Summer Holiday Fun – Entertaining Kids of Different Ages Together

Summer Holiday Fun – Entertaining Kids of Different Ages Together

Ah, the school holidays! Most parents are looking forward to spending more time with their kids (if they manage to have time off work) and also to not having to do the stressful school run for quite some time.

My girls are with me all the time so the school holidays are not that much different other than the fact that all the playgroups that we usually go to are closed so I need to do a bit more to keep them entertained. Soon, my eldest is starting pre-school too so soon I’ll know the true difference!

When you have kids of different ages — they usually are unless you have twins! — it can be difficult to keep them both/all entertained at the same time. When they’re little, it’s especially hard to find toys that are safe and fun for different age groups.

My daughters are 14 months old and three and a half years old and they love to play together but there are definitely many toys that my youngest can’t play with as she still puts things in her mouth and my eldest is not that interested in the very baby-ish toys that my toddler enjoys.

So, the challenge at the moment is to think of boredom-busting activities that both my daughters will enjoy doing this summer and to do that, I’ve added a couple of new toy sets to their collection and have specifically chosen things that both girls can play with safely and that they’ll both enjoy. I decided to open the toys with a few days apart too to make them concentrate on one thing at a time. These are both from Wicked Uncle.

Project 1 – SmartMax My First SAFARI Animals | Magnetic Fun

I’d heard lots of good things about SmartMax and seen lots of great photos online of different sets. This is a great starter set with 18 pieces to make six different safari animals. They are extra-large, soft-touch animal parts that click onto the body bars which are traditional SmartMax bars. You can make the correct animals or mix and match to make really weird and fun combinations!

The set is safe to use from 12 months onwards and both my girls love playing with this. My eldest is really fond of rainbow colours and the animals in this set are beautifully bright and colourful. They can be organised into rainbow colour order which is something that’s very important to my eldest. You can play with the animals as figures or just build different creations.

Both girls love exploring and learning about the magic of magnetism and we’re already looking at expanding with more SmartMax pieces to build more things. They’ve played with this everyday so far so it’s definitely helping to beat boredom!

It’s available here for 29.95.

Project 2 – String a Farm | Wooden Beads

This is a set with 12 large and chunky wooden farmyard beads of different animals and other farm items and a lacer to string the pieces together. The lacer is made from cotton and has a wooden end to make the beads easy to put on and a stopper on the other end to keep the pieces on.

Stringing is a great way to develop fine motor skills and the beads help promote sequencing and counting skills.

My eldest loves stringing the pieces on in rainbow colour order and my youngest loves playing with the different farmyard beads. They’re very large so they’re not dangerous for her to play with. They can stand up too and make great figures to play with for kids of different ages. We love that this set provides the farmyard toys and an activity that is fun and educational. My eldest has never stringed anything before but she took to it straight away.

This set is available here and costs £9.95.

More Fun Ideas for the Summer Holidays

Wicked Uncle has lots of fun items and sets to keep boredom at bay during the holidays and to keep kids entertained and happy. Perhaps they want to teach themselves to play beautiful music with a clever Rainbow Harmonica, watch caterpillars transform in a Butterfly Garden before setting them free or get growing in a mini greenhouse. You’ll find something for all tastes and interests — fairy gardens, yummy baking kits, fun science kits, things to build and much much more.

About Wicked Uncle

Wicked Uncle isn’t just a toy shop — it’s a also present service for birthdays, Christmas and other occasions when you need a gift for a child. It’s the only toy shop in the world that doesn’t primarily sell toys to parents but instead helps friends and family find and purchase suitable gifts for children of all ages. The shop provides service that makes sending presents to other people’s children really easy. The toys are divided into age and gender as these are things the gift giver will know about the child. You can also narrow your search down by area of interest or choose “All” instead of gender to see all toys for each age group.

We received a voucher to spend on the two sets shown in exchange for this post. As always, all my reviews are 100% honest and all thoughts and opinions are my own.