• SELF LOVE & BODY IMAGE
  • MOTHERHOOD
    • Pregnancy
    • Babies
    • Kids
  • ADVENTURE
  • STYLE
    • Interiors
    • Fashion
    • Beauty
  • FOOD

Mother's Always Right

Mum life, body image, style

  • ABOUT
  • PRESS
  • Podcast
  • Public Speaking
  • YOUTUBE
  • WORK WITH ME
  • #FreeFromDiets campaign
You are here: Home / PLAY / Five activities to avoid after-school meltdown

Five activities to avoid after-school meltdown

October 20, 2014 by Molly 9 Comments

With just a week to go until half term it’s fair to say my four year old is more than ready for a holiday. She has loved school since starting in September. But one of the side effects of school – a side effect I hadn’t bargained for – is that she’s both hyper AND exhausted at the end of the day.

After a particularly bad bedtime one night I realised I needed to come up with a plan to get through those tricky hours between school pick-up and bedtime. My friend Katie (hi Katie!) is a primary school teacher and she texted me a load of ideas to help. So this post is largely down to Katie – I can’t claim credit for these ideas.

5 after school activities to avoid meltdowns

1. Digging for mini beasts

Getting outside (even in the rain) is, for us, the best way to run off that hyper-active energy that seems to explode out of my four year old at the end of the day. Our garden currently resembles the before shots of a Ground Force special, so we’ve made the most of the mud by getting outdoors and searching for mini beasts. I’ve found just being outside has calmed Frog down and avoided her bouncing off the walls before tea teatime.

Digging

2. Hama beads

We’re only recent converts to the joy of Hama beads. I remember making Hama creations as a kid, and my blogging pal Merry from Patch of Puddles has long since advocated the benefits of Hama beads. This is a great activity for helping my four year old stay calm, focused and become totally immersed in what she’s doing.

Hama bead fun

 3. A leaf hunt

This time of year is great for leaf hunts. We’ve looked for leaves on the way home from school, or after a trip to the park. Again, it’s a good way to get my four year old to calm down and focus on a task. And when we’ve got home we’ve stuck them down to bits of paper to make leaf pictures – two activities in one right there.

Leaf hunt

 4. Play dough

Ah play dough, good old play dough. You really can’t beat the stuff for a quick and easy activity idea. Add a few baking beads, some (unlit!) candles, cake cases and a rolling pin and you’ve got a great cooking game. Or go for shells, cake cutters and buttons for a play dough art activity. There are loads of play dough ideas, plus the best no cook play dough recipe ever, over at The Imagination Tree.

Play Dough

5. The park

It’s an obvious one but a good’un – the park is just down the road from Frog’s school and we’re there almost every day after school. Even if it’s just a quick ten minute play, running off that unvented steam seems to help stop my four year old totally losing her mind as soon as she walks through the door when we eventually get home. If ten minutes in the rain at the park means a more peaceful bedtime with less shouting and no tantrums then I can deal with that.

Park trips

 

And when all else fails? There’s always Netflix. We’ve created a new Friday tradition that involves a trip to the village shop for chocolate straight after school, uniform off and pyjamas on as soon as we’re home, and a movie on Netflix with a mug of warm milk. By Friday Frog is so knackered she’s beyond hyper and, to be frank, so am I – especially now we have a newborn in tow too. Who else loves Fridays?!

Any ideas you swear by to keep your kids occupied and avoid hyper meltdowns after school? Add them to my list!

Filed Under: PLAY Tagged With: after school ideas, Parenting, play ideas, school

« My baby sleeps in a box
The A-Z of Post-Birth Recovery »

Comments

  1. Jane @ northernmum says

    October 23, 2014 at 9:49 pm

    This post makes me feel like a bad mum!

    Except the park – I do the park x

    Reply
  2. Katy Hill says

    October 20, 2014 at 9:12 pm

    FAB post! Can I add Aqua Beads to the list? They’re like Hama but my kids actually prefer them as you can do 3d shapes AND they can do everything themselves as you just spray with water to “set”. No boiling iron needed! Love Katy Hill – the other one 😉 x

    Reply
    • Molly says

      October 28, 2014 at 8:30 pm

      Aqua beads – great idea! I’ve not tried those before, will definitely stock up on some before half term is over!

      Reply
  3. Carie says

    October 20, 2014 at 9:01 pm

    I love your film Fridays, that must be a lovely way to end the week! And outside is definitely the answer for us when the girls get home from nursery, it’s why I miss the summer for those long light evenings!

    Reply
    • Molly says

      October 28, 2014 at 8:30 pm

      It’s the best way to end the week!

      Reply
  4. Kate says

    October 20, 2014 at 11:34 am

    I think mine are weirdys…….they come in from school and actively choose to continue learning – reading, spellings, maths problem solving etc! Keeps them busy till tea, and if they start to flag then I tend to pop a film on for them to zone out to! Also, dancing like crazy loons helps when all else fails……..

    Reply
    • Molly says

      October 28, 2014 at 8:30 pm

      Gosh you’re lucky!

      Reply
  5. Kim Carberry says

    October 20, 2014 at 10:31 am

    Great ideas! We try to go to the park on the way home from school a couple of times a week….My girl certainly sleeps better when we have been x

    Reply
    • Molly says

      October 28, 2014 at 8:31 pm

      The park is the way forward – unless it’s pouring with rain in which case I grit my teeth and try to think of an alternate activity!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Hello and welcome! I'm Molly Forbes - podcaster, presenter and blogger with a passion for positivity, confidence and body image chat. Regularly writing and vlogging about empowering female issues from a motherhood angle, I also cover lifestyle and fashion topics for like-minded mums who want to rediscover themselves after having children. Thanks for stopping by! Read More…

  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

YOUTUBE

INSTAGRAM

Hello. How are you? . I’ve noticed something th Hello. How are you? 
.
I’ve noticed something this lockdown that feels different to first time... the sense of people being more disconnected than ever, more divided, more isolated. 
.
Maybe it’s because we’re all on our last nerve now - the loss, sacrifice and stress is amplified that bit more. 
.
And we’re so deep in it, often confined in our thoughts at home, our only connection with the outside world via a screen, that it becomes harder to appreciate our differences in circumstances. 
.
We forget that we are all just humans muddling through a global pandemic, trying to come out of it alive, with our minds intact and hopefully our jobs too. 
.
We’re angry, sad, frustrated, scared. And in the absence of those regular social connections we need a place to direct those feelings. The social media platforms and comments sections on news sites have never been so busy. 
.
Except it’s not just faceless people on the internet that we’re upset with anymore. It’s our neighbours, family and friends. 
.
Dr Vivek Murthy wrote about the importance of social connections and community in his book Together, pointing out that loneliness has the same impact on mortality as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. 
.
We are sociable creatures. We need community not just to thrive but to survive. 
.
So check in with your friends today. Maybe even send them a voice note. Don’t assume you know how they’re doing based on their latest Facebook post. We need to get through this together, not apart ❤️
.
.
.
.
[Image description: Molly is looking at the camera, smiling in a tired, resigned sort of way. She’s outside and is wearing a fantastic hat that her husband says looks like a tea cosy.]
✨Art from @emilycoxhead gorgeous book You Are In ✨Art from @emilycoxhead gorgeous book You Are Incredible Just As You Are✨
.
A reminder that loving every bit of ourselves isn’t just about embracing all the parts on the outside, but also about accepting - and maybe even celebrating - the bits on the inside too. 
.
I’ll go first: I am a worrier and have a tendency to think deeply on things. If we’ve ever had a disagreement - be it an exchange on Twitter in 2018 or a row in the playground in 1992 you bet I’ve stored that away in my brain ready to ruminate on in the depths of a night when I can’t sleep. 
.
But in the spirit of loving every bit of ourselves I say that rather than looking at these parts of ourselves as “flaws”, we choose instead to view them with loving kindness and a heavy dose of self-compassion. 
.
I worry because I am sensitive, and I care. This sometimes means I’m more vulnerable to allowing others’ opinions of me have too much power... but it also means I feel remorse when I make mistakes and try my very best to learn from them. 
.
And this also means I work hard in everything I do because I genuinely care about doing a good job. Meanwhile, my tendency to think deeply on stuff means I’m able to see the nuance in things and appreciate other perspectives, because as I grasp for an answer I often find two things can be true at the same time. 
.
These are not traits I would view as “pathetic” or “needy” or “indecisive” in my kids and I would never tell them to “just get over it”, so I’m trying to remember this for myself too.
.
Tell me, what parts of the inner you are you working on learning to love? 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
[Image description: A double page spread from Emily Coxhead’s book You Are Incredible. It’s a yellow page with a red heart and white writing which reads “Here’s to loving every bit of you.”]
Let’s talk joyful movement and.... PRIVILEGE! A Let’s talk joyful movement and.... PRIVILEGE! A nice juicy subject for a Thursday evening 😅
.
I absolutely love to see the narrative shift (albeit ever so slightly) to the intrinsic benefits of movement. The focus on intuitive movement and moving our bodies for how it makes us FEEL over how it makes us LOOK brings me huge happiness. 
.
BUT... even when we take movement away from a diet culture context, I still think there’s often a lack of acknowledgment of the many barriers preventing people engaging in movement in the first place (hot tip: it’s not “just cos they’re lazy” 🙄). 
.
When it comes to my own family - here are some of the privileges we live with which make movement easier for us: 
.
✨ We live in an area with access to lots of safe green spaces to play and walk.
✨ We can afford to pay for a gym membership, and extra curricular activities for the kids like gymnastics, Street Dance and swimming.
✨ We have access to the technology needed to take part in online classes over lockdown.
✨ We are non-disabled so experience no physical access issues preventing us from joining in with these activities. 
✨ Our work schedule allows us to get out together during daylight hours. 
✨ None of us lives with a mental health condition which might make getting outside / engaging in movement really hard or even impossible.
.
Kids access to movement is not equal so if we really care about encouraging more children to move then, as a nation, we need to level the playing field (pun intended). 
.
Some accounts which often discuss movement and privilege: @thephitcoach @amysnellingpt @theaishanash ❤️
.
.
.
.
[Image description: Molly and her two daughters standing on top of a hill smiling, with their arms in the air.]
It’s pretty well accepted that certain “fad di It’s pretty well accepted that certain “fad diets” are not the one. But if our definition of diet culture stops there, and we fail to see how diet culture IS fatphobic in its very nature - and that it absolutely depends on a collective cultural fear and vilification of fatness then we’ll never get anywhere with tearing it down.
.
Dressing up fatphobia as “health concern”, or “tough love” or “helping people” is just a fluffy way of saying you don’t acknowledge the huge complexity around health, or the many factors that impact weight, or the research showing the harmful (and unhealthy) impact of weight stigma, or the evidence into the long term effectiveness of diets and intentional weight loss. 
.
And essentially, those who assert that health only looks one way, and that people have a moral responsibility to prove their health via the shape of their body and not be a “drain on society”, are saying that only people with their version of a “healthy body” are worthy of respect, equality, dignity.
.
Children pick up on these messages and learn from an early age that “fat = bad”, and to see some bodies as better, and more deserving of love and respect than others. This could be why we’re seeing a rising number of pre-teens with eating disorders and mental health issues associated with poor body image. 
.
Yes we need to lose the fad diets. But we also need to lose the deeper prejudices and anti-fat biases that make them profitable in the first place, otherwise they’ll just continue to show up in different ways, coming in ever more aggressive and insidious ways for our kids.
.
.
.
(Image description: A yellow slide with multicolour shapes and a screenshot of a tweet overlaid which reads “FYI you can’t be simultaneously anti-diet culture and pro fatphobia. (And yes, fatphobia includes continuously asking “But what about health?” and not listening to the answer...)
You might have missed this in the news over Christ You might have missed this in the news over Christmas. It didn’t get nearly the same amount of coverage as all the diet-related features that are everywhere right now. It was hidden away behind the before and after “amazing weight loss” stories, celeb diet plans and “o*esity causes covid” headlines. But that doesn’t make it any less shocking or heartbreaking. 
.
I believe there’s a link between the rise in children being diagnosed with eating disorders and the rise in children suffering poor body image. These issues are fallout from a culture that idolises thinness, vilifies fatness and continually promotes one, narrow, over-simplified version of health. 
.
Diet culture is coming increasingly aggressively for children, and the pandemic with the huge mental health toll it’s taken has not helped one bit. We already knew the number of pre-teens diagnosed with anorexia in the last decade had doubled, and it seems the figures are rising even higher. We need change. Fast. 
.
Check out the Body Happy Kids resources, workshops and Masterclass and the #FreeFromDiets campaign in my bio, if you want to help change the culture our kids are growing up in. They deserve better.
.
.
.
.
.
.
[Image description: a section from a news article about rising numbers of children suffering with eating disorders. Full text can be found in Alt Text.]
I’ve been looking a lot at old photos lately. Th I’ve been looking a lot at old photos lately. This pic is from summer 2018, when I could hug my mum and travel abroad on holiday. If I close my eyes I can almost feel the warmth of the sun on my skin, smell the salty sea air and hear the laughter of other families playing on the beach. Holding on to these memories and the hope that the hugs, sunshine and bikinis will come again one day. In the meantime it’s video calls, trackie bottoms and WhatsApp. ❄️☀️ 
.
.
.
.
.
[Image description: Molly and her mum standing on a beach in France, in 2018. They are both wearing brightly coloured bikinis, hugging and smiling. It’s a hot sunny day and the sky is blue.]
Follow on Instagram

Copyright © 2021 · Mothers Always Right. Design by Stacey Corrin

This site uses cookies: Find out more.