Sometimes you meet someone who changes your life for the better. For me that person was Karen from The Rubbish Diet. Karen was the one that made me feel better about myself by encouraging me to slim my bin down and recycle more and was only a tweet away to help me if I had any issues. Anyway, the other week it was announced in The Observer (What? I read it occasionally!) that "Karen of Bury St Edmunds embarrasses her kids by taking photos of municipal trash cans" and I had a sneaky suspicion that I knew what this was about!
What better way to promote recycling on the go than by taking photos of recycling bins across the country? So the 1000 bins challenge was created... and Big Boy and I had to join in when we were out shopping this week.
Big Boy is a huge fan of Dora The Explorer, we tend to watch at least one episode a day on Nick Jr and so we haven't failed to notice the Help Dora Help adverts that are being broadcast at the moment. Just in case you have missed them though, the Help Dora Help campaign is allowing pre school and nurseries to apply for a grant of up to £20,000 for educational and learning purposes.
When Nurseries and playgroups apply to the Help Dora Help campaign they get sent an activity pack. The free activity pack, developed by Nick Jr. education experts, follows the Early Years Foundation Stage development goals and provides stimulating learning opportunities with the theme of Dora the Explorer’s adventures. It contains six activity session plans, a practitioner’s guide and other teaching aides to encourage pre-schoolers to use their imagination, solve problems and develop their sense of physical adventure.
If you want to know more then pop along to the Help Dora Help section of the Nick Jr website at http://www.nickjr.co.uk/shows/dora/helpdorahelp/ and make sure your local playgroup or Nursery know about this great campaign!
On Fathers Day, we took our annual pilgrimage to Margate to watch the Air show that is part of the Margate Big Event. We tend to do this every year unless the weather man tells us that it is going to be super wet and the planes that we want to see won't fly. All was going well as we set up camp on the beach with some hired wind breakers and the children set to work creating sand castles and digging a big hole.
About an hour after we had set up camp, Daddy looked down the beach and saw a rather ominous looking black cloud progressing towards us. We had two options; We could ride out what we hoped would be a short shower (but knew was going to be much heavier and longer) or we could leave our camp to find shelter in the town.
Daddy and Big Boy were in the living room early one morning and Moses (one of our cats) was being very generous and was letting Big Boy stroke him. Making the most of the opportunity, Daddy wanted to encourage Big Boy to understand that stroking that cat was good as it was showing Moses that we loved him. It was at this point Moses started to raise his head to get under his chin scratched and Daddy said to Big Boy;
"Look, Moses is saying Hello to you! Say Hello, to Big Boy Moses."
There was a pause as Big Boy looked at Moses and then at Daddy
Hi Everyone, this post is being written in real time.That means there will be spelling mistakes, I might not use the right word at times and the grammar is bound to be terrible. I will come back and tidy this up and put in the links etc, but until then please bear with me!
Christine Beardell
Everything that has worked on has been Mum focused. Was really excited by how great the group are and about video blogging,
Why video blogging. Think it is hard to get into.
How can I fit it in. Only know when you try.
What it will bring and how to excite audience,
Why do you video blog?
helps grow audience
gives you a new voice
adds varity
great way to more immedicaly connect with audience
broaden audience engament (eg comments)
recenue stream if you want it to be.
Can do reviews, rants anything. People can come to your site and say never heard her talk about X, sure read about it but not talk.
increased comments as people are excited to see you.
Taste of two videos that have been done. highlight reel and ??
we edit it together to get peoples points of views.
Technical dificulties.
Nick Coffer
MDC started after losing job and blogging about him and son cooking.
Decided that a text based blog doesn't show the real part of vlogging so had to learn as didn't know anything. Had two flips, instead of talking in tech terms will talk generally and show videos from when started and now.
*Cough* Nick never swears in videos *Cough*
Nick learnt to stand still
To frame himself in video
not to waste space in shot
get best angle for you
buy a tripod to put you to middle of eye of camera
add lighting
never use spot light as will create rainbow in you and camera
rooms that are dark need light.
Spent £5 and brought a flood light camera and improved quality of light in shot.
What goes well in making a vlog
talk slowly, when you vlog etc talk slower as it helps people understand, gather your thoughts and sounds natural.
don't wear clothes.... don't wear that cause camera to not differentiate between small pixels.
Avoid blocked colours black doens't look black and white looks scary.
Plan posts. Have a structure that you want to follow, things you want to say.
Do make cuts and edit,
think about readers.viewers. how can video benefit them.
long process.
keep attention of viewer
Edit tightly. May have 5 min of video but want 3.5, easy to cut out half seconds but not minute chunks.
eg start of video take it out so pause speak pause demo. take out the pauses
Be ruthless, just because a bit was cute doesn't mean you don't need it.
Don't use transistions or swirls bring it forward sublty or fade in out etc as hard to watch swirls.
Don't go in for bells and whistles
nick uses youtube, but can use vimeo or others.
on youtube Share button and find embed code.
YouTube love to get you to tell others what to go and watch tick box show related videos untick to make much cleaner.
expect a lot of time spent on your videos. They will take 5 times longer than expect them to. lot of dead time when editing. Whilst waiting for it to load into software and to render it and then to edit it and then to render again for uploading.
flip use codet which is tricky to edit. find out what formmat codex video happiest editing in.
final cut pro hates mp4, converts to likeable format then edit.
mpegsteam convertor free software to use.
when know use that.
don't confuse file ext with format. eg video.mpg it's just a way of knowing what editing in.
Hi Everyone, this post is being written in real time.That means there will be spelling mistakes, I might not use the right word at times and the grammar is bound to be terrible. I will come back and tidy this up and put in the links etc, but until then please bear with me!
Sue Davis (Twitter @suedavis68)
Have an about me page.
www.sue-davis.net/cybermummy
Explain who runs the blog, what talk about, your expertise, infor for the press or review folks
We looked at Reluctant Memsahib's page, who has a good about me page according to Sue.
Contact us page
Depending what rel you have with readers;
Phone number (might get spam)
email address (screen spam)
physical address
contact form <- again have a screen spam such as a capture code
Have a copyright page or at the bottom of the page
Jenography is a good example of all the good things talking about today.
Copyright important because we need to make sure articles don't get ripped
Have a search box, blogger and wordpress have search box as if someone lands they can find similar posts etc
Content essentials. How to read
People read in an F shape pattern
Use bullet points as this will keep peoples eyes in the focus. Make sure you front load them.
Subheadings is another way, assume that people read the first few words of a sentence.
Have a good opening paragraph and headline
Have short paragraphs
strong opening paragraph
subheads
lists
bold
links
font load the post, subheads, list links
Don't ever write click here, link what the link is about.
Almost blow the punchline in the first paragraph.
Tagging and categorising
categorising see mummy-tips.com/p/hot-to-tips.html have categories reviews how to tips
tagging posts see parentswithattitusde.com/parents/forum link to the sections you have on the side
Think of terms and how many categories
Have all your posts as RSS feed (freeRangekids)
People keep in touch with what they read using RSS but you can make it less hit an dmiss by giving your url feed out as RSS
Find out your RSS
Wordpress usually www.blogaddress.com/feed
Blogger view source
copy the RSS address and set up a feedburner email
create feedburner account
sign in to feedburner
select feed
click publicise
add code to blog.
people see feeburner email emai subscription request with adding your address in and then need to verify.
Google analytics
wordpress is a plugin if work in php paste code to footer or blog theme might have area for it (such as Thesis)
In Blogger, back up page template first edit html before closing body tag add the code (wikihow.com)
Stats are important. GA shows how many visists
comments
trackbacks
what do people search for
see where they come from and what searching so can play to strength or improve
Can you write a post esp for comments?
trackbacks who has linked to your blog, why?
What posts were people looking for
sign up for bit.ly so can track how many rts tweets, likes, how many linked to it etc
Technorati authority score
Score is out of about 1000, higher the score the better.
worth when had blog for more than six months to check tech score to see how you are doing.
on front page decided if full posts or summaries on front page (eg More button)
snapshots of posts is summaries, if posts are long then snippets may be worth it but neither way is wrong
social sharing buttons have to have it (mashable.com)
very easy to add them in,
Blogs are like sharks
a shark must keep moving or it will die. a blog must be continualy be updated or it will die too.have a regular pattern.
what if you cant come up with an idea
how to guides
link roundups
news and live blogging
lists
life streaming
rants reviews opinions and critiques
picture gallery
infographics
video possts
predicitions
post series
comment contest
copyblogger.com for burn out tips
design essentiasl
not too many badges
stay clear of animated badges
keep it clean and simple
avoid clutter
avoid patterned background
petersonchina.blogspot.com is unreadable.
Watch out how many links you have on blog roll, want people to see your content
consider having seperate post for blogs that you like (vic)
spam comments
they want a link to their blog. use askimet or similar as a filter.
then just need to check what was there to see what wasn't spam comment.
Tech score links is biggest part of score
not just posts, but individual posts
Danielle SEO analyst for Disney
SEO for bloggers the basics.
3 billion searches every day on google on different subjects that would be distance to earth to sun and back if in kilometes.
Paid search
natural search listings 80% of people click on the area.
47% click on no#1 natural listing
which keywords to choose? sounds simple but not.
Two tools useful for what to target to get traffic
first is google suggests, gogole complies most relevant searches what it thinks you are going to type.
second tool is google keywords took which says how many people on a monthly basis are searching for keywords
screen you get when place search four areas
find keywords is first, put keywords in
second initialt results showing what you typed in and nothing else
EG things to do (2.2 million searches every month)
3rd box is keyword ideas both global and local
can drive huge amounts of traffic for good quality content
4th is match types
broad: monthly for any keyword in any search in any way numbers can be skewed eg cars 2 2 in a car 2 cars
exact best to use.
phrase
optimising your blog
when google lands it only sees text, can't see video or pictures or pictures in texts
heavy focus on keyword
keyword density for each blog post should be approx 3-8% repetition.
Can't just say it once, say it three or four times to tell google
titles and meta descriptions
things to do in london make keyword first word in title and at least once in meta
Post heading
text
images
each can be optimised for best words
my summer wedges should be soemthing like fahion tredn summer 20011 sumer wedges or summer wedges fashion for summer.
in main body it should say wedges
title the pictures with keywords too
SEO is optiming your blog and about back linking. You need both to increase ranking.
Backlinking
each link is like a vote, so high authority sites means more authority for you. Not just hgh quality get from blogs and websites.
couple of techinques
Swap links with friends. Not powerful, but it is still vote of confidence for blogs
Make sure listed on online directories dmoz etc make sure listed. Go to yahoo and get into directories there are lists for all subjects. get on them. Being on them shows search engines that you are important.
notify interested parties. if part of a network send out an email, ask for thoughts. people will link to you as they might say X has opinion. natural way of building sites.
Q what do I do? Put in title, desctiprion an alt text. alt text what google pays attention to.
Q if I link to my site with my URL is that good?
YES. Also if eople talking about something you blogged about link to it.
If you provide relevant content people will let you plug.
Twitter and FB links
google does possibly take into account, but not said they do but there is no harm
Bad Links
Stay away from porn, viagra, places with other links.
if google thinks you are trying to trick them they will black list you.
google site:YOUrblOG if you are ther your not blacklisted.
Hi Everyone, this post is being written in real time.That means there will be spelling mistakes, I might not use the right word at times and the grammar is bound to be terrible. I will come back and tidy this up and put in the links etc, but until then please bear with me!
Digital Outlook work with children on the internet, working with parents so that they can interact too.
Worked with Facebook, work with brands etc, such as P&G and comic relief and been said to be best practice on these pages.
Won't be able to answer all of it but we will share our learnings, might not fit with yours but you ight find useful.
Will be downloads for people to access
Everyone is already doing great work on Twitter and FB,.
Kerry we aren't here to tell you what to do but just out tis[s
SM just like dinner parties
Three most pop facebook twitter youtube
Twitter divides opinions
First point fo rTwitter
1) You control the content. follow people that are relevant don't worry about unfollowing
2) Be strict with who you follow
Twitter isn't for chat it is for giving information. Yes do chat, but make it relevant. Share and share.
3. Think before you tweet. Things that are deleted will stay in clients
Don't follow people who are arguing all over the place, you are a brand and what you put out their is what people think of you. Be aware, as hard to turn other cheek, but take it to IM or email.
EG Kelly Osborne aired everything in public, but this isn't right.
4. profile page is first link people have to you.
Have a picture of you as nice to put face to name/blog. Give relevant details and link to blog.
Twitter background design, use it on Twitter and sync up what you are doing.
5. Twitter clients make life earlier.
Tweetdeck and hootsuite both provide an aggregator of Twitter and SM and is great for twitter lists
6Twitter lists have lists of people so you can syphoine groups off. Want to see what people are talking about. They are most prolific tweeters, if I didn't funnel them it is all I would see.
7 140 characters for a reason.
If it goes over then it doesn't belong on Twitter, but in an IM or on a blog post. Twitter is small bite sized chunks.
amuse bouch in the dinner party.
Some people won't follow because spreading tweets over several updates means it isn't share of interesting info.
8. Short Links are king.
Get more info in tweets with shorter lins
uing bit.ly means you can track and see who and how and where people click from on your link.
If you get known for sending links that are good you can have regular click throughs.
If you look to see you can see what is popular, write blog posts that are interested.
In Tweetdeck you can add bit/ly from start.
Go to http://bit.ly/k87JYt
Sophie is french, she apologises for her accent.
Facebook tips, we know what FB is so no background.
For links to tips go to http://bit.ly/mm0Lsd
Facebook profiles and pages are different. profiles are for personal and pages are promotional
Beauty blogger, big on Youttube. Camille's channel, she made a prfile not a page and unless you aren't her friend you can't get her content.
If add as a friend they have access to my content, but you want to rectruit new followers
If you have page, you can have people see your content before they like, so know if right for them.
If you do have a page for a blog great, but if a profile so morve it.
Makes it more accessible, visible, presice and effective.
1 Page Category. If it is personal blog go deeper, use family etc or food etc to clarify
Use the about section to see this is a page about a blog so more to look at. The about is the only bit google see, so helps with SEO
2. Page Design
have a vanity url, have fun, have something that represents you. pages which tagged in show what about.
3. Regularity
3 posts a week maximum. Not more not less. This isn't for conversations you need to take time and if you do more people see you too much in your news feed and click off and hide you or unlike you.
it is a facebook marketing researched number.
Spikes of activity corresspondes to number of posts, likes, comments
4.Tone of voice
Success of blog is success on SM, sharing conversations etc.
5. conversations
don't throw things out and expect people to react. Ask a question to help promote conversation.
involve your audience, make them feel important and involved.
Give shorter posts on fb than on blog, give them reason to be there
6 Different types of links
give links to blog posts, no more than 3 per week, ones that people want to have a conversation around. Share photos or videos or facebook questions
Questions will appear in others newsfeeds even if not a fan of yours if friends answer questions.
Events. Don't need real life events, can be virtual
Audience Question, people advertising on yur page, up to you if you see it as digital news spam, take it down or try to have conversation if they keep doing it. Your choice to link how to have your page too so that others can see just your content.
7 Date insights, see who looks at your site, where they come from, what they liked, what they discussed. See again what blog posts can be. Again use bit.ly to track what is happening.
8. Links. Talking about another place on FB so use links to pictures on flickr offood for eg or forsquare of r good places to eat, or youtube for videos of you showing how to make a dish.
Sophie tells holiday about a horrid haircut, broken heart and youtube.
Sophie was going to dinner party where an ex was going to be. 3 days before her hair was disatsourosly cut. So she found a video on youtube to help her to do her hair. They all went to a blog so she went to the blog, its a beatuy site life as a blonde even though not blonde she followed becasue it was interesting. I didn't find it in search found in a social network that was youtube and became a reader.
Pick what is important for you/suit you and make best of it to get people to your blog.
Q: FB limit to pages anyone can have and how to link from personal profile
A:Have it in personal info box and have it unlocked for people to see.
Pages not a limit, but concentrate on 1.
Q: 3 posts a week seems little. I work with lot of blogs and brands post once a day.
A: It's not an exact science, do what works well for you. This was comparing and testing on big brand pages.
Q: Blog annoymously don't want to link a facebook account to them.
A: It's about the settings, you don't see who the admin of a page is. Comments on page are as page not as you but as you as your blog.
Q: Categories, how do you define them
A: Blogs are in entertainment and then magazine, just go through them all to filter down to what it is that matches up for you.
TWITTER Q
Q How do you get it to appear in a category eg Dad Bloggers/
A What you talk about, your profile.
Q Twitter handles, misleading names
A if you want more traffic for your blog then keep them similar or linked to keep followers close
Q Avatar
A Don't change it more than 2/3 times a year. Can he a conversation piece, but don't change it too often as people know it as you.
Q Is there a good limit for your twitter profile updates?
A It is a personal choice. Use it as mix of chat and links and people won't mind.
Twitter and Facebook and Blogs there to compliment each other not to repeat each other.
Q Who are upcoing SM companies?
A Depends what you like corra, wasn't big because nobody went. Thing coming more involved like instogram, tumblr as big community not just blog platform
A Youtube channel is important, don't jus tput it on blog, embed youtube channel. Youtube trolls are terrible, but can turn off option to comment.
Hi Everyone, this post is being written in real time.That means there will be spelling mistakes, I might not use the right word at times and the grammar is bound to be terrible. I will come back and tidy this up and put in the links etc, but until then please bear with me!
Sarah started by talking about her four year old that won a cake, had to bring with her because there is a change when your a mum you want to be the mum and go to a conference so you can do both.
When Gordon Brown was PM they made a choice that they wanted to be parents and family to have ordinary times together without interfeering with work schedule.
Be family even though in goverment
Boys got to lead lives as a family.
Decided to suuport so could support causes and as in eye could use media.
Sarah didn't want to be available 24/7 to the media and so it was changed by using Social Media.
So she asked Martha Lane Fox who is part of the envoy to get the whole of the UK on line and a friend to help. They went through options decided that it wasn't fb or blog but twitter as 140 characters easier to do/concentrate on!
When first started had 7 followers and was pleased until reaslied 5 of them lived in same building as her.
She shared day to day life to show the real life, to update on offical goverment things that she was involved in (as PM wife). And more importantly could amplify the charities voide that she suported.
Just be herslef identiy ownvoice and want to say.
starting conversations not just voice but power.
People ask when she stopped working, never stopped working because she is a mum.
People say she is innocent, she laughs because she is normal.
It was imprtant for health and family helping kids. Piggyban kids
help kids
start in life for children, make it better.
Knowledge is missing, need to give the info so they dont' say We don't know.
Give groups the info so all communities know what it is to work on.
Put energy into give opps to make shifts in knowing, specialist just need linked. Social media allows this.
5 hundred thousand women die in labour or pg across world, we can stop this as we know why we just need to use the information.
White Ribbo alliance was a big network, but needed push to be able to make it a lead issue across the world as they did at the G8 summit. It's not the only issue in the world, but it is a key piece. Mum=Community.
What do you do when hamsters start maintenece work on your blog and you have the opening CyberMummy Live blog which people are clambering to your site to look for? Well if you are the very populare HerMelness Speaks you ask someone else to host the post for you...
Hello and welcome, and if you are reading these words it means:
I. Made. It.
to live blog the CyberMummy 2011 Conference Opener: "Working With Facebook: The Power Of The Social Web" - by Lord Richard Allan, Facebook's EU Director of Policy.
While we wait for the magic of that to begin, though, would you do me a favour? If my Grandmother asks, the CyberMummy 2011 Conference is taking place at Buckingham Palace. Please, I cannot tell the woman I am at The London Brewery all day. She'll come and haul me out, and the organisers asked specifically I not bring any 'misunderstandings' with me today. Thank you.
My other big hope for the day is that Denzel Washington shows up in the audience. I'll give you fair and subtle warning if I see him. Watch out for something like,
"ARRRGHHH... Later people, I'm outta here."
If I am not swept away by Mr Washington, this post will start scheduling updates on the salient points of Lord Allan's opening address (due to start at around 09.35 hrs). Hitherto to be known as:
The Sensible Part Of This Post
“Working With Facebook: The Power Of The Social Web”
Address by Lord Richard Allan, Facebook EU Director of Policy.
09.56
Good morning and thanks.
Credentials are mainly father of twin girls and past experience as a ‘boring’ blogger. [Laughter]
Facebook increasing focus is keeping children safe on line.
09.59
Lord Allan believes that Facebook is not new in the social web – bloggers were there before. What Facebook has done is bring the experience to more people and cohesively.
Numbers now … more than 30 million people have logged onto Facebook in the last month and 50% log on every single day.
09.59
In terms of business blogging, you don’t have to like Facebook to get value from it. However, if you own a business, it is fast becoming the way to disseminate information to a large number of people.
10.01
Facebook has now entered the massive world of photo sharing and has become one of the biggest photo sharing sites. Facebook photos go viral (he hates that word) because of the tagging and ‘word of mouth’ aspect of this kind of sharing.
10.02
Facebook also provides insight tools – what people love and what they have interacted with is valuable information for businesses in order to shape a business future based on what people are asking for or using.
10.03
NOW A BIGGY – CHILD SAFETY……
10.05
Since Facebook is cross-generational – Grandparents, parents, child – the company is anxious that the safety conversations continue.
Facebook now provide targeted advice to, say, the police, parents, educators.
Facebook now also has social safety reporting. Facebook deals with reports of unsafe incidents and works with the parties involved to ensure responsibility is shared in keeping our children safe.
10.08
Question Time….
Question: Ownership of content on Facebook because there is confusion?
Lord Allan admits to the company causing a lot of that confusion with changing and ambiguous terms of service. This has now been made very clear. OWNERSHIP OF THE CONTENT BELONGS TO THE CONSUMER where the consumer licences Facebook to store and use data in order to make the service work.
10.09
Question: Where is Facebook heading in terms of keeping so much data on people?
Lord Allan wants Facebook to be useful to people everywhere and Facebook’s ambition is to be where other big players are. Eg: games consoles where if you make friends on that platform Facebook is also, somehow, linked to that experience.
10.10
Question: Does Facebook sell the data it collects?
Lord Allan: No. Otherwise the public would lose trust in the service.
10.14
Question: Why is service opt out – instead of opt in?
Asking people constantly to add themselves to services erodes consumer patience.
There is one chore that Big Boy and I tend to do five times a week, 39 weeks a year and so it can get a little repetitive. Just like tidying the garden, this is an outdoor chore and one which we even set up a Twitter account to remind us to go and do every day. I am of course talking about the School Run and if you want a reminder (or four) to do the School Run you can follow the Twitter account at School Run UK.
So what do we do to make sure that our walk to and from school each afternoon is exciting and fun? Well, lots of things. We might pretend to be Airplanes and walk up the road with our arms outstretched making Airplane noises or we might see how far we can hop! On bin day we love to use the green bins to read numbers out loud but our favourite way to make the school run fun is to spot shapes on our walk.
It's amazing what you can see on a short walk. On our walk (the time that we took our camera) we saw a square, a circle, a triangle and a rectangle. What amazes me more is the ease at which Big Boy can name these shapes (and many others), how he is the one that spots them and how excited he is when he finds a new shape on his list. And just because I can, here is a quick video of Big Boy talking about the shapes he found.
Every Summer I watch video footage of festivals that are taking place. I have only ever been to one proper Music festival (well I went to one festival twice), and so I am very jealous of the kind of people who have been to the big events. Then when I found out that there are festivals that are suitable for Children and I was even more jealous of people who go to these events. Then Rowse invited Tops and I and so of course we said yes, because what's better for a Mummy Daughter Date than a day at a Festival?
Rowse Honey are being extra nice though and are offering the chance to five other families (Two adults and two under 13's) to win tickets to Latitude. Just go to the Rowse Honey Facebook page and enter and then you can join me and Tops!
With the Summer Holidays fast approaching we are going to need to find hundreds of things to do that will keep all the family happy and mean we don't dread the summer holidays coming! For a lot of us that includes things that are free to do or are near free and if we can factor the cost in to our weekly shop all the better. So here is a list of 100 free or near free things to do that we have tried and tested and all have been given the seal of approval as a great way to have fun and to beat the holiday boredom!
1. Go to the Park. If it's raining then put on coats and wellies and enjoy the empty park!
2. Check out your local Councils events. They normally have events planned that are free.
3. Go for a walk. It doesn't matter when you live just go for a walk!
4. Go for a picnic. If you are having sandwiches for lunch put them in a bag and off you go.
5. Go to your library. Libraries are free to join, they normally have events planned in the holidays too.
6. Go to the garden centre. Take a look at all the plants, and tools and Fish.
7. Feed the ducks. Don't feed them mouldy bread, but stale bread is fine.
8. Colouring. There is nothing wrong with crayons and paper from pound shops if you haven't got any.
9. Bike ride. If you own a bike then go for a ride, just wear the right safety equipment.
10. Chalk games. If it's in your own garden leave it for rain, or just brush it away at end of day.
11. Water fight. Take old soda bottles fill them and use as water guns.
12. Gardening. Just a few minutes work makes a big difference, pull weeds or dig over an area.
13. Play with kids in the street. They are all looking for something to do too.
14. Scavenger hunt. With a list of things you need to find ask neighbours to load items to you.
15. Window shopping. Walk around shops looking at all the things that you could buy.
16. Make something new out of something old. Turn a old sweater into a pillow, jeans in to shorts etc.
17. Play restaurants. Set the table, make a menu and pretend to be servers and customers
18. Play shops. Use the things in your home, make a shop and sell things
19. Make a museum. First shoes, first curl, fossil from the garden, ancient writings...
20. Make an art gallery. Make up some art work, hang them all a room and invite everyone to visit
21. Go to a museum. See what a real museum has in it.
22. Got to an art gallery. See what a real art gallery has in it
23. Go for a ride on the bus. Sit upstairs, or the back and enjoy the ride
24. Explore a part of town you haven't been to before. Find a new park, or a specialist shop.
25. Have a sports day. Race against each other with home made medals for the winners.
26. Make a calender. It could be for summer or for the next year for Christmas gifts
27. Do some finger painting (and toes). Make flowers, or see who has biggest feet!
28. Watch a film. Spend time together watching a new or a favourite movie
29. Make up a dance routine. The summer hit or a favourite song!
30. Invent a new game. Maybe it involves rolling a dice and moving backwards!
31. Develop your psychic powers. See if you can guess what someone else is thinking of.
32. Learn a new skill (juggle anyone). There is always something new to learn.
33. Talk to a fisherman and see what he has caught. Had he had any luck? What can you learn about fish?
34. Imagination game. Pretend you are at the Zoo, or a tropical island...
35. Try to break a record. Tallest tower, longest jump, most skips...
36. Write a story. All contribute and write a story together.
37. Put on a play. Write it, rehearse and put it on for friends and family or film it.
38. Put on a concert. Practice, and put it on for friends and family.
39. Create a toy zoo. Use stuffed animals to make a zoo to visit.
40. Clean out your toys. Give old toys to others, fix broken toys give to a charity shop or women's shelter
41. Look for a four leaf clover. There has to be one somewhere right?
42. Go on a hunt for the end of a rainbow. There is going to be gold at the bottom!
43. See if you can make it rain (or sunny) by doing a rain dance.
44. Play memory games. I went to the shops or something missing.
45. Do a survey. How many people walk past your house, how many red cars in your street?
46. Draw a map. Put landmarks on, and show your home and end destination.
47. Camp in the garden. Make a den and have a nap in the garden.
48. Recreate an old photo. Pretend to be you when you were a baby or your parents.
49. Teach a skill to someone. Can you do something that nobody else can?
50. Do a service project. Maybe clean up the park or a local project.
51. Make something from rubbish. A robot, a game.
52. Clean a car. Yours or a neighbours.
53. Offer to help a neighbour. Tidy garden, do some shopping, clean out garage/shed
54. Go bird watching. How many can you see?
55. Go on a bug hunt. What can you find?
56. Go on a butterfly hunt. How many different types can you identify?
57. Have a BBQ. Cheap BBQ from pound shop and cook some sausages and marshmallows.
58. Make Dinner. From a cookbook, from start to finish.
59. Make musical instruments. Shakers with rice, comb and paper, drums from pots and pans.
60. Make pasta necklaces/bracelets. Cheap pasta and then paint after.
61. Look for patterns in the cloud. Who can find a rabbit in a hole?
62. Have a Backwards day. wear clothes backwards, have dinner for breakfast and breakfast for dinner. Eat pudding first!
63. Do some arts and crafts. Use up old things laing around, half a pack or beads etc make a picture
64. Make a daisy chain. Make several!
65. Make a nature scene (grass, leaves etc). Go on a nature walk first to find them.
66. Make a big picture use magazines etc. busy street or similar.
67. Write a letter. To your friend, or family or to yourself.
68. Blow bubbles. Who can blow the biggest?
69. Be a nature detective. Look for things from list.
70. Search for star constellations. Stay up late and learn which stars are which.
71. Take a dog for a walk. Take to the park and have a run. Throw a ball etc.
72. Get boxes from supermarket and make them in to cars/boats/planes
73. Make puppets from socks. paper eyes or felt or scraps of material.
74. Put on a puppet show. With your socks!
75. Mini golf set. Make a small course and see who can do it in best time, least hits etc
76. Play blow football. a couple of straws and a paper ball see who can score a goal.
77. Play skipping games. Can you do double dutch? make up a skip rhyme.
78. Design and run an obstacle course. time yourselves see if you can get faster by end of holidays
79. Make a newspaper. Use news from your street, neighbours birthday, cat had kittens etc.
80. Make your own salt dough and sculptures and then pain them.
81. Check newspaper for offers at local attractions such as the Zoo and go for the day.
82. Make a scrapbook. Ticket stubs, pressed flowers, biscuit wrapper.
83. Play football or basket ball or netball. One ball so many games.
84. Play Rounders (use empty pop bottle or balled socks) who's team will win?
85. Learn some Magic Tricks. Card games, slight of hand.
86. Play Card Games. Snap, 21, bridge.
87. Do leaf and tree bark rubbing's. Can you find faces in trees? See the parts of a leaf
88. Press flowers. Learn the Latin and common names and make a book.
89. Climb a tree. Or learn to climb a tree.
90. Put pictures in a photo album. They always need doing. Write when and who in pictures
91. Play Bargain hunt in Charity shops. Who can find best bargain. Can be no spend if just looking.
92. Visit a Toy Shop and play with the toys on display. It's fun and free.
93. Make a jigsaw puzzle. Cut up a cereal box picture or a photo
94. Make a time capsule. What would you put in it. bury it in the garden.
95. Pretend travel the world. Have a meal from different parts of the world, pretend to visit the sites.
96. Do a marathon (over several days). Walk a mile a day and add it all up.
97. Make a pinata. Decorate it, fill it and then smash it!
98. Create a secret club. Handshake and secret hideout.
99. Play games with balloons, ball, tag, make them into animals, sing a song about them...
100. Do the housework - chores can be fun!
So that is my list of 100 free things to do in the holidays, or at weekends, or after school or even when you should be at school! Oh and I just thought of another free thing to do that will keep everyone busy, keep them thinking and happy...
101. Make a list of things to do that you have thought of!
