This years Good Childhood report highlighted that spending the all important ‘quality time’ with their families was a really import factor in children’s happiness. To help families find cheap fun activities to do together The Children’s Society has launched a great resource, Unplugged, with ideas for projects from making an interplanetary mobile to designing your own Olympics. Each activity has a key letting you see at a glance if it is for indoors or outside, how complicated it is and roughly how long it will take to make it easy for you to find something appropriate. It’s a really fun, colourful site with beautiful images and lots of downloadable resources to go with the activities so do go and check it out if you find yourself at a loose end and look out for more activities being added each week.
Apart from creating Unplugged, The Children’s Society are a leading children’s charity (who also function as a drug addiction treatment centre), working across the country to combat childhood poverty and adolescent neglect. They work with runaways, young people at risk of being sexually exploited, children affected by parental drug and alcohol misuse, disabled children, young refugees, young carers, children in care and more. They lobby government to change the systems that keep children in poverty or subject them to neglect. All really important work so do support them is you can.
One of the companies that support the Unplugged project is the publisher Bloomsbury who have kindly donated this week’s giveaway prize, two copies of Unbored: The essential field guide to serious fun. Described as:
The book every modern child needs. Brilliantly walking the line between cool and constructive, it’s crammed with activities that are not only fun and doable but that also get kids standing on their own two feet.
As well great activities like ‘make a fake exhaust for your bike so it sounds like you’re revving up a motorcycle’ the book also includes Q&As with inspiring grown-ups, extracts from classic novels, lists of useful resources and best ever lists like the top clean rap songs, stop-motion movies or books about rebellion.
If you’d like to be in with a chance of winning a copy just leave me a comment sharing your favourite childhood summer activity and record your entry in the rafflecopter widget along with any additional entries for tweeting etc. The giveaway will run until Monday 19th August 2013.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
laura banks says
building dens in the fields near where i lived
victoria thurgood says
Hanging out in the woods next to our house climbing trees
Tracy Nixon says
Playing with my My Little Ponies in the garden! I would set up ‘camp’ around the rockery and fish pond – the rockery would be the mountains and the fish pond would be the lake!
Phil Darling says
Skateboarding round the estate
Gina says
I used to love going for long bike rides with my brother
Charlotte says
hopscotch! xx
Laura H says
Riding my bike – I’d be gone for hours!
Holly Smith says
going to the seaside and building sand castles
Hannah ONeill says
Going to the beach!
Actually Mummy... says
Definitely creating adventures with obstacles that were burning pits or dragon caves!
vandervaulk says
Gymnastic’s
Domestic Disgrace says
Building dens in our back garden with all the patio furniture and a load of my mum’s tablecloths.
Jo Glasspool says
Clinbing trees and swimming
Michele Hemmings says
loved neighbourhood water fights!! No super-soakers in those days though…washing up liquid bottles for us with the odd water balloon thrown in!
Beky Austerberry says
Making rose petal perfume and then setting up a stall to ‘sell’ it!
Leanne V mckenna says
Super soaker wars in the woods with my dad! Great fun!
Karen Barrett says
Walking over to “Crystals” to swim, it was a pond formed from the slag heaps. We used to take our jam butties wrapped up in a Warbies bread wrapper and a bottle of water. We’d spend all day there… happy days!
melanie stirling says
Fruit picking and riding my bike,i used to be gone all day!
Susie Wilkinson says
I used to love going to the marshes and jumping the creeks
Tammy Tudor says
Going to the beach and building sandcastles!
anna says
playing in the garden, doing cartwheels and handstands
Melanie Dye says
Climbing up the cherry tree at the end of our garden with a book and sitting on my favourite branch to read it.
Maya Russell says
Making mud pies was a favourite activity when I was very young.
leanne williams says
Going to the beach and building sandcastles!
james wood says
playing football
iain says
playing tennis
Lisa Wilkinson says
Wild Goose Chases
Hannah says
Riding my bike.
Anna says
Making little fairy gardens in saucers, or little gardens and houses in the grass for my toys.
Joanne Darnell says
making dens
Michael clyma says
hunting through rock pools with my brother and sister, mum and day, on the beaches of Cornwall, marvelling at the crabs, urchins and sea anenomes we caught, and finishing the day with soft vanilla cones, sitting in the sand dunes looking out to sea, magical memories
ruth steel says
Roller Skating
alison johnson says
butterfly catching
Kathy Cakebread says
roaming around
Jo welsh says
Making dens and playing on my bike.
Felicity Smith says
swimming in the ocean
Hatley says
Riding little ride on toys and trikes into paddling pools
Kay panayi says
Picnic in the park
REBECCA TOWNSEND says
Collecting shells at the beach
Fran Light says
Swinging in the tyre swing in the back garden 🙂
Kathy D says
Running wild through the woods with jy mates
Keith says
Camping in my friends garden
EMMA WALTERS says
finding new places to go on my mountain bike
Mickie Bull says
Camping in the woods
Julie Ward says
Picnics and fishing in the park
Ashley Beolens says
I used to love climbing trees or looking in ponds for frogs, etc.
Louise says
playing 4040
Amelia Goudie says
Drama Camp
julie baxter says
we used to play hide and seek within a few streets.
Fiona Matters says
I loved going for walks.
Katrina Ambrozevich says
My favourite childhood summer activity was going to play in the local paddling pool, and going exploring in the woods!
Stevie says
This prize is brilliant. I used to like to find roman pottery and glass bottles in the woods. It was everywhere, never kept any, just forgot it and went for a go on the homemade tree swing.
Mandy Waller says
Swimming and still is 🙂
Solange says
Swimming
amanda davis says
bull dog
Cheryll H says
Hide and seek (I still play it when I get the biscuits out ha ha ha)
Angela Williams says
playing on my swing in the garden
Ann says
Building a den whether it be in the garden from household items or in a wood from natural materials
Mark Palmer says
Cricket
Katie Coldicott says
Loved going fruit picking
Kerry Kilmister says
We lived outside a field with woods at the top of them and we would love making a den in the Woods and living out pretend adult lifes.
Tina Lawton says
I loved making dens in the back garden with my little brother 🙂
greta blacklock says
Playing street games
Kirsty Sparks says
Playing on a swing 🙂
Amanda Williams says
Playing on the beach with a bucket and spade
Irene Wright says
swimming or when it was wet, reading
Jennifer Hudson says
Painting and drawing, or water fights when it was hot.
Helen Grayson says
Making dens in the garden 🙂
Wendy Guy says
Going to the seaside.
jessica agyin says
climbing up trees
stacey robinson says
whats the time mr wolf, kirby or lemonade game
Lucy Mayer says
Making camps in the woods 🙂
sam cornford says
making camps ad tree climbing.
Pam Gregory says
Climbing Trees
Eleanor Jones says
Climbing trees
Alice Hindley says
Camping in the back garden!
DAWN TOTTON says
Cycling.
Janine Atkin says
roller blading
Melanie Burton says
Playing cops and robbers on our bikes
Samantha R says
we used to go on long bike rides through the countryside with our dad
adrian knox says
football bike rides
Jamie Glew says
Making ‘dens’ – we could do it all summer and each one would be bigger and better than the last!
Karen says
I liked going bike riding 🙂
Rachel Gilbey says
Playing in the paddling pool in the garden
Angela Morgan says
stream jumping and apple scrumping
Mrs Pauline Wood says
Riding my bike
Katie Walden Hall says
Going to the park 🙂
Elizabeth Smith says
I was happy when I was in or on the water – swim, paddle, sail
claire little says
climbing trees 🙂
Diana says
Reading books outside :}
Marium A says
Going to the beach and reading my book! 🙂
Julie Cook says
Reading or rollerskating
David Jackson says
playing championship manager
Hayley Todd says
I used to love playing house in my wooden ‘wendy house’ in my back-garden. I would stay in there for hours, even making my mum bring my dinner out there for me!
Christina Faery says
Our yearly street BBQ! Was always so much fun! 🙂
Adam says
Stream hopping and bug collecting 😎
carol boffey says
reading a good book
Jayne B says
Playing badminton in the garden
sion gibby says
playing football with friends in the field til it was so dark you couldn’t see the football –eventually we finished when someone cried because it hit them in the face!
Emma Ellison says
Making Dens & drawing with chalk on the paving 🙂
Becky Downey says
swimming