With the School holidays coming to an end we have decided to stay indoors and wind down a bit. We have been really busy outside of the house but now it’s time to just relax. Here are some of our favourite things we have been up to, they are all great rainy day, or pyjama day ideas too. I think they are going to come in handy for the October half term and Christmas.
Dressing up with Fafu
We love dressing up, regular readers will know that is me too! I think joining in and playing with my boys is SO important. I love how dressing up can inspire the imagination and really help develop interaction. What I really love about the Fafu collection is that it isn’t a type of outfit – it is a way of encouraging creativity. One set can become so many things – only limited by your children’s ideas. I thought the purple shapes looked like duck’s feet – but my son automatically put them on his hands! One size fits all, and there’s no gender stereotyping issues. You can pretend to be anything or anyone, Or use the pieces to be something – the sea, grass, a bag, a boat. The possibilities are endless. Take this one sheet with so many ways to attach it to itself to create many things with it.
I love the adorable cotton bag that they come in – making it easier to keep together and take out on your travels.
Fafu is a small company who are serious about play. Designs are based on research into how the brain grows and develops. Environmentally friendly natural materials like organic cotton, silk and wool made by a fair trade producer in Nepal.
Find them on: Facebook Google + YouTube and Twitter
Toto’s Treehouse App
Toto’s Treehouse App is a great way for children to show their parents that they can care for a pet before they buy the real thing. They start with a newly hatched turtle called Toto who needs looking after and playing with. Read Toto’s facial expressions and thought bubbles to determine how he feels. Then feed him (with sandwiches and ice-cream), keep him clean, play with him (use the tyre swing, jump rope, bubbles or make him dance).
But make sure he doesn’t get too tired, he needs plenty of sleep.
It is simple to use and understand what Toto’s needs are (from the visual clues). Find the places on the map where he needs to go and selecting the objects that he needs. There are some in app games that help with thinking and development. I like how it is your turtle and it starts from where you left off when you open the app up again.
The app costs £1.99 and TribePlay are working with the World Wildlife Fund to support their ‘Adopt a Turtle’ scheme by purchasing turtle adoptions for Toto fans.
University Games – The Gruffalo Word Rhyming Game & More
We love to have family games night, it is good to get the family together around the table for something other than eating. Our youngest is only 5 years old and has special needs so it is nice to find games that he is able to easily join in with.
You may know that we love the Gruffalo. It is one of favourite stories and we have found him in the woods, met him in person, and seen a special version of The Gruffalo Live. So what game could be more perfect than The Gruffalo Word Rhyming Game & More. Beautifully illustrated with our favourite characters from the Gruffalo. The set fits neatly into a compact box and describes how to play two games, but they could be adapted to play many more – such as snap and pairs. With different colours as well as the characters names (or parts depending on the set) to help those who are unable to read yet. This set is perfect for my son going into year 1 as it encourages him to find words that sound the same (snake/lake/cake; eye/butterfly/sky; knee/tree/flea; claw/jaw/paw). There’s also bonus Gruffalo and Mouse cards too. Age 4+. SRP £5.99. Available at Amazon and Tesco.
Despicable Me 2 500 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle from Ravensburger
The Despicable Me 2 500 Piece Jigsaw – well who can resist those adorable Minions? This puzzle requires some patience – the Minions are all quite different but look amazingly similar when trying to find the right pieces! I was always taught to sort out the edge and corner pieces first – but even trying to do that took me a while.
The pieces are of good quality and fit together well. There are a variety of shapes – so you wont find yourself trying to force the wrong pieces together. I think this is an ideal Christmas present for an older child or adult – and certainly something to sit down and do on Christmas day. Ideally I would make it in a place where it can be left and come back to.
Rio 2
Of course a good way to relax and treat the kids is with a movie. When you do not want to leave the house, or you simply want to save some money why not have a film night at home. Buy some sweets and popcorn and get a film that the whole family will love. Save money further by buying and selling your movie at Cash Generator.
Rio 2 is the 3D computer animated musical adventure sequel to the 2011 Rio. Set in the Amazon rainforest following on the story of the Macaw Blu (Jesse Eisenberg) and his wife Jewel (Anne Hathaway). Now with their 3 kids music-loving Carla (Rachel Crow), book smart Bia (Amandla Stenberg) and mischievous Tiago (Pierce Gagnon). It is due to Blu’s former owner, Linda (Leslie Mann) and her husband Tulio (Rodrigo Santoro) being on an expedition in the amazon that it is discovered that the rare macaws are in trouble. Blu reluctantly goes to the Amazon with Rafael (George Lopez), Nico (Jamie Foxx ) and Pedro (Will.i.am). Luiz (Tracy Morgan) tries and fails to go too. Big Boss (Miguel Ferrer), the leader of an illegal logging group, finds out and tries to stop Linda and Tulio. I will not spoil any further for those who have not watched the film about whether they succeed.
A film with many famous names we also see the return of Nigel (Jemaine Clement) the cockatoo, who wants revenge on Blu and his family. His helped by two minions – Charlie (a non-speaking ant-eater) and Gabi (Kristin Chenoweth).Also in the film is Jewel’s long lost father, Eduardo (Andy García), his older sister Mimi (Rita Moreno) and childhood friend Roberto (Bruno Mars); the head of the Scarlet macaws Felipe (Philip Lawrence). Other characters include Fernando (Jake T. Austin) – the adopted son of Linda & Tulio; Rafael’s wife Eva (Bebel Gilberto), a news anchor (Natalie Morales), Dr Monae (Janelle Monáe) a veterinarian, Kipo (Jeffrey Garcia), Tiny (Kate Micucci) and a logging foreman (Randy Thom).
I have a copy of Rio 2 to GIVEAWAY
Just answer the following question in 10 words or more and complete the Rafflecopter:
What is your favourite family staying indoors activity?
UK only, E: 30/09/2014 0:00 AM
a Rafflecopter giveaway
We received free products in order to review them, and an adoption of a Turtle. All words and opinions are my own.
Playing family/kids board games. It is great for the kids to learn to take their turns as well.
Baking things in the kitchen with the children like cookies and cupcakes
Watching a family film together is my favourite way of spending a rainy day.
I love arts and crafts so I always do something crafy with my kids! We have been painting and varishing pebbles over the Summer to put on our rockery or use as paper weights – it has been great fun!
We enjoy home making we like to cook cakes, cookies and we also make flatjacks and other more healthy things and use them for packed lunches
colouring in, we like to check all of our pens are working on our scribble pad and then we colour in the books, it’s amazing how much my boys love this
We love doing arts and crafts and also baking cookies and scones!
It has got to be building ourselves a camp with dining chairs and sheets, we had a whole jungle theme child lead play afternoon not so long ago!
Jigsaws. Might sound a bit boring but I love them. 🙂
Watching a much-loved film from our rather extensive DVD collection and having a nice bowl of crisps/popcorn at the same time 🙂
Playing games is our fave
playing with lego
Has to be either reading story books and drawing or painting pictures
Baking cookies, cakes and muffins with the little one
Playing on the WII
playing interactive trivia games such as who wants to be a millionaire on the Wii or Playstation
Either DVDs with blankets and good snacks or building forts!
watching movies, being lazy under a duvet with onesies on lol
we love our family nights, playing board games, watching films and having a takeaway
we love playing monopoly or having the kinect on so we can still keep the kids active
Our favourite Indoor Activity is Indoor Treasure Hunts. As well as finding and solving clues we also have to do tasks too – always secretly helps me with the housework this way 🙂
Painting and creating art creations
Our favourite thing to do when staying indoors is play board games, we have so many they are taking over the house!
We like putting our onsies on and getting our blankets to watch a film
Crafting we love making cards and drawings and potato stamping etc so much fun
Arts and Crafts are our family favourite! So much fun!
We love doing arts and crafts, painting, play doh, making pasta neckalces, anything to keep my daughter amused
lots of arts and crafts!! junk model building! the last thing we made was a big red bus from a cardboard box, was a big hit!
Watching Disney films with microwavable popcorn
family board games 🙂 we gather round the table with snacks and juice and have a fun times playing lots of different games!
We love to do lots of baking. We all want different things baked so we end up making so much mess!
cooking and playing games though playdough is the favourite at the min!
The boys like having parties but I like playing with Lego x
we play cards and dominoes we have just been teaching my son rummy was hard work
We love to have a movie day, all snuggled up on the sofa with some goodies!
On the rare occasions my son puts down his Lego, we love to bake together
Playing, baking and getting crafty x
baking.great fun and you get to eat the results in a homemade fort!
my 3 grandchildren ages 10, 7 and nearly 3 love painting the messier the better!
Baking cookies and cakes
We love snuggling on the sofa reading stories. x
We love going to the beach during the day. We live just a one minute walk to it, so spend a lot of time there. In the evenings we put on a good film, eat sweets, crisps, popcorn and drink fizzy drinks or milkshakes.
we love getting the quilts down making beds on the floor ad watching disney films on wet and windy days =)
Movie time with homemade popcorn & a big blanket on the sofa
Nothing beats watching a film with popcorn & hot chocolate xx
Usually crafting or playing lego for my little boy! x
We love playing board games, watching dvds and having takeaways best.
Baking cakes 🙂
Playing board games with the kids and my husband. Great fun for all of us 🙂
We love doing arts and crafts
I love playing board games. And there’s so much choice out there for all ages
my granddaughters love a pamper evening with face masks and nails done
we play cards a lot , it seems to be something all ages enjoy
Arts and crafts
Playing consequences with my grandchildren.
I love snuggling up on the sofa with my 4 year old for some quality time together at weekends or school hols while his sister has her nap. We choose a film to watch together (and I make sure I do properly watch with him) and have a little treat like sweets or popcorn. This would be a very welcome addition to our collection.
We love playing with play-doh and trying to make aliens and monsters with it.
Baking. Getting creative in the kitchen is always a good way to enjoy indoor time!
We like cooking cupcakes and watching a good family movie.
WE like to bake crazy creations….and then eat them!
We like to play snakes and ladders and do jigsaws then watch a film with the blanket on
Playing board games
We love playing Monopoly as a family. It gets really heated at times as the older ones cheat but we always have a really good time.
A movie afternoon with popcorn.
we love making a den and then having movie days or crafty days inside the den!
We like to play games together – either board games or computer games 🙂
Playing board games as a family such as Scrabble, Monopoly and Trivial Pursuits
me and my little girl love to bake, especially cupcake, she loves to decorate them 🙂
playing hide and seek!
The children love playing cards with us