42 Days Of Summer Fun

I love Choc (left) and Chunk loves Raspberry (right)

Despite Chunk not being of school age yet, I still find it difficult to find things to do, because a lot of the groups we attend close during the summer holidays, prices of activities go sky high and there are SO many more families and children going to the same places at the same time which can be a major put off.

So when I saw a new summer holiday challenge from Brit Mums and McVitie’s I decided to give it a try!

42 Days of Summer is about finding fun things to do during the summer with your family. Due to my low (aka non-existent) budget, I have thought of some free, but fun activities for Chunk and his cousin Curly to do, so hopefully you may also be inspired by them.

Water

Our Pirate Ship Water Tray

It amazes me how much my toddler loves water. Thankfully water is quite low cost and you can access it whatever the weather!

At nanny’s house we have a great pirate ship water tray that the boys can spend hours playing with, and it is full of toys that help their motor skills which is always a bonus.

Aqua beads can be fun; I bought some cheap ones from eBay and the boys enjoyed watching them blow up in size. I put some in their pirate ship water tray, but also have plans to use them by themselves in a washing up bowl, as it is such a lovely feeling just moving your hands through them as they are cold, squidgy and colourful.

We have also been playing with the sprinklers, and I have given the boys little spray bottles in the shape of butterflies that they use to water the flowers. The bottles need to be held and squeezed at the same time, so this really helps the boys with their motor and fine co-ordination skills, as well as exercises their fingers ready for when they learn to write!

Tea Break for Mum and Chunk

Tucking into his Raspberry BN

Another easy, but fun one is painting on the patio using just water and paint brushes. The boys love doing this and they always find it magical when the sunshine dries the picture up, and they then start again!

For our mid-morning snack (aka my tea break) we will go indoors and have a drink and snack. Chunk loves the new McVitie’s BN Raspberry Biscuits, whilst I love the chocolate flavour, so thankfully he doesn’t try to steal mine like he does with all my other meals!
Other snacks we also enjoy are my homemade ice cream lollies, which are toddler and baby friendly- see the recipe here.

He loves their little faces, and he looks through to find the ones that are winking (not all of them wink you know). I like that they have no artificial colours or flavourings in them and that they taste nice dunked in my tea!

Water Colouring

When the weather gets too hot, or is freezing, we have used water colouring books indoors, where you paint with water and the colours appear. Chunk finds this great fun, especially when we use his Thomas the Tank Engine wash mats, as you can reuse them unlike the colouring books.

There is also regular painting and colouring, and Chunk is obsessed with large floor puzzles– I can give him a puzzle and he will finish it in ten minutes, when they are designed for older children (genius in the making, or is it just wishful thinking?!).

Etching Play

One of my personal favourites is using etcha-sketches, as you can see by my random doodles here! He tends ask me to write a lot of names on here, like Nanny and Mummy, so he is starting to recognise some of the letters which is a lovely surprise.

Other indoor activities include good old play dough (great for their pincher grips) and making salt dough keepsakes– ours can be seen here along with the ingredients.

To avoid that midday heat, we tend to have a picnic indoors, and I love dividing the lunch into lots of snack pots, and then we sit on a blanket in the living room and watch some children’s TV. The ultimate way to cool off and calm down!

Our Yummy Indoor Picnics

Beach Fun Is Essential During Summer!

In the next few weeks I am going to be on the search for some toddler friendly water gun and a paddling pool as other activities, and of course we will be going to various parks in our area (especially when there are fun days provided by our local council!) and the beach!

To add to my 42 days of summer ideas, I thought I would share with you a post I did a few weeks ago as it contains a few more ideas! It’s called Kids Summer Activities On A Budget, so hope these are of some use!

If you have any other ideas to inspire me, please comment below and I will give them a try!

This post is an entry for 42 Days of Summer Linky Challenge sponsored by McVitie’s BN. Learn more here.

Summer Treats!