When the weather’s terrible and the children are at home, whether on holiday from school or because they’re not well, it can be a constant hassle to keep them amused. Here are ten top tips to keep them happy without having to spend too much and without straining your temper.

1.    Sock puppet theatre.  Take some old socks and sew or stick decorations o them to make characters. Then cut a hole in a cardboard box and put on a show using your puppets.
2.    Dig out all your old clothes and put them in four bags or boxes: tops, bottoms, shoes and accessories. Each person has to take one item from each box, put them on and do stride along the catwalk! You can use a digital camera or video camera to film this activity. You’ll be amazed just how creative kids can get with a few vintage T-shirts and belts, old hats and accessory items like gloves, briefcases, umbrellas and plastic flowers.
3.    Telling stories – this is a great activity for imaginative kids. Get them to write a series of random words on pieces of paper, then fold them up and put them in a hat. Start telling a story and just when you get to a really exciting moment, stop. The next person has to pull one of the words out of the hat and tell the next instalment of the story, including that word in their tale. Limit the time to three minutes for over tens, two minutes for under tens. This is a great activity for children who are ill as it keeps them involved without requiring movement
4.    Scavenger Hunts are fun for inside or outside – simply list five or ten items that your children must find and set them off on their hunt.
5.    Camping out indoors. Make a tent with sheets and chairs and cook some campfire food such as hot chocolate, baked beans etc. Draw the curtains and use torches as if it was night time. You can tell ghost stories or do a scavenger hunt in the ‘dark’ too.  
6.    Old cardboard boxes and thick paint are great for creating big bold murals – pop your kids into old shirts to protect their clothes from the paint.
7.    If you’ve planned ahead you get have a tie-dying morning, decorating anything from T-shirts to hair scrunchies or even bedding. Tie-dying kits are relatively cheap and a lot of fun and you can add to the fun with fabric paints for textiles
8.    Film nights – choose a god family friendly film, make popcorn and drinks, turn off the lights and watch your movie – every twenty minutes or so, stop the film and let the kids act out ‘adverts’ that they’ve seen at the cinema – you’ll be amazed at their creativity.
9.    Again, if you’ve planned ahead, you can give each child a disposable camera and set them a subject such as ‘things that shine’ or ‘hidden monsters in our house’ and get them to plan and take pictures that you can then get printed and put in a special album
10.    Self portrait – using a large piece of paper such as old wallpaper, or a big sheet of cardboard from a domestic appliance box, let your child lay down on the paper as you draw round them. Then can then colour in their self portrait or you can cut around it and they can pin their favourite clothes onto it once they’ve coloured in their face and hair.

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