. Have a dress up in the Children’s Day theme - The theme for this year’s children’s day is ‘Treasure our children’ so get dressed as pirates and have a treasure hunt. Make sure you take some fun silly photos to hang in the children’s bedrooms.
3. Have a surprise picnic at the local park or at the beach and pack your child’s favourite picnic food, some fun activities like a ball or Frisbee to throw around together.
4. Have a Children’s Day disco. Put on some fun dance music and teach your child some funky moves - and get them to teach you some new moves too. You could even decorate the disco room with fairy lights or homemade decorations.
5. Make a cake together - Get your child to decide what flavor and make a cake to celebrate all the children of the world, teaching them about different cultures and countries. If you are not a ‘baker’ make some fairy bread or decorate some premade cupcakes. It is all about the process of having fun together, not the end product.
6. Have a pretend power cut and decorate the house with candles. You could play with torches and tell stories in the dark. You could even adventure around the house and pretend that you are exploring in a cave.
7. Have a water fight outside with water guns, balloons, cups and buckets to have your children squealing with laughter.
8. Go exploring in the garden to make your own Garden Fairy. Gather leaves and flowers from your garden and decorate a Footsteps Fairy template together to create a pretty work of art. Check out the Footsteps website to learn how to make your own Garden Fairy: www.footsteps.co.nz/fairies
9. Go on a camping trip in your back yard, or even make a hut inside to camp in over night. You can play make believe and pretend you are camping in the jungle and there are lots of animals living all around your tent.
10. Share a fun activity from your childhood like ‘elastics’ or knucklebones, or hunt down your own favourite early childhood book or movie and relive the fun with your child explaining a bit about your childhood.