A couple of weeks ago I posted about my dread of the Summer Holidays and my plans to make a Summer Jar. Well the day is finally here once Tori is home from school this afternoon, the Summer Holidays begin – time to put the Summer Jar into action!

What went into our Summer Jar in the end? Well there’s a mixture of crafty things I have bought kits for and other ideas that I have picked up from around the place. I know a few people have been hunting for ideas too so I thought I’d write out a list of all the things we have written on bits of paper in our jar.

There are two types – one off activities that get removed from the jar once they have been done (usually the craft kits) and other activities that can be dropped back in and reused another day.

First up, The Repeatables (I have put these on paper that is coloured on one side so they are easy to recognise once unfolded but look the same when folded up. We could have just used different coloured paper or pens)

• Play with your Fuzzy Felts kits
• Go to the park (We have several parks within walking distance – I am going to try and go to a different one each time)
• Play Happy Finger Families (Available at Mothercare and previously ELC but I think it has been discontinued)
• Go for a walk/scoot/skate/bike ride
• Build five Duplo cars
• Play with chalks outside
• Go to English Folkfan’s (We are lucky to live close by to Caius’s mum and she has a very exciting garden 😉 )
• Dress up!
• Play the Very Hungry Caterpillar Game (Available on Amazon)
• Read a story together
• Read independently for 15 minutes
• Play Picture Dominoes
• Make No-Bake Cookies (Recipe from allrecipes.com)
• Play with your colouring/activity books
• Play Snap
• Go on a treasure hunt outside (Find: a leaf, a flower, a stone, a stick, a woodlouse, a seed)
• Have a picnic (Indoor or out, real or pretend. Everybody help make the food and set up.)
• Play Build A Beetle
• Potato/Vegetable Printing/ Painting with cars
• Go on an indoor treasure hunt (Find: 5 red things, 5 blue things, a yellow crayon, a train, 2 cars, something round, something square, 3 pink things)
• Play with the Story Cubes (I have three sets of Rory’s Story Cubes, the kids love them. You can buy them from Amazon.)
• Draw a picture of our house
• Make pizzas
• Play with all the Cars toys
• Make a train track
• Watch a film you’ve never seen before
• Water the plants
• Tidy the front room floor
• Tidy your bedroom
• Draw a hopscotch grid and play with it
• Blow Bubbles
• Water play
• Watch TV for 20 minutes
• Make an obstacle course in the garden
• Have a bath!
• Dance to some music
• Tidy and sweep the back yard
• Tidy up the shoes and coats

And secondly, The One-Offs (I will say where I got these from, with links where appropriate – the Wilkinsons kits were all on a 3 for 2 offer)

• Ribbon Bracelets (Kit from Wilkinsons £1.50)
• Make a dinosaur sticker picture (Stickers came as part of the Dinosaur Craft Pack from Yellow Moon)
• Make & play Dinosaur Gliders (Part of the Dinosaur Craft Pack from Yellow Moon)
• Make Dinosaur Magnets (Part of the Dinosaur Craft Pack from Yellow Moon)
• Make Dinosaur Masks (Part of the Dinosaur Craft Pack from Yellow Moon)
• Foam Keyrings (Kit from Wilkinsons £1)
• Animal Glasses (Kit from Wilkinsons £1.50)
• Walk to the shop and buy a magazine
• Visit the nature reserve: Take paper & crayons to make bark rubbings. Make a nature picture on the floor.
• Go buy some jelly and make it for pudding
• Make and paint mini mirrors (Kit from Wilkinsons £1)
• Make a sailboat (Kit from Yellow Moon £2.99)
• Foam Handbags (Kit from Wilkinsons £1.50)
• Finger Puppets (Kit from Wilkinsons £2)
• Paint a pet lizard (Kit from Wilkinsons £2)
• Draw your own jigsaw (Kit from Wilkinsons £1)

I will add things to the jar if the kids get any more activity sets or come up with new ideas – I think we should be plenty busy over Summer now and we can carry on using the jar afterwards for weekends and other holidays. I picked up a bargain Hallowe’en Craft Pack from a sale on the Yellow Moon website too – I’m definitely going to keep an eye on their webiste to pick bits up through the year!

I hope this helps if you are making a bored/Summer jar of your own or are just looking for activity ideas – if you have any suggestions for things I can add please let me know!!

(NB. I have not been asked to write this post and have not been sponsored in any way – I have purchased all the mentioned craft kits myself and am just sharing ideas for others to share)