You can't better it, can you? A good soccer or tennis club, a stimulating art or clay workshop or an energetic visit to a wildlife park or adventure centre . . . the last decade has seen a tremendous growth in the number and quality of activities organised for children during the summer months.
However, with our increasingly busy lives, traffic jams in even the smaller country towns and spiralling costs for such organised activities, planning to spend some time simply in and around your home can - believe it or not - be just as inspiring and sometimes even more creative.
The only drawback is that you - the parent, grandparent, childminder or helpful older sibling - will have to put your thinking cap on. Here are some ideas to get you started.
Turn your garden or area in your local park into a treasure hunt. This will require a little planning - choosing the best location, writing the clues and then hiding the treasure (while the children are otherwise occupied, of course).
Buy a cheap camera and encourage your children to take photographs of their favourite places locally. Depending on the age of the children, you can also set up a temporary dark room in a garden shed (get advice on materials to seal out all light) and help them learn the art of developing black and white photographs - with the aid of a good teach yourself developing book.
Organise your own art workshop. Buy a mix of materials in your local art shop (poster paints are best, lots of white and coloured paper, brushes) and use some materials from home too (carve raised shapes out of potatoes and carrots, make prints with gathered leaves). Encourage the children to do a variety of styles - blow painting, hand prints, wet painting (where the paper is brushed with water first) and themed drawings (their favourite toy, their best friend, their house, etc) to get them going.
Have an afternoon of making pizzas, pastries, fruit salad, etc. There are some great children's cookery books available in libraries and bookshops.
Organise a book club, include trips to the library, time limits to read the book and time when the children come and talk about what they have read.
Teach your children some of the games (the safe ones) from your childhood - hopscotch, ball games, etc.
Go to the nearest park, forest area or beach. Ask each child to gather things to bring home. Bring a picnic and even some teddies for the younger children.
Turn your living-room into one massive tent with old sheets hanging between furniture. Give the children lots of dressing-up clothes, and leave the rest to them.
Natural Childhood - a practical guide to the first seven years, edited by John B. Thomson (Gaia Books) is an excellent reference for home-based activities and children's developmental needs at various ages.
