No school? A rainy day on your vacation? You’re housebound with your children? Looking for activities with the children in order to entertain them? So many reasons that prevent you from enjoying the sun outside… but we have the solution!
Here you will find entertaining activities to have a good time with your family without leaving the house. Your children will love it!
Wait…what if we could only press a button to change the language? Yes, it’s totally possible thanks to Marypop! The magic touch does not exist yet but with only a few clicks you will find super bilingual babysitters to play with your kids. Imagine if while you are resting, your children enjoy the activities that we propose here while learning a foreign language?
Our bilingual baby-sitters will have the pleasure to initiate your children in the foreign language of your choice in a playful and natural way thanks to bilingual and dynamic activities. Click here to discover our babysitters.
Marypop baby-sitters are reliable (profiles are all checked), kind and attentive and with them, your children will have fun & learn a foreign language! It’s the perfect combination, isn’t it?
Activities with the children #1: Manual activity workshop
To stimulate your children’s creativity and imagination, there’s nothing better than a creative workshop! Turn off all the screens to let your imagination run wild and create beautiful decorative objects while recycling things you already have at home: it’s good for the <3 and for the planet!
Homemade modeling clay
Here’s an easy little tutorial on how to make salt dough at home with ingredients you have in your kitchen.
First, mix 2 glasses of flour and a glass of fine salt in a salad bowl. Then, pour a glass of warm water. Finally, knead until you get a nice ball of soft dough. Add food colouring or chalk powder to give the dough some colour. If the salt dough is too crumbly: add water, if it is too soft or sticky: add flour and now all that’s left to do is have fun creating different shapes and characters!
Figures with toilet paper rolls
You can also create animal figures with just… rolls of toilet paper! After the toilet paper rush during lockdown, we all still have rolls at home… so keep them to make a nice piece of art with your kids.
Get out the pencils, colored paper, fabric, colored buttons and all your creativity to create the most beautiful animals with materials you have on hand. Elephant, giraffe, monkey, dog, cat, lion, pig, bee, ladybird, butterfly… there are lots of ideas!
Easy and personalized origami bookmarks
If you want to make the reading more interesting, why not make a nice custom bookmark? All you’re going to need is paper, a pair of scissors and a lot of imagination!
Then, once the base is created, it’s up to you to decorate to your liking: monsters, animals, characters… for that, you’ll need glue, coloured paper and pencils!
Here you will find a tutorial on youtube to learn how to make your own origami bookmarks.
If after all you lack the creativity to propose innovative activities to your children… get out the paint pots, pencils and paper: the painting workshop is about to begin!
Activities with the children #2: The Marypop 7 families game!
The Marypop team has created a gift especially for you: a Game of 7 families “summer holidays edition” to print and cut out to have fun with your family!
On holiday you are more the family: sporty, zen, adventurous, gourmet, party girl, who goes to the campsite or to the beach???? Tell us about it on social networks!
You will find the version in French and English: the choice is yours. Download it for free here 🙂
Why choose the English version if I’m French-speaking?
As you could see in our previous article “The benefits of bilingualism from childhood”, the advantages of becoming bilingual from an early age are numerous and it’s not rocket science: just call one of our bilingual baby-sitters who will be delighted to teach your children their mother tongue in a very playful, simple and natural way through the activities we have mentioned below for example.
Activities with the children on snack time
After playing so much, are you hungry? How would you like a cooking session with the kids? If you take all the necessary precautions, you can have fun without risk.
We’ve put together here for you several super simple and easy recipes that you can reproduce at home to eat but also to have fun!
1 ingredient ice cream
What if I told you you can make an ice cream with only one ingredient? Yes, you can! This recipe will make your mouth water…healthy, easy and delicious…it’s the perfect combo to refresh yourself this summer!
Ingredients:
Bananas
Milk (optional)
Other fruit, cocoa powder or speculoos (optional)
Preparation:
First, cut 3 ripe bananas into strips and put them in a freezer container for about 4 hours. Then mix thoroughly with a little milk and it’s ready to eat. To make other flavors, just add other fruits with the banana like strawberry or cocoa powder for a delicious homemade chocolate ice cream 🙂
Homemade pizza
You prefer salty? Don’t worry, we’ve thought of everything: a quick and easy homemade pizza!
Ingredients to prepare the pizza dough:
400 g of flour
10 g fresh yeast (or bread yeast)
20 cl of water (mineral is better)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon of salt
Topping of your choice: tomato sauce, cheese, ham, mushrooms, pesto…
Preparation: Prepare your pizza dough: mix all the ingredients, leave to rest for 1 hour and then preheat the oven to 180°C. Spread the dough on the baking paper with the roller and then garnish to your taste (this is the children’s favourite part!). Bake in the oven at 200°C for 20 to 30 minutes and it’s ready to eat! Buon appetito 🙂
Refreshing fruit salad
And if you’re more in the mood for a refreshing taste, here’s a recipe for fruit salad.
Ingredients:
Fruit of your choice (preference: banana, orange, strawberry, mango, kiwi, apple)
Water
Sugar
The adult is in charge of cutting the fruit while the children mix and taste!
First, peel and cut all the fruit into pieces and put them in a large salad bowl. Make your juice by mixing the syrup, sugar and water in a pitcher. Pour this mixture over your fruit, add the cinnamon and vanilla sticks. Put in the fridge for at least 2 hours (the longer you leave it in the fridge, the better your fresh fruit salad will be).
And if you don’t want to cook… how about a creative snack with your kids? Turn a simple snack into an entertaining moment for the little ones. With the decoration of the dish, the size of the fruits, the colours of the cakes… you are the chef (and the artist)!
You can also try out simple recipes that your children can make without risk… only happiness (and gluttony, yummy)!
After an intense day of games, are you tired? Even SUPER – PARENTS like you need a rest… do you feel like an evening with friends? Or a dinner for two? Or maybe a day at the spa… without your children? Our super babysitters will take care of your children, play with them and can do all these fun activities while you enjoy yourself!