It Was A Dark And Stormy Night....

Winter is most definitely around the corner. Gusting winds have blown any remaining autumn leaves off the trees, torrential rain has signalled the arrival of the perma-puddle in our driveway that will now stay with us until drier weather arrives in May, but perhaps most depressing of all are the darker mornings and evenings.

Pitch-black mornings aren't too much of a challenge for parents (once you've managed to extract children away from their warm duvets). Once you're up, you're up and there never seems to be too much time to mope around. It's the afternoons and evenings that tend to be trickier. Post-school, there seems to be about twenty minutes daylight before the gloom descends. Afternoon and evening blend into one and tend to drag on, and on, and on. So, if you're in need of a few pointers to help relieve the winter blues boredom, here are some thoughts.

Hold a Construction Olympics during the week. Each night, any bored child must build an object of your choice within a specified time using Lego, K’nex or any other such toys lying idle in tubs. On the first two nights, set a timer for fifteen minutes whilst they create something simple like a plate of chips or a church. Increase the timer to thirty minutes for a mid-week rocket or robot. Allow an hour on Friday evening for a more challenging project like a secret spy den or a boat that can fly. Every day when time is up, they should present their sculptures explaining any buttons or special features. Award points out of ten for both ingenuity and looks and keep a running score. If they’ve managed to notch up over 50 points by the end of the week, treat them to something special at the weekend.

It’s not too ridiculously early for Celebrity Santa either. Let them search the internet for images of their favourite TV characters, footballers, or X-Factor judges and print them out on the computer. Cut around the figures or faces and stick on to the front of a piece of folded card. Now for the fun bit – give all of them a Santa makeover. You’ll need to glue on cotton wool beards and red hats of course, but a touch of glitter on John Terry’s shirt or some antlers on Bart Simpson’s skateboard will also add to the disguise. Accumulate and keep safe over the next few weeks, then hand out to school friends at the end of term.

If anyone is still kicking their heels, put them in charge of supper. That’ll be scrambled eggs on toast for four, please.

Leaf Me Alone!

I wondered if a few autumnal activities for 9-12 year-olds might help other parents out there with a troublesome "tween" on their hands. It's at this age that their independence starts to really kick in (a good thing), but sadly kids often haven't got a clue how to handle it (an understandable thing) and end up talking to you as if you were their absolute worst enemy (definitely a bad thing). Sometimes a blast of fresh air and a quick five minutes doing something completely different can be just what's needed to break up any brewing tensions.

Look to autumn leaves for inspiration. First off, stand under a tree and have a go at Catching Wishes. As the leaves come fluttering down, try to catch one. This is much harder than it sounds as leaves are a bit like supermarket trolleys and have a directional mind of their own. For each leaf that you get, you can make a wish. This is best done out loud so that you can get plenty of ideas for Christmas presents. Hmmmm, now will it be world peace or an ipod touch.....?

Next, get them to collect a few leaves with good, strong, bumpy veins on them. Go for a couple of different varieties. If they haven't tried leaf-rubbing for a few years, then encourage them to revisit it. It's strangely calming and satisfying which could be just what they need right now. If they think this is all too babyish, or have indeed thrown all their wax crayons away in favour of fancy felt-tips, get the silver foil out. For a shimmering alternative, just cover the leaf with foil and rub over with a bare finger.

And lastly, something a little more active. Get some sticky tape and carefully wrap some, sticky side facing outwards, around heads, wrists, thighs and ankles. Select some leaves (horse chestnut are particularly good for headdresses) and press down on to the tape. Once you have transformed yourselves into leaf warriors, perform a stamping, shouting, shaking tribal dance to dispel any remaining anger.

However big and bad they are trying to be, remember that they are only little.