Thames Valley Mums Blog

Something to do on a snow day...

First, check out the best of the British Mummy Bloggers Carnival, it's up over at A Modern Mother.

And while you are reading blogs, your kids can do this:

Paper Dali.

It's a great site that features FREE historical paper dolls. Choose from Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Biblical Times, American Revolution, King Arthur or the Wild West.

They were created by a home-schooling mother who loves history and doodling. When she couldn't find any colouring books to go with the era, she created her own.

So check it out, it will surely kill at least a half hour...

And if you get bored doing that ... make snow ice cream!

There are ten more tips for educational snow activities here.

This post was written by Susanna, a London Mums Blog founding contributor. You can read more at her blog, A Modern Mother.

Kids bored this half term? Try these activites...

I used to measure the success of school breaks based on the number of trips made to A&E. One year I had to deal with a 2-year-old who lost her fingernail in a slammed door AND a 3-year-old who broke her arm whilst climbing out of her cot.

We've moved on since then, and so has the economy.

The credit crunch means that many people may opt to stay local this half term, rather than the usual trip to France and Euro Disney.

Here are some ideas in preparation for when you wake up on Monday morning and the children ask "what are we doing today mummy?"

This post has a Thames Valley twist, but there are ideas that you can use to beat half term boredom in any location.

And if none of these ideas appeal ... you can always hire a babysitter and get a massage!

Seven FAB activites for children during the Christmas holidays

My daughter has four weeks of Christmas holidays.  Every year I’ve worked the holidays, so I’ve never really had to deal with keeping her entertained.  However as I’m only working two days a week now and hubby’s just been made redundant we aren’t for one minute going to spend £45 a day on holiday club - no matter how much she begs to go - LOL!

So being a good thrifty mummy I’ve scoped out the local bowling alley, it turns out you can bowl for £1.95 if you go between 10am and 12pm. An ice rink opened locally for the holidays but it’s quite expensive so we might have to give that a miss or see if they have a reduced rate time.