Keeping Kids Busy During Holidays, 5 Tips to Entertain Kids on A Day Out

Keeping the Boys busy in the summer holidays is not always easy when you have 2 children with a 5-year age gap; it never used to be a problem. But the gap seems bigger than ever now. Although one plus side is they argue ever so slightly less with Jack being older, thank goodness. The problem is, with this gap, they enjoy different things. We are finding they key is to get them both to learn to compromise and find things they both enjoy in one activity, or day out. 

Tip 1, Food. 

I take food wherever I go, if all else fails have a pit stop. When Jack is active he needs to keep refuelling and testing his sugar so that his sugar levels don't drop. He is getting very good at managing this now without overdoing it, which can result in high blood sugar. 

Joe would eat anything at any time, I just can’t fill him, and to be honest it drives me mad, as how can somebody be constantly hungry? But he is.  So the BN biscuits were a great little snack to have on us for our trip. Joe loved both flavours, and happily munched on them whenever dished out and Jack loved the Chocolate flavour, they were just enough carbs for him to have a snack, so that was great, and he really enjoyed them. 

Tip 2, Get the Train.

What is it about kids and trains? They find it so exciting. Getting on the train or tube is not a novelty to the Boys at all. They have travelled by train regularly throughout their lives, yet still this is their preferred mode of transport. On this trip we got the train into London and then spent all day hopping on and off the tube, they were in their element. I think people watching is a big part of it. 

They also enjoyed posing with their biscuits and pulling silly faces for this post, so that kept them busy for quite some time, they got some odd looks from other passengers, posing with biscuits, but I am sure this egged them on a bit. 

Tip 3, Visit the Queen.

Now I am a real Royalist, I love the Queen. But kids see her so differently don't they? Almost a bit like a fairytale, or magical. I remember taking Jack when he was 2 we took him to Buckingham Palace and the flag was down. We told him the Queen wasn't at home and he asked where she was. Chris told him she was probably at Sainsbury’s. He accepted that bless him.(A bit random, but it still makes me smile)

Last time we visited London we watched the changing of the guards, which they both really enjoyed. On this trip Joe wanted show his best friend Finn the palace, as he had never seen it before. 

We were lucky that the police on guard were so friendly, so Joe and Finn had a chat with them. It is surprising that we were not followed by special service from that point, as much to the Police Man and Ladies amusement, these were the questions they asked.

•   How much is the Palace worth?

•   Has it ever been broken into? The answer was yes.

•   How did they get in?

•   What did the Queen do when they broke in?

•   Did you arrest them?

I mean what on earth possessed them to ask those, of all the questions? However the Police Man and Lady were very gracious and answered their question with their faces as straight as they could, and made two 8-year-old boys very happy. This entertained Jack as he rolled his eyes in embarrassment but laughed at the cheek of them.

Tip 4, Find a Tree

We had a lovely picnic in Green Park, it was idyllic, a beautiful hot summers day (sorry forgot to photograph beautiful picnic all set out on lovely blanket, but by the time I remembered it didn't look too pretty) Anyhow the boys were more interested in all the great trees' than eating, and spent most of their time up this lovely big tree, making friends and chatting. They got down occasionally to have a bite of a sandwich and occasionally we had to ask them not to climb to high. But they must have sat there for an hour. Jack flitted between the tree and the picnic and enjoyed taking photos of Joe and Finn. So they were all happy.

This brings me to Tip 5, Play around with Photography. 

Now this has surprised me over the last week, but the Boys have quite a keen interest in photography, especially Jack and spent ages trying out different methods of taking photos. As you can see in this one he has got me taking a photo in the reflection of his glasses.

And the photo below was taken in the reflection of his phone.  They are both very creative and spent such a long time playing around and taking different photos.  They have actually taken some great shots for me, that I can use in some of my posts. Well, done boys. Although they have insisted I put their names on as credit.

So there you have my tips for keeping kids entertained on days out. The day out in London itself was a fantastic day, its these little moments in-between, that kids sometimes need entertaining. We had a great day out and managed to keep them entertained throughout the whole day. They went home tired and happy boys.

This post is my entry for 42 days of Summer Linky Challenge sponsored by McVities's BN. Learn more at http://bit.ly/1mRpMCL.