Day 5: New Year's Eve art

Weather: Sunny, but enough wind to keep the temperature bearable
Kids: Both

I'm trying to get the kids to take responsibility for their own entertainment - this means coming up with ideas themselves and trying not to interfere or take over their activities.  Obviously this works better with the six year old!  But also, I don't think kids should be constantly entertained - they should be supported to be independent and one way to do this is to arrange their own play.  In saying that, the kids butted heads a fair amount today and so I came up with activities to try and reset the mood.

Morning:

• I turned on the hose and let the kids spray stuff while I put some more plants in the garden.  They got bored of this quite quickly, so I put some water and paint in spray bottles and suggested they spray it on paper outside.  It was too windy for this, so they sprayed the trees and grass.  Acrylic paint dries surprisingly quickly on a sunny day - waterblasting half an hour later didn't remove the paint that had dried on the deck all that well.
• We pulled potatoes out of the garden and the children took turns washing them.  They are very protective of their potatoes!
• I put a big bucket of lux soap flakes outside and mixed with a little water to make 'gloop.'  The two year old almost instantly tipped it over.  The six year old then tried to make a lake deliberately and now there is a giant soapy puddle out the back.  I'm hoping it dries out overnight. 

Afternoon:

• My oldest daughter wanted to prepare for New Year's Eve (for here this means Chinese New Year).  She went and got red paper, cut it into strips and made a very long paper chain.  The two year old helped, but mainly through interfering (taking off with the cellotape or paper).
• We copied Chinese characters from the internet and learned a Chinese-New Year song in English.
• The outside bath:  I gave them their Christmas bath bombs, filled the kiddy pool and gave them a bath.  They thought that this was hilarious.

Day 4: weekend blah and unexpected bonus

Weather: overcast and showers in the morning, humid and dry in the afternoon.
Children: just the two year old.

Again, a very slow start to the day due to two hours overnight up with my toddler.  Going to need a new plan for these nights!  A friend called in the morning asking for my daughter to come over and play - she was gone for the rest of the day!  We also realised that the TV was off all day.  It is much easier to do this with two relaxed parents.

Morning:

• Children driving each other crazy, a little of the BBC science pages
• Drove off to the playdate and stayed for a coffee.  The two year old instantly found a bunch of medical toys to play with.

Afternoon:

• Playing in cuba mall: watching the bucket fountain and playing on the slide
• Playing in the toy section of Farmers - pretending to dig with plastic shovels and much time spent on the giant display dollshouse.
• Town library: getting stamps on her hand and riding the escalators
• Supermarket with two parents (and therefore didn't have to sit in the trolley - ecstatic).
• Pre-bedtime BBC Science class.  I investigated 'mathletics' for my six year old but it costs more than I am willing to pay.

Day 3: Uninspired

Weather: indifferent, but warm
Kids: Both

We decided to make the most of an almost empty Wellington and go into town.  We had very relaxed yum cha and went shopping.

Morning:

• Playing with toys

Afternoon:

• We went out for bubble tea after yum cha and I swear this counts as an activity.  My two year old loves the jelly bubbles but can't suck them through the straw: my six year old will feed them to her.  The food court where we get bubble tea has a lot of dead space and escalators: this provides play time!
• We bought a cheap atlas computer game ($9.99).  It has a lot of printables and games, and will be used when my older daughter gets bored.
• Some one-on-one reading time together in bed: sometimes my oldest daughter needs some baby sister free time: we like to go and read books to each other.
•  Raking the garden: my six year old had a surprisingly good time supervising me doing some gardening.

Day 2: Tired

Weather: threatening rain, rained for a little while
Kids: both

This was a bad day.  I was late to bed, slept poorly then got up two hours early because the baby woke, quite upset.

Morning:

• Way too much TV

Afternoon:

• Invited to a picnic and so the children had great fun seeing animals and running around.  They both perked up and so did I..
• Introduced BBC science clips to my six year old.  Instantly addicted.
• Lots of playing in the garden.

Day One: Christmas is over

Christmas and the heat wave is over.  Today really felt like the start of the school holidays here, so this is the first post.  We didn't go out today, mainly because my oldest daughter has a cold and didn't feel like it. Also, there wasn't anywhere we needed to go, and I'm saving the main attractions for times of greatest desperation!

Weather: raining in the morning
Kids: Both

In the morning:

• Television (still an appetite for the recorded Christmas shows)
• Tipped out the toy baskets and explored long lost treasures
• Coloured blank animal masks ($2 shop)

In the afternoon:

• Studyladder (for the six year old)
• Baked waffles with green mini M&Ms and made a huge mess
• 'Fake baking' - gave the two year old some ingredients and a bowl
• Spiral Art with marker pens that change colour
• A VERY long bath.

Introduction: documenting summer activities

I was excited and nervous for my oldest daughter's first school holidays last year.  It has been a long time since I had her at home full time and I really wanted to demonstrate that I could entertain the children together through the holidays.

It was, on the whole, a good time.  The children got on very well and we went and did a lot of activities.  I think we went to the zoo five times.  Carter Observatory and Te Papa were other favourites.  There were a few days hanging around the house, a lot of playdates and many walks around the neighbourhood.  I missed my eldest daughter once she returned to school!

The next school holiday was similar. 

The third school holiday was a bit of a disaster.  The children bickered.  And bickered.  There were a lot of playdates and a couple of special days out together while the youngest was at creche.

This year I resolved to plan lots of activities to try and avoid the bickering!  My hope is that the activities I list help other parents entertain their kids during the holidays.  I'd love more ideas!