Book-inspired activities to do at home this summer

 

Our last blog post was about some bookish adventures you could have in these last weeks of the holidays. But what about something a little closer to home? The books our children read, and that we read with them, are the perfect jumping off point for some fantastic activities at home that flex their creative muscles and fire their imaginations.

Here are 5 simple ideas that could build on a child’s enthusiasm for a few different book genres (although in all honesty, we think they’d be fun for anyone!):

When you’ve loved a book about animals:

Why not get crafty and make finger puppets or corner bookmarks featuring your favourite creatures? There’s a great tutorial for making origami bookmarks on our Holiday Hub page, which can be adapted to any creature you like.

If you’ve been hooked by a great mystery:

If you’ve got the time, you could create a treasure hunt for the kids, with a series of clues for them to unravel which lead them to a prize. A simpler option would be to create a scavenger hunt where they must collect a number of items within a time limit to receive their prize.

When a great fantasy adventure has your imagination whirring:

Create amazing misfit creatures with this simple drawing game for a few people. Each person starts with a strip of paper and needs to draw the head of a creature at the top. When finished, fold the paper backwards with only a small part of the neck remaining on show and pass it to the next person. Continue with bodies and legs before finally opening up the strips of paper to see the creatures you’ve made. Want to take it a step further? Why not make up a story that features all these creatures!

If a non-fiction book has got you excited:

For older kids, why not invite them to design a crossword on a theme of their choice? They will need to create a list of 12-20 words that they can write clues for. The tricky bit will be working out how to lay them out on a grid so that some letters overlap! For younger children, you could work together to create a true/false quiz that you can test others on. They could even create drawings for the two potential answers.

When you’re in the mood for more belly laughs:

A game of fortunately/unfortunately always dissolves into fits of hysterics in this house and is perfect to play at home, in the car or out and about. One person starts a story and finishes their turn by saying “fortunately …” [whatever they can think of!]. The next player must pick up the story by starting with “Unfortunately…”. Keep taking turns and see where your wild and wonderful imaginations take you! You could try making the story about one of your favourite comic heroes and see what they get up to in your version of their story!

For more activity ideas for kids and their families, don’t forget to check out our Holiday Hub or subscribe to our email list to receive your free Boredom Buster Activity Pack.

Are you keen to supercharge your child’s love of reading but feel like you could be doing more to support them? We know that discovering, purchasing and recommending books that maintain your child’s enthusiasm for reading, helping them to reach their full potential, is time consuming.

Why not let us take that off your to-do list? With a Parrot Street Book Club subscription your child receives a carefully chosen new children’s book and accompanying activity pack through the post each month. They receive a stream of varied and exciting books, whilst the book club-style questions and activities are perfect for sharing. Find out more here