The Big Summer Activity Book

The Big Summer Activity Book

For parents, the summer can seem to stretch out endlessly. There’s a constant pressure to keep the children physically occupied and mentally engaged. This can be especially hard if you’re a working parent who doesn’t get a long time off work.

This book should alleviate some of the pressure. Based on many years experience of keeping children busy and happy, Anne and Peter Thomas have compiled a huge collection of summer activities that will help keep boredom at bay.

It includes indoor and outdoor activities, things to make, things to see and things to do. It is packed with handy tips on food (such as sweets for car journeys), health (such as sunburn) and safety. It covers everything from simple games that parents might themselves have played as a child to inspiring projects that will challenge the whole family.

Fully illustrated in colour throughout, this is an indispensable handbook for any parent.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Whose holidays? – Three important factors
2. Holiday preparations: Tips for going on holiday – Parents’ questions
3. Checklist
4. In cases of illness: Motion sickness – Diarrhoea – Stomach and abdominal complaints – Sunburn – Burns – Sunstroke – Jellyfish – Sting-fish – Ticks – Lyme’s disease – Insect bites, wasp and bee stings – Travelling pharmacy
5. The weather: Sunlight – Seasons – Air currents – High and low-pressure areas – Sunrays and safe sunbathing – Ozone layer – Temperature – Influence of the sea – Wind-chill factor – Temperature and altitude – The clouds – Precipitation – Thunderstorms – Exceptional phenomena – Weather in the mountains – Weather at the coast – Weather forecast
6. The stars: Constellations – The zodiac – How do the stars move? – The winter sky – The other constellations of the zodiac – The moon – The planets
7. Nature: Trees – Nature in bloom – Animals in woods and fields – It’s small and flies through the air – In and around water – In the air 84
8. Orientation: Orientation in the wild – Discoveries in nature – Road and city maps – The compass – In the hills: altitudes – Orientation in a town or village
9. On the beach
10. In the mountains
11. Games to stretch the muscles
12. Living and playing in the countryside
13. Tig and other outdoor games
14. Playing on the beach
15. Indoor and/or outdoor games
16. Creativity with natural materials
17. When it rains

Revolving celestial chart
Songs

About the Author

Anne and Peter Thomas are the authors of The Children’s Party Book (Floris Books). They have three children and live in the Netherlands.