anyway.

The cost of entertaining children over the summer is now £741 on average. Take advantage of my list of 15 Free Summer Activities

Don’t forget to join the new blog ring if you are a British Parent Blogger

Littlemummy Retro: More summer inspiration in How to Live Like a Tourist

Calling all British Parent Bloggers

I have set up a blog ring. This is a chance for readers to find other british based bloggers, for us to find more like minded people and increase our community. The only criteria for joining is that you are;

a) Blogging regularly on a topic that relates to parenting (others will be accepted on a case by case basis, ie splogs and spammers need not apply)

b) A Parent

c) Living in Britain

d) You must display the blog ring HTML on your site. To see what it looks like, scroll down and look under buttons & awards in the sidebar. If you need help with adding the HTML I’m happy to assist.

If you would like to join:

NOTE: We’re having issues with the HTML breaking people’s sites in Internet Explorer (including this one!) - so in the meantime, email me directly - we’ll have new code available soon.

Having worked as a nursery assistant for a brief spell before having Erin, I have been fortunate to see ‘the other side’ of the care provided. Don’t panic, I have no horror stories, if you choose with your instinct you are 99.99% likely to choose an excellent nursery with caring staff. Your nursery will accomodate you as much as possible, here’s a few tips for how you can help them.

1. Do not send your child with any other clothing than that you are happy to get marked

It’s astounding the amount of parents that will send children in beautiful outfits only to have them ruined. Nursery is a messy business, play-dough, paint, glue, sand. Consider their attire carefully, it should be comfortable to sit, run, and play in, and it should be fine to get messed up. Messy cloths is a sign they have had a lot of activities and probably plenty fun too.

2. Watch the weather

Ensure your child has the appropriate gear for all weathers ie in summer, a hat, suncream, a t-shirt. In winter, a hat, gloves, a heavier coat or fleece.

3. Tagging

Tag everything you don’t want to lose, if it’s not tagged and it gets lost, that’s your fault.

4. Losses

Accept that from time to time there will be minor losses, ie the odd tupperware tub. Consider how important this is in the grand scheme of things before complaining.

5. Be efficient when replacing items

When a member of staff request supplies ie nappies, toothpaste, wipes etc be efficient in taking them in. When you don’t supply them they have to use someonelse’s or dip into their own stores, also, every moment they spend chasing you up for such items is one less moment caring directly for your child. Think about it.

6. Treat staff with respect

Treat staff with respect, it’s a low paid and very tiring job, be appreciative, most put their heart and soul into looking after your children so you can work or take a break. Be pleasant, don’t speak down to them and encourage your child to say thank you and goodbye. Happy staff mean happy kids.

7. Food

Provide your child with healthy food that they enjoy. Remember giving them too many crisps, chocolate and biscuits will not be a good example to the other children. So do your best to supply chopped fruit and other healthy alternatives.

8. Don’t be late

For every minute you are late you are keeping staff from their homes. Don’t be selfish by taking the service for granted. On the odd occasion you are late, staff will be more accomodating, if it’s not a regular occurence.

9. Security

It’s your responsibility to keep the nursery secure too. Always close gates, and report any damage so that it can be fixed. Speak to the manager if you notice anything you aren’t happy about.

10. Bribery (!)

A small box of chocolates at christmas time is a nice way to show that you appreciate the staff at your nursery

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I’ve been tagged by Kimberlyn to give my favourite restaurants in my local area.

I live in Edinburgh, Scotland.

My Five Favourite Restaurants (in no particular order)

1. The Guru Balti

For indian, the Guru is simply the best. The decor in the restaurant can be a little drab and I probably wouldn’t take Erin there(lack of facilities for kids), but the food is amazing. My favourites are the Chicken Dopiaza and the special Chicken Tikka Korma. Best korma ever. It’s extremely reasonably priced and as the menu states ‘portion are larger than normal’. They aren’t joking either the naan breads are the size of tyres. Best for take-away.

2. The Ping On

Situated in Stockbridge, the Ping On Chinese Restaurant is a family favourite. The decor is ‘old skool’, as is the service. The staff are very child friendly, Erin has been a few times now and always has a good time. The banquet is the best choice for under £20 ($40) you get soup, crackers, duck & pancakes, prawn toast, chinese ribs, a variety of dishes with egg fried rice, coffee and mints. Great for sharing a meal with family.

3. La Partenope

For Italian, you can’t go wrong with La Partenope in Dalry. The decor is modern, with not a chequered cloth in sight. They do a business lunch that I’d highly recommend for it’s value. Nice coupley place to go in the evening. The menu includes all the favourites, their Panacotta desert is a highlight along with doorstep style Garlic Bread. Mmmmm.

4. Hunters Tryst/Montpeliers

Ok, I am bending the rules here with two. In the pub category is Hunter’s Tryst in Oxgangs. The food is cheap and tasty, the atmosphere is relaxed. We go here if we’re short on money. If we’re feeling a little flush we head to Montpeliers in morningside, great food and cocktails, the potato wedges are the best!

5. Luca’s

Luca’s is an ice cream shop in Morningside that also sells beautiful confectionary. Upstairs is a very reasonably priced cafe where you can get sandwiches for under £2.50 ($5) sit-in, also on the menu, burgers, lasagne, and omlettes. Erin loves it here, her favourite is the Junior Nut Parfait with Teddy Bear Wafer.

And so to the tagging, I’d like to hear Mother at Large’s favourites as she is here in Edinburgh too and Yaro’s in Brisbane, Australia, and Trent’s thrifty choices.

I’m pretty lucky, Erin asks for nothing more than the odd biscuit or grape at the moment. In a few years, it will be a completely different story, “mum, can I have” will be the war cry. The summer holidays will be yet another financial event to be budgeted for.

In the past (dim, and very distant)when we’ve gone abroad I’ve tended to budget by the day. For example I work out a daily budget, multiply it by the amount of days and I know that’s how much spending money to take. Each day I will ‘pay’ myself the daily amount, leftovers are carried over to the following day. Money remaining at the end of the holiday is spent on a special treat, souvenirs for family and ourselves.

I think if I had a few kids of spending age I would be inclined to use a similar system, perhaps worked on a weekly basis instead. With teenagers you could give them the budget and let them learn to budget themselves.

Do you budget for summer? If so, what system do you use?

Photo by flickr user Rafa from Brazil

Just a quick post to let you know I completed the above titled book. I’ve been reading a lot of non-fiction recently and this was a welcome change of pace. As good as the previous shopaholic instalments, it covers the story of Becky Bloomwood pregnant and ready for life as a mother, many twists, turns and ‘laugh out louds’ later the story ends happily (as always). This is a coffee and slice of cake read…you know, that twice yearly event when you miraculously get five minutes to yourself.

Shopaholic and Baby by Sophie Kinsella

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Michelle recently awarded me this Rockin Blogger award, which I am now obliged to award to a few others.

So here we go - The Silent I, Mother at Large and An Ordinary Mom. Thanks for some great reading ladies.

Hi,

Just a quick note to let you guys know why posting has been a bit slow, I had a little surgery last night for the absess problem and I’m putting my feet up for a bit. I should start up with the posting again pretty soon. I’m feeling much better but I need to slow down a little (don’t we all..)

Have a great weekend, and thanks to everone for saying hi in the last post, cheered me up loads!

Hey there Littlemummy.Com readers, Dave here, your friendly neighbourhood webhead. The site will be down intermittently for the next little while as I do a backend upgrade of the blogging software it runs on, so things might look a little screwy or not work while it’s in progress. Bear with us.

Update:

Aaaand, we’re back.  That seemed to go alright.  If anyone comes across any dead links, elements not loading properly or other weirdness, please drop us a line through the Contact form.

Whilst lying on the sofa feeling sorry for myself. I stumbled a few links of interest.

In the spirit of July 4th, here’s a little firework thingy that might keep the preschooler busy for a few moments.

Some cupcake recipes that looked vaguely tempting (sorry, loss of appetite too)

An amusing list - The Rules of a Toddler


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