We’ve made a real effort to try and make weekends different from weekdays during the lockdown.
One major difference is that Daddy Mumbler doesn’t have to work at the weekend, so we have done a variety of things such as a pool party day when it was really sunny, Superhro Day, Harry Potter Day at home and afternoon tea at home with the kids.
Our absolute favourite was the day we held a festival in our back garden back in April. I thought it would be worth a share on the weekend of Virtual Glastonbury!
It’s not a festival without a wrist band! We printed off some thin strips of paper with the name of our festival printed on them and we all sat and coloured them in! All we had to do was then pop them on and use glue to fasten.
Anything goes! We got the flowery head dresses out of the dressing up box, and the hawaiian lei’s!
You may have a theme, you may not…making bunting is so easy and a great way to keep the kids entertained for a while. Download a template here
We opted for picnic food at lunchtime and a BBQ in the evening, although anything goes at a festival. We decided to make Rocky Road as we all love it! If you need a recipe, you can find a great one here.
We put bunting and lanterns up and hung beads from the trees…created some cosy areas to sit in the shade, put blankets down. Create a games area (we had a big jenga and swingball tournament and nerf target practice). You can obviously be as creative and colourful as you like!
We decided to go on a foraging walk to find some interesting sticks in the woods near our house (good excuse to have some exercise and there are always magical woody areas at festivals). We made some decorations with the sticks by wrapping string around them (honestly kept littlest Mumbler busy for ages!). Then we hung them up around the garden.
Bubbles! If you’ve got a bubble machine, get it out and have bursts of bubbles through the day, or get the bubble wands out. Bubbles of any kind are always fun whatever age the children.
My daughter has always loved facepainting and I have such a great memory of her at a festival when she was one year old, having her face-painted in a tutu. We painted each other’s faces and everyone including Daddy had hair chalk in (if you’ve not tried this, it just washes out).
We made some of these Pebble Plaques using salt dough and pebbles. See a salt dough recipe here.
We once made some T-Shirts at a festival which the kids still love now (all you need is a white T-Shirt and some fabric paints). I have seen some wonderful tie-dye creations recently so that’s our next thing to have a go at.
As it’s a festival, music was a big part of it and we all chose what we wanted on the playlist for the day! We then watched the Together At Home Concert in the evening. The kids loved staying up late to watch it all.
Glastonbury looks to have a great line-up this weekend..keep up with it here on the BBC website and if you’re joining in with Glastonbury at home enjoy!
Not sure about the weather, but at least it will feel like an authentic festival experience if it’s raining!
See more ideas and activities to do with the kids during lockdown HERE
