Activities to Keep Host Kids Busy During the Holidays

Many new au pairs arrive during the summer holidays and sometimes it can be very difficult to keep kids busy! That is why we asked our current au pairs for their best ideas on what to do – here are their activity suggestions 😊

Genevieve from Canada: “This summer I'm planning on doing lots of trips to the playground with my boys, although during half term all they wanted to do was play Minecraft, so it was difficult to convince them to do anything else. I did find success with baking with them, and I want to attempt to

make slime, and see what kind of kid friendly community activities are going on over the summer. Pinterest is also full of great ideas!”

Anna (pictured) from Germany: “We sometimes make pizza ourselves. It keeps them busy all afternoon and they have fun decorating afterwards as well. It's also nice to try and do a face on the pizza, instead of just putting everything on top ☺️ and who doesn't like pizza, right ?!”  

Milena from Germany:  “I looked after two girls (6 and 7) and they loved all sorts of arts & crafts and also played by themselves a lot but especially in the holidays I had to entertain them sometimes. They loved baking and gardening and I did a scavenger hunt for them once. They also loved "land art". Inside we often played games that are more for bigger groups but with their soft toys. For example, hide and seek with the toys or "isn't it funny how a bear likes honey". I also always "forced them" to leave the house at least once a day in the holidays. So, we went to the playground a lot.”

Luisa from Germany: “Mine loved doing wraps as well. To the pizza: how about letting the kids decide what to put on the pizza? My little boy chose carrot and cucumber pieces (with all the regular stuff as well). Building a tent was always fun, playing and reading stories inside. Fruit salad (and chopping it together). Trips with different means of public transportation: bus, train and if the kids are older maybe bike. Egg hunt or in summer hunting sweets. Water fights. And my kids loved to do potions e.g. a flying potion, afterwards flying from the sofa ”

Linda from Germany: “We made milkshakes, pillow fights, picnic and guess the food with closed eyes.”

Kristina from Finland:  “The kids I looked after (a boy of 7 and a girl of 5) had a lot of energy which is why we visited the park nearby regularly, usually with a football and scooters. It was also a great place to play "I spy" or let the little girl (5 years old at the time) paint my nails (one of her favourite things to do). There would also always be other kids in the park as well, which was great! If the weather was not that great or we didn't have time to go to the park, we'd play inside the house. The kids absolutely loved dancing to music, and sometimes they'd put on silly costumes to make it even more fun. Another one of their favourite games was animal races. Basically, I sat on the sofa coming up with animals and the kids would make impressions of those animals while racing across the room, they loved it and it was great fun for me too as the kids were so creative I also awarded them with points (according to the impression or being funny etc.) and when one of them reached 3 points, they'd get to choose the next animal. Sometimes we'd play that for ages and be tired afterwards because of laughing so hard. Another thing that the boy absolutely loved and that was great for wearing off some extra energy was what we called throw football. We had a very soft tiny football (would probably work with a teddy as well) that I'd throw towards the sofa which was the goal and the boy would play the goal keeper trying to catch the ball before it hit the sofa. The kids also loved swimming and we had a pool near our house, which was convenient and really affordable. Bowling was another hit among the kids especially since we had to take the bus to get there.” Thanks for sharing your ideas with us and all our au pairs who have trouble to keep their host children entertained!! xx Isabelle