New Years Eve is upon us and although in years gone by it might have all been about partying and downing the drinks, now that the children are about, perhaps you can make it into a night for them.

Your children may not be old enough to stay up until midnight but that doesn’t mean they can’t celebrate the start of the New Year.

Allow your children to have fun and decorate the house with their own decorations, set up games for them and put their favourite films on.

New Year isn’t just about the adults, so make the effort to make it a night for your children too.

It’s Christmas Eve!!! The children are no doubt absolutely uncontrollable with excitement! Just one more sleep, and they will be allowed to open that huge pile of presents.

But how can you make this Christmas Eve a little more special?

Well, aside from settling down with some mulled wine (hot chocolate for the kids) and all watching a festive film together, you could also:

• Put out milk for the reindeer
• Leave a mince pie out for Father Christmas
• Leave a carrot out for the reindeer
• Leave a note for Father Christmas

This will help to make the evening even more special for the children. And who knows, they might get a hand written note of thanks written back from Father Christmas!

The big day is almost here and soon the chubby bearded one will be slipping down our chimneys to deliver all those presents.

But if your kids are getting a little too excited at the prospect and are currently running riot, then you need some ideas on how to calm them down a little and keep them occupied.

Kids thrive on making things. So why not add a little more festive cheer to your home by getting them to make some Christmas decorations and paper chains. You could even get them to make a few last minute Christmas cards for the neighbours or even their very own stocking for all those presents!

Keep your children busy and ensure that they are on the ‘nice list’ this year.

If you’ve got Christmas lists coming out of your ears this year, you will know exactly how stressful it is to get everything your children requested.

Having no understanding of money, what your children have asked for can often be way out of your price range, or even worse; out of stock.

This year, the Nintendo Wii Fit, once again, is set to be a big seller. And what better gift to get your child than one which will not only entertain, but will keep them fit in the process? But there are plenty of other gifts too which the kids will be equally happy with.

Christmas is all about the children, so get the elbows at the ready and get down to the high street to bag yourself some of the hottest gifts this year.

Now that December is in full swing, so too is the Christmas season. Everywhere you look there are decorations, lights and Christmas trees. It’s a brilliant time, especially for the children.

They can hardly contain their excitement as they put up the tree, write their Christmas list and settle down to watch a festive film.

But what better way to treat them this Christmas time than with a visit to see Father Christmas in his grotto.

Father Christmas can be found in department stores and shopping centres right across the country. So no matter where you are, you children should be able to see the bearded one and tell him exactly what they want for Christmas.

Sounds like a complete nightmare and with my Son and I it would almost certainly end in disaster.

But many of my less frantic friends  think nothing of getting the paint box, crayons, fluffy bits and sparkly glitter out and just letting them use their imaginations to go wild!

You have to  make sure you’re prepared – cover the floor with plastic – cover the table with newspaper or plastic.  And change the children or makes sure they are wearing an old shirt to avoid ruining their own clothes.  Not like me who left her son to paint – in a new top I’d only just bought the day before – and is now covered in black paint splodges!

Happy painting!

It’s coming into the Christmas season and so a trip to the theatre is a must.

The one children to go to and enjoy is a pantamine but I’m guessing that most adults, evnen though they probably wouldn’t admit it, quite actually enjoy watching a pantomine show.

These days – the jokes and hidden inuendoes are all for the adults ears only.  The costumes an cheesy repeated rants of  ‘he’s behind you’ shouted from the kids makes the outing all the more fun!

Theres’s always a part for the kids to makes atrip onto the stage.  This can make even the boisterous of kids look sweet and endearing and a ahhhhhhh always comes form the audience.

Just remember the though before you hit the theatre as an sadult only party the majority of the crowd will be children who need endless trips to the loo – eat sweets and drink all the way through even the quiet bits and don’t think to whisper when asking Mummy or Daddy why the man on stage is wearing makeup!

Ok, so it’s another rainy weekend – you have the washing, the ironing and the cleaning to sort out and the kids are bored – agian!  The childrens programmes have even started to repaet themselves and seem to be going round in a loop.  And no-one can agree on which DVD to watch.

Theres always the internet.  Now you’ll have to be careful and make sure all the correct parental guides are switched on so sites which are for adults eyes only don’t appear!

Search for ‘fun for kids’ in google and there are a wealth of sites which have puzzles, music to listen to, suggestions of things to makes, jokes and some even suggest places to go for when the weather improves.

It should keep them entertained for hours!

You can guarantee that every birthday and every Christmas new toys are bought and old ones cast aside never to be played with again – until you threaten to give them away to charity or throw in the bin.

My son had a huge bag of big Duplo and he’d spend hours playing with it and it lasted for about 5 years.  But it’s been put away and each time I got it out to give away to my friends son (it had been passed down to us too) he started playing with it again – for hours at a time.  I did manage to put it away in the end but my moral of this little tale is to have a sort out of old toys which have been put away  as not only will it tidy rooms up it’ll entertain everyone for hours.

Ok so its raining,  everywhere you go to for an indoors activity will probably be absolutely heaving with people having the same idea and by the time you’ve paid for entrance fees, drinks cakes and crisps will end up costing a fortune!

So, one thing I did when i was  entertaining my neice, nephew and son was to create an asault course.  I only live in a 2 bed terrace but it was great fun.

It started in the lounge:

• 5 star jumps
• jump round cushions placed on the floor
• 3 laps up and down the hall
• run upstairs – 5 knee jumps on both the beds
• run back down
• finish in the lounge.

each lap was timed and it kept us enterrtained for ages – i could join in too  and energy was burnt off quite safely.