Six things to do with the kids these winter holidays.

Why does everyone laugh at me when I say I love school holidays? I seriously do. I have three kids and lots of nieces and nephews and the more of them I have at my house, the better. Even in the winter school holidays when it’s cold and you can’t just spend every day at the local park or at the beach.

During the school holidays, my sister and I split the week so we can both work, and we also look after some of our friend’s children so it’s not unusual for us to have six to nine children at our homes in one day.

Looking after a group of children aged four to 11 requires some planning but it can be done and it can be so much fun.

Just as an FYI, you should know that this post is sponsored by Telstra Thanks® Thursdays Free Movie Rentals. But all opinions expressed by the author are 100% authentic and written in their own words.

Here are six of my favourite things to do with the kids without leaving the house:

1. Cupcake station

I always bake something delicious for our afternoon treat and the kid’s favourite is always my cupcake station. I make lots of chocolate and vanilla cupcakes and then set them all up on the dining table. Next to the plain cupcakes I set up four different colours of icing, sprinkles and lots of other things they can decorate with. For older kids, I make sure to include icing colours of their favourite sporting teams. All the children line up, youngest to oldest, and they get to decorate a maximum of two and sometimes they eat both but I normally find that they eat one and lick the icing off the other. Moderation is key!

2. Trampoline picnic

My sister and I both have giant trampolines that fit all our kids and sometimes they’ll spend all day on there. They’ll get their pillows and blankets, snacks and their iPods and stay on for hours. I just visit them every now and then and collect any rubbish they need. It’s the perfect place for children to have fun. If you don’t have a trampoline just kick them outside and help them set up anything they want. Just because it’s winter, doesn’t mean they don’t need fresh air. It’s like camping without a fire.

3. Talent show

Children are so funny these days. They all fancy themselves little YouTube stars and love performing, even if it’s just a silly rap song they’ve learned from friends at school. Each afternoon during school holidays the kids audition and present a talent show. The girls do a dance, the boys a rap and then there are some more official performances of my son doing in trombone and my niece practicing her performance dance. Everyone gets a turn and every gets applause. I know these are the moments I will treasure as the kids get older and I film as many of them as I can. I imaging watching them with the kids when they have children of their own. Priceless.

4. Arts and crafts

All children love doing arts and crafts and it’s not expensive at all. I hit up the Reject Shop or any discount store and buy a huge amount of cardboard, glue, glitter, paints, markers, anything they can make art out of. I even give them all the junk mail I’ve collected so they can make collages. The little kids love doing projects like this to present to their parents at the end of the day and the older children stay interested by creating posters for their favourite sporting teams. Go the Eels!

5. Retro board and card games

I recently invested in all my favourite childhood board games and card games like UNO, Guess Who, Monopoly and Pictionary. We have the most amazing time playing all these games throughout the winter school holidays. No matter what age your children are they can play these games, even if they are just your special helper. Children learn so much from playing games like these, like how to win with grace, how to lose, how to take turns and how to take care of things so we can play with them for years. We’ve had the same Monopoly set now for years. Playing board games is one of my favourite parts of the school holidays. The kids are almost old enough for Scrabble, then it will be on!

6. Movie party

I am famous in our family for my movie parties. The kids ask for them. Lunch or dinner at my house is always a movie party complete with hot finger foods and some classic movie snack desserts.

As the kids get older, it’s harder to decide on which movie to watch and if I leave it up to them to decide, the older kids bully the little kids and there are tears. So I decide on the movie. That’s the rule. And even if there is some grumbling, they all settle down and watch it because, movie snacks! Plus, I promise them they can watch other movies later in the day or we might even do two movie parties – one for lunch and one for dinner. Perfect.

Some other simple activity ideas for the kids these holidays:

What about you, what’s your favourite school holiday activity to do with the kids at home?

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