summer holidays home & away
For summer holidays away or at home, our lovely warehouse team have selected the best Myriad has to offer, whether you hope to kit out your garden, completely right through to popping a few things in a rucksack and ambling through the countryside on day trips. Read on for our recommendations for summer holidays at home or way. The great outdoors awaits!
ideas for your garden
For some, the grass might seem greener elsewhere, but who is to say that you can’t make your garden a place that is a true joy to explore anew? Here are our ideas for a variety of fun experiences for all in the family, and making magical memories in your very own garden...
sports day
Recreate the camaraderie and excitement of Sports Day with your very own Sports Day at home! Perhaps you could make flower crowns as prizes, make ice lollies as refreshments, and invite friends or relatives over to get everyone involved. Here are some activities you could include...
Nothing says British Summertime like an egg and spoon race! If your decorated Easter eggs from April are no more, you can get hold of this ready made Egg & Spoon Race Kit.
Add to the excitement with our Junior Bow with 3 Arrows, French Skipping Elastic and this Slackline and Tualoop below.
There are so many opportunities for games and outdoor play!
green fingers
Pottering around the garden this summer is a blissful way to while away the hours. Utilising child sized tools will encourage your little ones to get their hands busy with you, and with these beautiful Gluckskafer garden tools: Leaf Rake, Rake, Shovel, Spade and Hoe shown above, and also the lovely ergonomically designed set like the Gluckskafer Short Garden Tools Red, or the Watering Can it will be hard to resist.
If your family love flowers, consider picking some wild flowers together and preserving them to look back on or make cards and crafts with.
The Gluckskafer Large Flower Press will do just the trick, and all our Flower Presses are HERE.
fairy house in the garden
Making up a fairy house in the garden for play and a tea party can be a magical and wonder-filled summer activity for little children! This Magic Wood Shire Home shown here is only made of 3 pieces that pack flat in a bag making it the perfect home to move around from the house to the garden or take with you on a trip, it's simple but has so much play potential! The perfect hobbity home for lots of different play figures or fairies, pictured here with the Shire Home Furniture Set, the Magic Wood Bendy Woodland Folk are having their staycation!
campsite cookout
After a long day of sports and gardening, those tummies are going to be rather grumbly! The fun needn’t stop though, nor should little hands be kept away when the barbecue roars. Get your children involved in the cooking process with this lovely Outdoor Cooking Set from Kraul, which includes both the The Kraul Fire Bowl and the Kraul Cooking Pan (with supports to sit on top of the fire bowl).
suitcase and rucksack friendly fun
Not quite ready to bedeck the garden, but need some fun activities for the great outdoors that are easy to pack, set up and stow away? These lovely gifts are all small enough to fit in a bag while offering hours of uninterrupted play.
rivers, lakes and beaches
If you’re heading to the seaside or a lovely lake setting, experiencing the scenery and natural materials are available for free with abundant open ended play and exploration opportunities (minus parking perhaps!). Sometimes, however, it’s lovely to supplement what nature has to offer with toys and materials that are suited specifically to these environments. If you’re spending time lake or riverside, a variety of water element educational toys will marvel and surprise in equal measure! Above is a Myriad favourite - the Kraul Waterwheel Kit that comes packaged in an easy to pack tube, fun to construct and then play with in shallow flowing water.
There are also so many beautiful little boats in our range to play with and let imagination set sail! There is the Balloon Boat and new, improved Elastic Band Boat which children can explore powering and propelling with, Haba Cork Boat Kit and the Seagull Sailing Boat as just a few examples, and of course with Little Felt Passengers and Felt Folk happy to come along for the ride.
If it is a trip to the seaside then there are some lovely offerings to accompany sand play, there is the classic Gluckskafer Sand Pit Bucket Set, the Gluckskafer Metal Sand Sieve and a range of beautiful sand moulds such as the Gluckskafer Sand Mould Sun to make stunning sand art. There are also this creative set of Sand Combs shown above for more beach time exploration.
Whether home or away for the day, dens are always fun. The beautiful Laura's Play Cotton playcloths fold really small in your bag but have countless opportunities for play...take it to the woods and drape over sticks to make a den in the garden, or take it to the beach to provide a shadier patch or run up and down holding the ends and watch it billow up in the air, and then wrap it round you to keep you warm as the evening comes or provide endless dressing up games. Shown above is the 90 x 270 cm sized playcloth. Available in bright Rainbow or Pastel rainbow
games to pack
If you’re looking for something to entertain you on your ambles, or take on a camping trip we have a lovely range of rucksack friendly games to keep your family happy. See our SMALL GAMES selection, or click on image above, for ideas for travel and holidays away.
If you have a pattern lover, the Mandala Game, or the smaller Leaf Mandala Game will be a hit, easy to pack and can be played alone or in a group. The delightful Elsa Beskow Children of the Forest 4 Jigsaw Puzzles and Elsa Beskow Memory Game also both come in sweet little boxes to pop in your bag.
For more ideas, My First Throwing Disc, can be decorated first and is suitable for both outdoor and indoor use, and a big hit with families has been the Dr Zigs bubble kits, that make amazing, huge bubbles that are perfect for fun anywhere; play 'pop the bubble', or see who can blow the biggest bubble and watch it wondrously float up into the sky!
For imaginative play in a bag that are perfect for little hands, some of Grapat's beautiful wooden toy range are just the ticket as they come in handy, little, cotton drawstring bags. So easy to take with you for a day out or trip away. Some of our favourites include Grapat Nins with Cups and Coins, Grapat Together and Grapat Tomten Nins.
holiday crafts
Small enough for little hands and rucksacks but large-scale in terms of play opportunities, we have a range of crafts for trips out and about. For the little artists around Oekonorm Pavement Drawing Chalk and can also use it for marking out some tradtional games like hop scotch.
Easy to take with you crafts include the Myriad favourites the Star Weaver and Knitting Fork, really small to pack and great for nimble fingers and nimble minds on journeys or anywhere, creating friendship bracelets and useful lengths of beautiful woven cord.
Other easy to pack creative sets include Children's Crowns or Forest Animal Masks to Decorate, perfect if getting together with friends for the day or visit to the woods!
If your little one prefers to choose their own path with their art, these little Crayon Rocks come in a travel friendly little pouch, Oekonorm Coloured Modelling Plasticine or Waterproof Origami Paper for making little boats, cups and more, are all suitably open ended to allow the imagination to run wild.
For little folk, some soft modelling dough such as Neogrun Soft Modelling Dough beautifully presented on a wooden board in the sunshine will offer a lovely invitation to create fairy tea parties, flowers and more, the possibilities are endless!
Happy Summer!
If you have a go at any of our suggested ideas or have your own summer holiday ideas with our toys and crafts, please email us or share your images with us on our friendly social media pages – we would love to see! Please keep in touch through Facebook, Instagram and our Myriad Meetinghouses – on Facebook go to our page and then select Groups and ask to join, on Instagram: @myriadmeetinghouse
We love to see all your ideas for home activities for families – please tag us! #myriadnaturaltoys #myriadmoment #myriadmakes #myriadmail
(first published june 2020)
