Ideas to use at home
http://www.mops.org Mothers of preschoolers international. This is an excellent Christian organisation set up to help mothers. Great ideas for what to do with preschoolers on rainy days etc. Call your local Baptist church to see who runs one in your area.
http://www.sparc.org.nz Sport and Recreation NZ have some great ideas under their "Push Play" series. All about games for indoors and out, all free that you can do at home. Get the older kids to check the website and teach the younger ones a new game a day. Ideas like hand ping pong - all you need is one ping pong ball and a dinner table. Or learn to juggle and become a clown, old pillowcase races etc.
http://www.sparc.org.nz Sport and Recreation NZ have some great ideas under their "Push Play" series. All about games for indoors and out, all free that you can do at home. Get the older kids to check the website and teach the younger ones a new game a day. Ideas like hand ping pong - all you need is one ping pong ball and a dinner table. Or learn to juggle and become a clown, old pillowcase races etc.
- Write messages in white pencil on paper. Get the kids to use water paints to paint the page and the message appears. Or just facilitate it and get the kids into a secret spy game. Once they are playing go and put your feet up in the sun.
- If you or the children feel nervous about going into a movie theatre then set one up at home. Invite the friends, put the sofa's and chairs in a row. Pull the curtains and have an usher with a torch show everyone to their seats. Have an interval with pop corn and ice cream in a cone.
- Set up a mini olympics at home or a Ninja Warrier course. Have them do time trials. Some ideas are - use pillows as hurdles, use straws for javlins, plastic plates for discus. etc.
- Get the kids to make their own movie. Get out the video camera and leave them to it. Don't forget to be enthusiastic about the results.
- Head everyone to your craft pile. Set up a challenge to make a musical instrument. Use old shoe boxes, elastic bands, bottles etc.
- Make a hobo stove. Get an old baby formula tin and turn it into a mini stove. Kids love lighting fires and cooking pikelets on the stove will take them all morning. (this will require a bit of supervision and best not done when the fire risk is high)
Things to do which are free
- Go out with the buggy and walk around the block. Head in a different direction every day. Good for your health and fresh air for the kids. Get older ones on their trikes / scooters
- Everyone on their bikes. You included. Aim to stay out for 2 hours. Head in a direction and stop for anything that anyone in your group thinks is interesting. You will be amazed by what you find. New playgrounds, other friends out cycling.....
- Pack some sandwiches and fruit and go to the park. Take a different action item each time you go. First time take a Frisbee, second time a scooter, third time a tennis ball.... you will be amazed with the games etc that the kids devise.
- Go to the library. Walk or bike there and back.
Save my sanity - how to get time to myself
It is really important to ensure that you have time to yourself. Whether you use this time just to sit still and be quiet, do your favourite hobby, participate in a sport. Whatever you do it is important that you do not forget about yourself. If you are healthy and well you will have more resilience and will be better able to deal with your family.
- Try joining or setting up a babysitting club. Decide how you allocate your credits. If you get a group of at least 5 of you together then you will find time that you can look after their children and when you need it someone will be able to look after yours. All this costs is your time and maybe a bit more mess in your house. No financial outlay
- If a group of people is too daunting then swap with a friend as starters. Formalise it so that you know you are going to get the time.
- Talk to WINZ about childcare subsidies. Even if your children are school aged there may be a holiday programme they really want to attend i.e. a soccer training week, YMCA camp etc. You may be able to get a subsidy for them to attend with the bonus that you get some time out.
- If you can't get out of the house, get a group of friends / or people you would like to get to know better to come to your place once a week or once a fortnight. Start a craft together, a book club, a recipe swap night.
- If your finances have changed but you really like magazines. The library not only had older issues of a wide variety of magazines for free. But you can get the current issue on a seven day hire for only $1.