Great ways to entertain children in a caravan

How to entertain children on the rainy days or rest days when out touring? Taking the grand children or your own young children on a touring holiday is great. They can see and learn a lot enjoying the days out. In this blog I am going to look at what children did when there was no T.V or computer games. It is amazing how much children enjoy them.

10 items I pack to entertain children in my caravan?

1. Age-appropriate board games extra dice.
2. Purchase some mixed puzzle learning books to entertain the children on a rainy day or just for fun. Many of them have colouring, dot to dot, mazes, colour and number games etc. Children enjoy the one on one time when doing these books. Stamp collecting for older children, cheap and educational at the same time.
3. A craft box with an assortment of items. No need to take too much, just for what you have planned. If you have no space to take the craft box, include a shopping trip to purchase the items you need. This becomes part of the fun.
4. Story books, this can be good to cover various ages all at once. The story books I take along are from my childhood years. These books are available on the internet and in many second handbook shops. Enid Blyton has a lot of short easy to read books which can be read to the children.
5. Skipping ropes for boys and girls. This is not for indoors, it is great for the times between when children need to burn off some energy.
6. Buy a couple of yo-yo’s and some easy to fly kites for older children, they are available on Amazon. Learning all the tricks can be fun.
7. Marbles (click to download some game instructions)if the children are old enough. Lots of games to play with them.
8. Balloons – play games and make water bombs are great easy games to entertain children.
9. Story CD’s, the local library has lots for children. It is great for bedtime or quiet time.
10. Build models for older children. Lego models, ROKR wooden Models, 3D Puzzles.

What makes a good easy to clean place for the activities.

1. I have a plastic tablecloth for tables and a couple of old plastic shower curtains which I use for the floor and for outside craft.
2. Smooth plastic trays are good for all activities. They can be used indoors and outside. They are good at containing spills, rolling out play dough, using as a makeshift table for writing and eating. Easy to clean.
3. Plenty of absorbent kitchen towel and a good wiping cloth.

Where to find ideas that will entertain children and not create mounds of mess inside the van.

Be prepared is always the best for these activities. Planning is essential. I never do two activities at once. It leads to chaos.

1. Annuals and Year books for Boys and Girls were always a hit over Christmas in years gone by. These books have lots of interesting things for children to do. They can be purchased from Ebay or Abe Books online.
2. Libraries have a few craft idea books for children. Usually the ultimate 101 book of crafts. Blogs on the internet also have some great ideas.
3. Simple pen and paper games played in small groups are great way to entertain children in the caravan. If the ages between children is a problem, get an adult to pair up with a younger child. These include General Knowledge, Tic Tac Toe, Hangman, I spy, Snap, Beetle Build, Battle ships, Guessing games, Quiz games – about a story book or film.
4. Stamp collecting – entertain children for hours. teaches geography, history, nature, collecting, value and worth of old stamps.

     

7 Inside crafts ideas to entertain your children.

There are so many ideas choose from so I am limiting it to my go to choices.

1. Read a story, create stick puppets and make your own stories. Older children can use felt or foam sheet to cut and glue stick puppets. Use a chair covered with a towel to make a theatre. Make up shows. My children often make up “concerts” and puppet shows and charge us an entrance fee to watch. This gives them extra pocket money but keeps them busy for days preparing.
2. Painting some smooth pebbles as rock pets or to make a tic-tac-toe game.
3. Create models with play dough or plasticine with cookie cutters for the little ones.
4. Make weather monsters using toilet rolls and some trailing paper. They are like windsocks and can be flown from the caravan on a good day.
5. Origami animals and things. Fold paper into aeroplanes and jets and pinwheels.
6. Make masks from paper plates and capes from bin bags. Superhero in the making.
7. Painting pictures, colouring, paper scrapping, pasta painting, coloured rice, all make interesting pictures and projects.
8. Paper Fortune Teller (click to download). There was nothing more insightful than the paper fortune teller that could reveal whether you were going to have a deep and meaningful relationship with someone in the class, or give just plain facts like ‘you smell’.This form of origami saw a piece of paper folded into a square with flaps that could be operated with fingers and thumbs.There were numbers and colours and counting out the letters in the word or by manipulating the fortune teller to the number chosen, would reveal what fate lay in store for you.
9. Roll a dice, tell a story. See example here.

 

11 Outdoor ideas to entertain children.

1. Use magnifying glasses to entertain children.  Explore the grass, leaves and trees. See lots of bugs etc. I have some information sheets on flowers, trees, mushrooms, frogs and insects. These are good to look up what they see. Collect leaves and flowers to press and make pictures. (modern day would just use Google Lens on their phones, we are doing this old fashioned way.)Look at them Here
2. A pack of cheap coloured washing up sponges can be cut up in strips, group a few together and place an elastic band in the middle. Soak in water and you have a water bomb for sunny outdoor play.
3. Playing marbles, various games to play. Find a sandy patch and decide on which game to play. Marble ideas here.There are some of these games which can be adapted for younger children using a small soft ball.
4. Homemade tents and play house made from rope and sheets. See idea here.
5. Tin walkers, two tins with a bit of string to make stilts.
6. Elastic Jump Rope. Played with a large loop of elastic made into a rectangle with two children standing inside the elastic with it stretched around their ankles, this classic childhood game is played with groups of 3+ children. A third player -the jumper – stands in the middle of the elastic to perform a series of increasingly difficult jumps.Jumps include landing with both feet inside the elastic loop, outside the loop, one foot inside and one outside, and landing with both feet on top of the elastic rope. The elastic loop is raised as each sequence of jumps is completed without error, moving to mid-shin of the holders, then the back of the knees, mid-thighs, hips, armpits, and neck.
7. Limbo – To entertain children with this game, you’ll need a broomstick for a limbo pole. One person to hold each end and some classic tunes for a game of Limbo! Hold the pole horizontal to the floor, at about chest height. Players line up and take turns to dance under the limbo pole without knocking or touching it – if they touch it, they’re out. Players must lean backwards, not forwards, as they pass under the pole. Once all the players are through, the pole is dropped about an inch and the players again must pass under the pole without touching it. The pole continues to be dropped for each round, with the last player standing the winner.
8. Tossing games, been bags into bins or bowls at various distances. Rigs tossed over bottles or sticks, different lengths points.
9. Torch tag for children to play in the dark.
10. Treasure hunt, use paper clues that have been hidden to make it more difficult for older children. Hide something that can be shared so there are no disagreements or hide enough for each child to find.
11. Stuck in the mud. A version of tag that sees the person that has been ‘tagged’ having to stand still (seen as being stuck in the mud) until they could ‘freed’ by another, who has crawled under their legs.A simple but effective game that would see kids running all over the place, trying to avoid being tagged, while those stuck are bellowing for someone to get on their hands and knees and under their legs.

Other good resources for wildlife activities, Free outdoor worksheets, Bird watching.

Some Interesting articles from the annuals of bygone years to entertain children.

I have bought a number of these old books from a seconded hand book shop in Carnforth near Morecambe. There are two wonderful old book shops in the area and you can spend hours calling back past memories. Her is a collection of interesting articles I have come across in these books.