Winter school holidays - what to do? Ideas, please!

Miss Moo's preschool has broken up for the holidays, so we have a couple of weeks to fill and I'm all out of inspiration ... The weather of late has been dreadful (I'm considering investing in a boat if this rain continues!), so the usual park, zoo or beach visits are off. What to do to fill two weeks with a preschooler and a toddler? We do have annual passes to a couple of museums but, TBH, with this rain I'm loathe to drag the children off to the train station and then battle public transport for 45 minutes to get into the city, only for them to be wet all day. I'm going soft. (And feel the need to balance that by saying Iris has already asked today to go out and jump in puddles, so they'll be doing that for half an hour or so before bath time!) So does anyone have any good ideas as to things we can do over the next couple of weeks? Craft ideas? Easy games for home? We like baking, too, so any child-friendly recipes? (We've made a banana maple upside down cake today, which smells delicious as it's baking.)

Any suggestions gratefully received. Thanking you muchly.

I'm quite happy to send you sine suggestions but only if you post the recipe for that cake it sounds delicious

Hi Nichola

Ideas off the top of my head:

Making Salt dough shapes- we make them one day and then colour them in another day. I found the colouring in is batter with felts than paint and the wet paint melts them!

Building an assault course inside. - walk along a dressing gown tie thingy, jump over a cushion, balance a bean bag on your head etc

Indoor wet play , if you ve got towels or a waterproof sheet to put down.... We do a washing up bowl with water and bubbles and give them things to clean , toys, cups etc and an old tooth brush.

Find the cuddly toys or what ever else they want to hide. My two will play this for hours!

Paint stones

Threading beads/ buttons onto pipe cleaners.

Guess what animal I m being

That's all I can think of at the mo, will come back if I think of any more

I've a load of ideas pinned on my summer holiday pinterest board. Now, I said summer holidays, but in reality, this is Ireland LOL, our summer is no better than your winter, so most of the ideas are indoor things

http://pinterest.com/xgeordiegirlx/60-d ... -holidays/ (I think you can access that without signing in, but I can't check, obviously, as I am signed in, if not then please let me know and I'll delete the link)

I found this website when I was looking for stuff to do, there's lots of good ideas

http://www.learning4kids.net/2012/10/16 ... ffy-paint/

http://www.learning4kids.net/2012/10/16/how-to-make-puffy-paint/

also what about air dry clay - make some stuff leave to dry and paint, that;s a two day activity

put them in the bath with paint brushes and let them paint each other with soap paint - I think its baby wash, paint and a bit of flour - but you can google it.

have you got a deck/patio that they could sit outside and do water play?

I can't think of much else, but will keep thinking

Thanks, all, some great ideas there! Mareth, the link works for me, but I'm also signed in! We like salt dough, Nicola, so will definitely do that. And great site, Amanda! Duly bookmarked.

Riley loves playing pairs or match you know the picture cards all turned over then you have to find a pair.

Or snap - massive favourite