Happy Easter - some great ideas to keep the kids entertained this half term!

Easter is now here and whilst we welcome the long break to spend more quality time with our families, the unpredictable British weather can leave us stuck inside and feeling a little stir crazy.

Online care provider Care.com resident Nanny expert Rosemary Albone knows only too well how challenging it can sometimes be to keep the little ones entertained. Here, Rosemary offers some top tips for activities you can do with your children over the Easter holiday to keep them happy, learning and creative and that won’t break the bank!

1)     Have an ‘Indoor Holiday’, a Staycation in Your Own Lounge!
Set up a (small!) pop up tent, or create a den under the table, or get creative and build your own structure. Encourage the children to pack what they need and move in, at least for an afternoon. You can teach children all about the great outdoors without setting foot outside!

2)     Plan an Easter Show
Plan with egg related jokes and stories about the Easter Bunny - great fun for getting children to think about words and stories and get creative. Perhaps you can write a story script together, asking the child to make decisions on the storyline and ending and act it out for the rest of the family.

3)     Decorate Your Own Eggs
We all know that painting and decorating eggs (real or cardboard) can be a fun activity to do together; tune into everyone’s creative side and use interesting materials as decorations. Set your children the challenge of finding things around your home and in the garden to use as decoration. Find a small tree branch that can be safely cut and brought inside to hang your decorated eggs on to make an Easter tree.

4)     Plan a Walk- Whatever the Weather
Physical exercise is good for everyone and safe exposure to sunlight enables the body to make vitamin D. Let your children:
-         Plan the route, drawing it out on a homemade map with significant local points located on it (schools, shops, the library, friends’ homes etc)
-         Photograph interesting things on the route, then make a storyboard or story book with the photos when you get back home
-         Set a challenge to achieve on the walk, such as finding 5 specific things (stones, signposts, numbers on front doors, sticks, fallen leaves, something red and so on)
-         Choose and create a picnic to enjoy on the walk to get them engaged in selecting and making the meal too

5)     Have a Tea Party
As a family, think about inviting a neighbour or occasional acquaintance to tea. We know that the long bank holiday can feel a long lonely time for some people; help your children understand that kindness is easy. They could even make an invitation and help with deciding what to have and making the food.

6)     Seek an egg-stra pair of hands
Spending time with your family is a wonderful part of the Easter holidays, but you may have other things you need to get done – such as preparing an Easter lunch or even tackling some home repairs that need done while you have time off work.  https://uk.care.com/ offers short term care solution from baby sitters to cleaners who can provide some extra support.

Easter treats that won’t widen the waistline Easter 2012

Easter treats that won’t widen the waistlineEaster 2012

Crack the custom of the chocolate egg this Easter and instead give beautiful flowering bulbs to brighten the home and manage the waistline, says the Flower Council of Holland.

Sweeter smelling than a chocolate box, indoor flowering bulbs in pots and vases such as narcissus, hyacinth, iris and tulip are perfect for freshening up the home and livening up surroundings.

Get the kid’s involved by encouraging them to decorate pots using Easter-themed wrapping paper, stickers or magazine cuttings or rummage around the house for make-shift containers.  Pot a colourful mixture of narcissus, tulip and hyacinth in a disused bowl or get children to place single stems of cut tulipa ‘Flaming Parrot’ in blown-out, painted chicken eggs to make fun centre pieces for the Easter dining table.

For a grown-up interior, place blue hyacinth and cut yellow narcissus in crisp white containers to add subtle freshness to rooms and a modern addition to kitchen tables and side boards.
 Place pots and vases around the house, on mantelpieces, bookshelves and un-occupied desk chairs but remember to use hardy containers for outdoor decoration.  For Easter egg hunts, hide small chocolate eggs in the pots and behind the bulbs.  Add extra glitz by sprinkling glitter over the soil.

Re potting bulbs into different containers is easy and won’t harm the bulbs if done correctly.  Carefully twist the pot and remove the bulb, keeping the earth on the roots so as not to damage them.  Place in the chosen container and fill up any gaps with earth or compost.