How many fun activities can you do with children?

I'm really not a naturally creative or imaginative person; I was always the one with the mathematical / logical expertise. So when it comes to planning things to do with under fives every day, I have struggled to think of enough exciting things to do. 


However, I have learned over the past couple of weeks that the gestures don't have to be grand - you can have kids running amok looking for orange leaves, excited at the prospect of getting a sweet as a reward, you can let a child jump on a trampoline for 10 minutes, you can play russian roulette with Angel Delight (I had THIRTY TWO kids in silence for half an hour doing this!!), you can get some musical instruments and just let them make as much noise as they like. It's all much better than aimlessly wandering round the garden, pushing children to the floor as you go. 


Here are some pics from a few recent activities:

Note there are no swimming pictures!!! (pulls sad face) I was determined to go today but mother nature had other ideas. We were unsure about the weather, but we decided to try our luck anyway. We got all the shoes out then decide it's too cold and we should head to the beach instead. We got all the shoes and hats on the children (all 16 of them) and then the thunder starts. We decide the beach is a bad idea and we should head to a restaurant 2 minutes down the road. THEN the rain starts pouring it down! Not having the heart to take shoes off the feet of 16 one and two year olds, I decide we are going regardless and get a taxi driver to ship up back and forth in his car! It was a nice afternoon, the kids got to run around and the mamas were compensated for the lack of swimming by plates of chips and soda. 


It has been a good week. Tomorrow we are taking a more serious turn and taking gifts of clothes and nappies to a local hospital... fingers crossed.