1. Go for a Picnic
Grab a picnic blanket, pack some delicious food and head outdoors for a good old fashioned picnic! There are plenty of gorgeous outdoor spaces to picnic in Calderdale, making it easy to social distances, but please consider popular places could be busier during half term.
2. Geocaching
We LOVE trails and we’ve been fans of geocaching for a while; it gets us outdoors, active and exploring. Geocaches can come in all different shapes and sizes and they are such a great thing for families to get involved in.
If you’ve never tried it before, geocaching is a fun, outdoor activity, where you try and find geocaches that other people have hidden. They are usually small containers, and some contain little treasures that you can swap with something of your own. Participants use a Global Positioning System receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to find geocaches —there are probably some near you right now! Download the free Official Geocaching app to your phone and start finding.
3. Camp Out
If you have all the gear and nowhere to go, why not set up camp in the back garden? Spend a couple of nights (or just one!) on a staycation at home. Leave your phones indoors, light the BBQ or make a fire, roast marshmallows, tell stories and enjoy some family time disconnected from the world.
No gear? No problem. Ask the kids to create a den or tent indoors. Use the dining room table or the backs of the sofa to create the tent and away you go!
4. Themed Day
Check out our May Half-Term Boredom Buster for the national days happening over the week and have a go at enjoying a themed day! You can download a copy to stick on the fridge here!
5. Create your own Seaside
The weather is looking good for May half term ,and to avoid the crowds at the coast ,why not create your own seaside experience at home?
Here’s how to do it:
6. Have a Family Festival at Home
We are big fans of Deershed at Mumbler and unfortunately, it cannot go ahead this year. But there are so many things we can do to create the festival vibes at home! Get the face paints and fancy dress on, try the camping ideas above, decorate the garden with bunting and lights and then watch highlights of your favourite festivals online! You can catch most festivals on YouTube, or take a look at the BBC iplayer for some great Glastonbury highlights! Big Fish Little Fish do weekly Sunday Kitchen raves that me and my little girl have really been enjoying – we even got out in the sunshine last week and had a garden rave – proper Festival Sunday afternoon vibes!
You could also hire a hot tub or bouncy castle as a treat for the kids to give a real festival feel!
7. Mini Garden Olympics or Football Tournament
As there won’t be any Olympics or European championships this year. why not create your own? Pick a country to represent, dress up in their colours, create your own competition numbers and away you go!
You could try one of these events:
You can buy cheap medals online to present to the winners!
8. Paint Rocks for your local Covid Snake
During the pandemic, villages have initiated some great community initiatives including window rainbows, Easter eggs, sunflower planting and even Covid 19 rock snakes!
Children and adults are being encouraged to decorate rocks and pebbles and add them to the snake to see how far they can get her to go throughout our village.
As we can’t all be together with our family and friends, this is a perfect way for us all to work together and show community spirit. Also a great art and crafts project for the kids over half term!
You can spend the whole week in Disneyland, a day trip to London or even a virtual trip to a museum. The Vlog of the cute baby animals at Temple Newsam is one of our favourites! For lots more ideas of virtual day trips visit our dedicated blog here.
10. Virtual Cookalong or Sleepover!
Our friends at Ryedale Mumbler told us all about a virtual cookalong they took part in with friends, and we thought it sounded great! The idea is you all make the same recipes linked via Zoom – (for example, quiche and a pudding) then you Zoom again (or stay on) for the kids to eat together. A great way for the kids to see friends! You could also create a theme for the cookalong and dress up!
Another idea I heard about is a Zoom sleepover. This might be one for the older kids, but they all dial in on Zoom and perhaps play games, listen to music, get ready for bed, have a virtual midnight feast and then go to sleep! Anyone else tried this?
