After school entertainment for the little people
As much as you love them, when the kids come home from school full of their stories of the day and seemingly limitless energy, sometimes you need a little peace. Even if it’s only long enough to make a cuppa and finish that magazine article you started reading before you picked them up. We’ve got a couple of ideas to try, fun for a range of ages and guaranteed to keep them out of your hair for a little while at least.
Make a paper mache hot air balloon
This is a great one to spread out over the week as you’ll only be able to do the messy mache on day one then allow it all to dry for at least a day. They’ll need your help to mix up the paste and get them started. But kids of all ages love getting messy and this will keep them going for quite a while. It’s also a great way to use up newspaper.
You’ll need:
- 1. A large balloon
- 2. Paper mache paste - mix 1 part flour with 2 parts water and 1 part PVA glue
- 3. Lots of small cut up pieces of paper, ideally in strips
- 4. Paint
- 5. A yogurt pot or empty round container for the basket
- 6. Some string
Day one:
- Blow up the balloon
- Pour the paste into a shallow dish and start drenching the paper in it, laying it on the balloon in strips - continue until the balloon is almost entirely covered, leaving just an inch or two from the knot upwards to allow for removing the balloon and attaching the string
- Follow the same process for the yogurt pot, covering just the outside
- Leave to dry - for a day at least a day until hard
Day two:
- When the balloon is dry and hard - it’s time to paint it - choose bright colours, patterns, stripes - anything goes
- Do the same for the basket
- Allow to dry overnight
Day three:
- Finish off decorating if adding any stickers or glitter, paint with a coat of PVA if you want it to be shiny
- Allow to dry
- This is the fun bit - let them pop the balloon and gradually pull it out - be sure it’s hard and dry before you do this
- This next bit is for parents only, using sharp scissors, or something like a skewer, bore holes into the balloon, 4 around the narrow end and 1 through the very top to allow you to hand it up, then do the same with the basket, 4 evenly spaced holes
- Cut 5 lengths of string, ribbon or cord and tie a couple of knots in the end of each one
- Thread one up through the whole in the top of the balloon (the knot inside the balloon) - this will be the one you use to hang it up
- Take the others and thread them through the holes at the narrow/open end of the balloon, again with the knots inside, then thread the other end from the outside, through the holes in the pot basket far enough to allow you to tie the ends in a knot to hold them
That’s it - hang and enjoy.
Send them on a pirates treasure hunt
While they’re at school, or one night when they’re in bed, make a pirate’s treasure map. If you don’t have time (or don’t want to waste good coffee) for the full on aged pirate paper version below, you could just use brown parcel paper. Mark key areas in the house with imaginative pirate names, like the sofa could be Blackbeard’s Mountain, or the stairs could be Waterfalls of Doom.
To create your pirates map, you’ll need:
- 1. Cold coffee or tea (about half a cup)
- 2. A large piece of white paper
- 3. A hairdryer
- 4. Marker pens
- 5. Lemon juice
Take the white paper and rip off the edges, all the way round:
- Crumple it into a ball
- Flatten it out again onto a plate or chopping board
- Now pour the coffee or tea over the paper, swishing it around to make sure it’s covered completely, and let it sit for about 5 minutes to give it some colour
- Pour the excess coffee or tea down the sink
- Blow dry the paper for about 5 minutes, turning it down low when it starts to lift a bit, for another 2 minutes until completely dry
Now you’re ready to draw your map
- Give it a title, like Pirate Island and put a N,S, E and W in the corner
- Use a dotted line to draw the a trail between the key points, like the sofa, stairs, other pieces of furniture (obviously cunningly disguised with pirate names)
- Mark these points on by drawing icons like mountains, forest or caves
- Write instructions, like 10 paces north to guide them to the treasure - the more instructions, the longer you’ll keep them occupied
- Finally, when you’ve hidden the treasure (or no where you’re going to) mark it as an X on the map, using the lemon juice - this will dry invisible
- Then make the final instruction to them, to hold the map up to a lamp (or you can do this with them) to make the X visible and let them find their treasure
- Roll it up and tie it with string or ribbon and tell them when they get home from school that Old Blackbeard himself dropped it off for them