Children everywhere will be over excited now that we are finally into December; but keeping them entertained for the next 24 days can be a challange for some parents.
These are my ideas based on my experience of being both a parent and a registered child minder:-
Baking is something that children always enjoy, so baking Christmas cookies has to be a hit.
Get children using their creative skills to make Christmas cards, tags and decorations – threading pre- cut papers together to make Christmas paper chains can be achieved by even young children, with minimal help and guidence,
If the weather is dry, wrap up in warm clothes and go for a walk looking out for Christmas trees as you go, you could even have a competition to see who sees the most ( if you can stop any cheating!)
If the weather isn’t favourable go for a drive instead.
Most garden centres put on a Christmas display of decorations and some will have a Santa to visit also
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You could visit the cafe while you are there to make the visit longer!
Children can make decorations by using Christmas cookie cutters to cut shapes out of a slice of bread, leave overnight to harden then decorate with paints and glitter.
A Christmas tradition with my child minded children was to make Christmas treasure boxes: I gave each child an empty shoe box to decorate with old Christmas cards, stickers and glitter, Covering the box with a solution of 1 part P,V,A, glue to 2 parts water will make it stronger, The children used their boxes to put in all their Christmas crafts to take home on Christmas eve. I popped in a few sweets and a exams card too,
Marzipan fruits was another thing that we all enjoyed making together.
Children can make their own wrapping paper by simply using their dried paintings, they could even wrap their own gifts, ( I have been known to encourage them to even wrap a toy from the play room.
If the above doesn’t have enough ideas, I have written an e book available to download from Amazon only 99p available here
As always questions and comments are welcome.
Until next time.
Karen
x
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These are great ideas! Mine are doinf some Christmas crafting as I type! #MischiefandMemories
That’s great, thanks for sharing
Taking notes for the next grandchild visit!
Hope they enjoy, Michele
These are great ideas. We like going for walks to see the Christmas lights. I like the idea of making a Christmas treasure box. #MischiefandMemories
Thanks, Louise
we spend a lot of time this time of year just driving around and looking at the lights and decorations. Good tips here. #mischiefandmemories
I love doing that too especially in the dark, Jeremy, bit sad as a middle age woman maybe!
I’ve seen the bread decorations on another blog post but was worried about it going mouldy, does the paint protect it and should it be binned at the end of the festive period? Great ideas and I think we’ll make some paper chains asap! Thanks for linking up with #MischiefAndMemories
That’s it exactly, Laura