Whenever we have school holidays coming up, I always try and order at least one new book for Anya. It’s just something I started doing a while ago but now it’s become a holiday habit. The holidays have somehow become my prompt to get her some new books and with half term coming up next week, I went looking. I don’t always get a story book but it can be an activity book, a joke book, an art book or anything that looks interesting and will keep her occupied for a while.
During the Summer holidays do you plan an outing everyday for your kids? I don’t because I think it’s important for kids to have unstructured play time. By that I mean simply spending time at home and letting them use their imaginations to just play. By planning too many activities and trying to fill every minute of their time, I think kids lose the ability for creative play. So at our house, we tend to mix it up – a few planned outings each week and lots of home time in between. For home time I like to have a few things up my sleeve to help keep Anya occupied and one of her favourite things to do is work her way through a kids activity book.
I recently came across this really fun and creative activity book called Tate kids Modern Art activity book and it sounded really good so I bought it. It’s by the Tate Gallery and includes lots of fun activities based around the modern artists of out time. This book isn’t about drawing and colouring within the book, but its a book of arty ideas that can help you come up with even more creative and fun ideas. Some of the suggestions would also make fun party or play date activities especially for crafty kids. So for e.g. you have things like a Henri Matisse activity where you’re encouraged to paint pieces of paper in the brightest, boldest colours like Matisse’s famous colourful collages and perhaps make an animal shaped collage of your own. Or a Salvador Dali art project where you cut out pictures from magazines and then mix and match the most unlikely pairs.
Anya is really enjoying this Tate Kids Modern Art Activity Book which comes in especially handy when we don’t have a planned day and also on rainy days. The collage activities have appealed to her the most so far. Our home is already full of all kinds of collages and we’ve only had the book a few days. But there are lots of other fun ideas in this kids activity book all of which are engaging, creative and fun to do.
While Christmas shopping for Anya I came across these kids activity books which literally jumped out at me possibly because of their striking black and neon colours. I picked up one and had a quick flick through and thought it looked pretty good. So I bought it for her and she has loved it. We got the orange ‘Definitely not for chickens’ one which is full of drawing puzzles, number activities, memory games and lots more. Some pages are easier than others but all offer pretty engaging things to do. There are five different books in total each with different puzzles and activities.
Apart from being really fun for kids, these quirky Totally Twisted Puzzle books are nicely illustrated and use the same colour scheme inside and on the cover making it all very striking to look at. I’m planning to get another one once Anya has gone through the first one. It’s been a great book to take along when you need your child to be entertained (rather than giving them an ipad/iphone). Recently while planning our house renovation, we’ve had to spend hours at kitchen/bathroom/flooring shops and this book has been the thing we’ve taken along to keep Anya occupied. I also love these books to give as party favours or small gifts.
The Summer holidays have been here for a couple of weeks now and are a welcome break from the routine. With the beautiful UK weather, we’ve been indulging in lots of outdoor time. But since I work from home, I can’t take Anya out morning to evening every day as I need to find time to work. If you work from home, you’ll know that the constant questions, demands for food and expressions of boredom make working nearly impossible or at least means you take three times as long to do anything! While the TV and ipad are good at keeping her distracted, I like to use these in moderation. So instead I’ve been stocking up on a few creative little activities which I’ve started giving her when she needs something to do. Nothing complicated, just the very simplest little things I’ve bought which she can create with by herself. I thought I would share the three that have been the biggest hits so far:
Let’s Make Some Great Fingerprint Art is such a fun book. The book is packed with loads and loads of ideas for making art with your fingers. All you need is a colourful inkpad and a pencil to complete the pictures you create. Anya loved this book and takes it out nearly everyday since I gave it to her.
I spotted this massive jar of beads in Ikea a while ago. They’re not exactly beads but mini tube shaped bits that Anya has used for all sorts of creations. From making jewellery to sticking them on paper to make pictures, this jar has so many uses. Anya has also used these beads to make up counting by colours kind of games. But be warned, every time they come out, you’ll be treading on little bits of plastic for days to come!
This last one was a bit of an impromptu made-up thing but Anya loved it so I thought it was worth sharing. I needed to get on with some urgent work so needed her occupied. I just made a huge sheet of paper, pulled put some poster paints and told her to have fun. She ended up painting with her fingers and had a ball.
How do you keep your kids occupied? I’d love to hear your ideas.
Last week, as we were walking through Waterloo station Anya turned to me and said ‘I can see a pigeon riding the escalator’ and then broke out in a fit of giggles and started to create a little story from this thought. Of course there was no pigeon on any escalator but that’s the thing about kids imaginations, there are no bounds and this still amazes me each day. I’m often thinking about how I can feed and develop her imagination and I always find myself turning to books – story books, activity books, drawing books, craft books – the whole lot. On the weekend I decided to look for some fun books for Anya to create, imagine and play with and I found 3 that I loved:
In the Winter months, I’m always looking for something to fill those bewitching hours after school and before dinner. Anya’s instinct is to fill those hours with TV but since that’s not allowed (mean mama here) I encourage her to do other things which often means I end up doing them with her. Jigsaw puzzles, board games, reading books are all part of our after school play but there’s only so many times I can do the same puzzle or board game before I go crazy! While searching for something new to do I came across Lotta magazine from Australia. I haven’t tried it yet but it looks really promising with lots of arts, crafts, games and puzzles to get through in each issue, not to mention the cute and colourful illustrations. Lotta is for 5-10 year olds and is published 4 times a year with each issue exploring a particular theme like ‘secrets’ or ‘sea life’ or ‘history’. It’s aimed at filling time in the school holidays but I think it would be great for that empty after school time and one issue should get us through couple of weeks at least.
Ebabee Likes is a style guide for babies, kids, teens and their mamas. It’s all about inspiration, ideas and indulging yourself and your brood. It’s written by me ~ Nomita ~ a style loving girl from Mumbai who now live’s in London. Read More...
