The summer holidays are in full swing and with a heatwave unlike any in living memory, parents are challenged to keep their children entertained, sun-safe, cool and happy! With 6-7 weeks of fun it’s virtually impossible to go out everyday, so how do you keep little ones entertained at home?………..

Origami and buckets of water!!

One of the simplest activities is paper boat racing. Kids must spend time planning their sea worthy vessels, constructing, decorating and finally racing them, it can fill up a surprising amount of time. Our first attempt was quite modest, there was no decoration or even coloured paper (because Mummy forgot to buy any, bad Mummy!) 

We began with some incredibly serious folding, then the kidlets had to find a character to captain their ships to victory. We had:

‘Captain Toothy’ (a shark Lego man) and his first mate ‘Cooper Trooper’

‘Captain Galaxy’ (a Space Lego man)

‘Captain Confused’ (a Lego man with an Uruk-hai head and a Cowboy body)

The ships set sail to the rousing chant of ‘Don’t start it yet, I’m not ready!’ before embarking on a perilous sea crossing. The crowds (kids) cried cheers of encouragement as the boats neared the finish line. In first place……… (drum roll please)

Captain Toothy and his first mate Cooper Trooper!

However it was a short lived victory, Captain Toothy has the sea in his bones (plastic mould) and made a dive for freedom. As the captain always goes down with his ship (or the other way round in this case) so went the boat and first mate too.

To the victor goes the spoils (a double scoop ice cream).

A rematch has been scheduled for later in the week, this time with masts (straws) and sails. The bookies favourite is still to be announced 😉 although I understand that Captain Confused has once again changed personality and it is currently unsure whether he will be available to compete.