Tips to keep your kids occupied while you relax

So the first days at the beach are over and the kids are bored with gathering starfish and dunking each other. The only problem is, you’re only halfway through your chick lit novel and it’s just got to the point where the romance with the guy from her past is getting pretty hot and your hubby keeps going fishing. Even if you’re not at the beach and are just hanging out at home, you need to get those kids busy… and fast.

Here are some ideas for keeping the youngsters occupied so you can finish your book and work on your tan:

• Make friends with a hose
  If you have a sloping piece of land, get some polythene and set up a water slide. Or just let them squirt each other. Who can get the most cockles/pipis? Appeal to your kids’ competitive streak – give them a bucket each and you’ve got dinner at the end of it. Do be careful they don’t go over the quota though. If they do, give some to the neighbours, quickly.

• Sell stuff
  Set them up outside with a stall and all the old toys they no longer want now they have all those new ones from Christmas. You could also help them make some lemonade or cakes to sell at the same time. Do stay with them, but you can sit to one side and read your book so they feel independent. Treasure hunt This does require an initial output from you at a $2 shop, plus the time taken to hide everything, but if your hiding skills are good enough you could earn a good two hours of book-reading time.

• Worm collecting
  Give them a trowel each, a piece of dirt and get them collecting worms. Encourage your kids to keep them alive by putting some damp dirt in the bucket and then tip them into the compost heap. Or perhaps Dad can take them fishing and use them as bait.

• Make some money doing odd jobs
  If you’re in the city your kids can make hay while the sun shines by mowing lawns, watering gardens, feeding animals and clearing mailboxes for your neighbours who are away. Help them make up a flyer and deliver it to local letterboxes.

• Recycle
  Find your old Christmas cards and get your kids to cut them up and create collage cards for next year. Tear up old newspapers and put them around plants and trees in your garden as mulch. Start a compost bin or a worm farm.

• Plant a garden
  Kids’ gardens are really easy to do and very rewarding if you plant fast-growing seeds like radish, lettuce, watermelon, Sweet William, cosmos and marigolds. You will have to help get them started but you can still fit in some sun and reading time around all that digging and watering.

• Have a speed day
  The idea is they have races on their bikes or skateboards or any other contraption with wheels that they can get their hands on. Appoint the eldest child as time-keeper to save arguments later. Take a bus There’s something so freeing about not having to drive and you can use the excursion to visit a part of town you’ve never been to before. Just make sure there’s a park or a pool or something, so you can keep reading your book.

• Make art
  Designate an area you don’t mind turning into a pool of glue, paint and water then set them up with paper, paints, old magazines, scissors, crayons and pastels. Say you need three works of art from each of them for an exhibition you are holding in the garage. And do remember to have the exhibition and ask the grandparents around for a viewing.