Summer holidays are a wonderful time, lots of time for children to relax and unwind from the stresses of a long school year. It can also be an expensive time for parents as children demand yet another expensive toy to keep them amused.

Keep a holiday journal

Buy a scrap or notebook for each child to keep mementoes of the summer break in. The front can be decorated and the pages filled with drawings of things seen, stories of summer adventures, feathers, leaves, flowers collected on day trips, postcards of places visited etc.

Older children will enjoy writing about all the new things they have seen, reports on trips to the museum, or inventing stories about people they have met; younger children can draw pictures or make collages from collected items eg a tree made out of leaves collect on a trip to the park.

Make a holiday picture

This is similar to the above idea buts makes a pictorial memento instead. After each trip out, help your child to make a picture of the day, incorporating items found during the trip.

For example, collect sand, small shells and stones, seagull feathers, seaweed etc on a trip to the seaside, then use these to make a collage of the beach.

Dedicate a special space on the wall to show off these works of art.

Have a mini Olympics

Prepare a few stations in the garden in advance, based on your child(ren)’s ability – toddlers may need help the first time round.

• Throw 3 balls or bean bags into a box
• Walk along a piece of string
• Jump in and out of a hula hoop 3 times
• Catch a thrown ball 3 times
• Stand on your head for 30 seconds
• Stand on 1 leg for a minute
• Run from one side of the garden to the other as fast as possible.
• Kick a ball into a goal 3 times

Go on a bear hunt

Hide some toy animals around the garden (or in the house if it is wet) and see how many can be found. Older children will enjoy it if the animals are very well hidden, perhaps with clues to their location dotted around.

Organise a picnic

Get your child to help you prepare some simple food, sandwiches, salad, etc and turn a trip to the park into a special event. If it is too wet to go out, put a rug down in the sitting room and have your picnic there instead.

Rainy days

Children need exercise, so if it is too wet for a trip out, play Simon Says, ask for help with the cleaning, tidy the toys away together, put on that old exercise video you have had for ages and see how many exercises you can do together.

Musical Animals

Place several soft animals in a circle and turn on some music, When the music stops, each child picks up an animal then takes it in turn to act out the animal – think about how the animal moves as well as the noises it makes. This can be adapted for one or several children.

Make a book

For younger children, cut out lots of pictures from old magazines, toy catalogues etc and let your child stick them in a special book. Add in photographs of family and friends and make up simple stories.

Older children will like the challenge of writing their own book, so provide plenty of paper and pencils to the budding J K Rowling and lend a willing ear to the first reading.

Hold a puppet show

Make simple puppets out of old socks or a paper bag with a face or animal drawn on it. Act out a favourite book or invent a new story. Older children can make more complicated puppets themselves and be the puppeteers with you (and the teddies) as the audience.

Arabella Greatorex is the owner of www.naturalnursery.co.uk, an online store selling organic and fairly traded products for families including organic clothing and nappies, fairly traded toys and natural toiletries.