It will soon be half term, and some parents might be wondering how to keep their kids from being under their feet at a loose end all day long! The good news is that there are plenty of fun activities that can also be educational to keep them engaged and mentally active. Here are just a few ideas to try out.

Bottle top maths challenge

Save up the tops from bottles and cartons for a few weeks, stick a sum or maths problem on the top of each one, with the answer on the flip side. Make sure to pick the correct level of difficulty for the age and ability level of all the players.

Arrange the caps in a group on a table or the floor and gather the players around.  Each player takes turns to pick a cap at random, and attempts to answer the maths question. If they get it right, they keep the cap, and if they get it wrong, it goes back with the others. 

The winner is the player with the most caps, either when there are none left to pick, or after a set period of time. This helps kids to work on their mental arithmetic skills rather than reach for a keyboard, and the competitive edge can help to sharpen minds!

The science of cooking

Cooking is a useful life skill to learn at an early age, and it can also be a great way to bring in maths and science skills in a context outside of the classroom. This is particularly valuable for kids who have a natural aversion to STEM subjects, maybe because they find them too dull or abstract.

Measuring out ingredients, calculating cooking times and temperatures, and working out portion sizes are great ways to covertly bring in some numerical skills to the kitchen. You can also bring in some concepts such as the boiling point of water, and what happens when an egg is added to a cake mixture. 

Nature trail challenge

Early spring is an ideal time to get out in the garden or on a country walk and to observe nature beginning to come to life. You could ask simple but deceptively scientific questions, such as why plants need sunlight to grow, why grass is green, or why the sky is blue. 

There are plenty of other concepts to bring in, such as why some species of tree lose their leaves in winter while others do not, and why some species of bird migrate to more southerly regions in winter. 

Lego mazes

If your child enjoys computer games, but you are concerned about the amount of screen time they have, then tempt them away with some Lego challenges. Build a maze out of Lego that is complex enough to present a real test, and write a series of commands to direct a Lego character through the maze.