KIDS At Home Essentials

Do you remember your summer holidays – days of endless sunshine, picnics and coming home pleasantly tired? Or maybe mum gave you some paper, pencils and Pritt sticks and left you to your own devices.

Now the holidays are here, forget the schoolwork and play to your kids’ imaginations. Reach for your stack of egg cartons and toilet roll tubes and they’ll be building spaceships in no time. But it’s always good to have some kids’ stationery essentials to hand.

For little ones, a pack of rainbow coloured crayons and a stack of paper will keep them happy. If you have some A3 paper going spare, cut out pictures from magazines and suggest your child makes up a story by sticking them on a big sheet. (Maybe they could interpret it for you!)

For the older ones, try some craft paper in vivid colours. Have your children ever tried origami? Now could be the time to start. In the same vein, they could make pop-up greetings cards for friends.

If they are nifty with their hands they could design their own dinosaurs or dragons – just make sure there is enough double-sided sticky tape to go round.

Felt-tips pens and coloured pencils have become ever so trendy – think how we adults have now taken to colouring books! If there’s a budding fashion designer or inventor in your brood, ask them to draw their creations and annotate them, just so you understand. (Double-sided sticky tape, or Blu-tack is handy for displaying stuff).

Maybe you have a child who is great is making up stories about imaginary characters. Or one you know that longs in secret to be a songwriter. Tap into that talent. Give them a wirebound notebook and a pack of index tabs. It may help them to capture all that creativity and organise their ideas.

And for the older child who spends the summer hols doodling and sketching, make this one memorable by presenting them with a proper sketchbook and a set of graphic pens. You’re acknowledging that they have something special and it will make a great record of their progress.

You probably have got together a host of bits and bobs to bring out once the summer holidays start. But you’ll be surprised at how you can use some household bits to have a bit of fun. Bubblewrap is great for printing patterns or making decorative butterflies.

Now all you need to do is find the tinfoil…