Six weeks can be an awfully long time when you're home with all the kids wanting to do all the things. It is especially tough when you haven't got the budget to go out and do things. So easy to book in for an organised 'school holiday activity', isn't it? But it's so expensive too. Save your pennies and your sanity. We have got ideas for the six weeks of the school holidays covered for home-based families. Things to do and a basic plan for when to do them. Because life with kids is always so much easier with a plan.

IMPORTANT! This list is a COVID considered list. We have checked everything on this list is open, however, we highly recommend visiting the website and/or social media pages of anywhere you plan to visit well in advance. In some cases, pre-bookings are required and in other cases, there are limits or changes to operating hours and of course, things can always change. Stay safe, social distance and enjoy the Summer Holidays with your kids!

• Take a drive up to Mt Cootha to check out the view. FREE (pick up a McDonalds cheap soft-serve cone on the way as a treat!).

• Enjoy some mini golf at Victoria Park at Herston or Golf Central at Skygate which is close to the DFO near the airport.

• Head out to a BMX track, skate park or mini traffic track with the bikes, scooters and skateboards. FREE.

• Head to Redcliffe, Wynnum or the Gold Coast for a twilight fish 'n' chips on the beach or a picnic.

• Check out any of the play centres in Brisbane for some indoor, air-conditioned fun -Many indoor play places are reopening with limits and pre-booking so just check their website first before you go.

• Explore the Karawatha Environment Centre and enjoy a picnic in the bush setting.

• Have you seen the new Harry Potter Shop at Samford yet? It's incredible with butter beer and the kids can get sorted into their houses! They also offer holiday workshops you can book into now.

• Go strawberry picking at one of the many strawberry farms around Brisbane.

• Picnic out of town and head past the local bakery for all your yummy supplies and shop local.

• Make a kite and go and fly it. FREE.

• Play putt putt and one of Brisbane's best putt putt courses.

• Go to Lone Pine Sanctuary for a day amongst the animals, (make sure you check out their annual passes if you plan to visit again).

• Visit Opal Downunder up towards the Sunshine Coast, kids can fossick for gemstones.

• Walkthrough Burleigh National Park and finish with a picnic on the headland.

• Find a local river or creek with kids and enjoy some waterplay, dam building and creek fun. FREE.

• Book in a ninja session with Urban Xtreme.

• Head to the Queensland Zoo - to see the animals, the Big Pineapple and to have a picnic. Read reviews first, they have some extremely unusual animals and animal encounter opportunities.

• Go to Mount Glorious for a picnic, child-friendly bush walk and scones with Jam and Cream on the way down. If you want to eat surrounded by rainforest you might like to head to the LEAF cafe for coffee and a warm feed while you listen to the resident whipbirds FREE.

• Take a trip to Springbrook for a glowworm tour.

• Enjoy the lorikeet feeding at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.

• Go to the beach- collect shells and build sandcastles for FREE. Take some gloves and a bucket and collect a bucket of trash while you are there. I know it doesn't seem fun, but it will teach the kids an understanding of how we continue to be blessed with some of the best beaches in the world and the importance of leaving only footprints.

• Enjoy a day at Australia Zoo.

• Have an astronaut read a book from space to your kids, preferably after a visit to the planetarium, Kingaroy observatory or one of the many astronomy viewing nights at Mt Coot-tha.

• Get up close with rescue deer at Lyell Deer Sanctuary.

• Visit all the mega slide playgrounds in Brisbane. FREE.

• Head to New Farm Park to let the kids climb the trees or Scarborough Beach Park if you are closer. Climbing trees is good for the soul. FREE.

• Have ice cream for lunch- head to any one of the best ice cream shops in Brisbane, as nominated by you!

• Check out your local Bunnings for FREE holidays activities for kids and the Bunnings Playgrounds.

• Go for a drive up to Mount Tamborine - take in the views - pack a picnic - enjoy the fresh air and if you fancy take the treetop walk or book the kids into some thunderegg seeking at Thunderbird Park.

• Discover Brisbane's best hot chocolate!

• Head to one of the many zoos in and around Brisbane> Brisbane Kids offer great deals and discounts.

• Take the kids to the local farmer markets or second-hand markets.

• Road trip to Maleny and enjoy a visit to The Maleny Botanic Gardens and Bird World to see some of their incredible bird life.

• Go for a bike ride on one of Brisbane's awesome kid-friendly cycle paths.. better still..if you can.. drive with your bikes to somewhere lovely like Redcliffe and go for a ride or a skate if you rollerblade. FREE.

• Make a family time capsule. FREE.

• Head to the Crystal Castle just outside Byron, it has the biggest Amethyst Cave in the world and plenty of amazing crystal structures to inspire and bring peace to a busy world.

• Climb the Brisbane clock tower.

• Take a road trip to the Crystal Castle in Northern NSW.

• Go camping or camp in your backyard!

• Say hi to the cows at Trevana Glenn Farm.

• Head out for a picnic at the Cleveland Lighthouse. FREE.

• Book the family into an escape room experience at one of Brisbane's best escape rooms.

Dear Families of Kidi Kingdom Child Care Coomera.

What a fantastic year we have had here at Kidi Kingdom Child Care Coomera. We would like to welcome Miss April who will be our Educational Programs Leader for all the centres of Kidi Kingdom Child Care. Miss April will be visiting our centres once a week to oversee and support our exceptional educators and our high quality program delivery.

Please don't forget to like our Facebook page to see all the different activities and learning experiences we are participating in. Sharing it with your friends and family to show our educators your support and recognition of the exceptional work they do. Thank you to all our families for all your support this year, I have truly loved building relationships with everyone who has engaged with our centre.

With the new year coming in, please ensure you return your re-enrolment forms to secure your bookings for next year as we are experiencing a high demand in care for 2022.

Please like our Facebook page and we always appreciate our loyal families helping our centre by sharing your positive experiences to the local community by writing a quick Google, CareForKids or Facebook review. Thank you for the families that have already taken to the time to write a review.

Kind Regards, Sarah Piccolini Centre Manager	Click here to visit our pages at Facebook and Instagram

Welcome Valued Families of Kidi Kingdom Child Care to our Final Newsletter of 2021.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our current and new families for choosing our services and how excited I am to be the Educational Programs Leader across our Kidi Kingdom Child Care Centres. My new role will consist of ensuring all children are receiving the best high quality education and care and supporting our amazing educators to enhance each and every child's strengths, interest and needs. I will be visiting the centres on a weekly basis working with the children and educators to provide support and guidance where necessary. I look forward to reaching new goals with our educators for 2022.

Kind Regards, April Hall Educational Program Leader.

Dear Families of the Early Learners Room.

The last few months we have had lots of fun learning and exploring the world we live in.

We have had many centre celebrations over the term including Day for Daniel, Child Protection Week, Father's Day celebrations and Halloween.

The children have been participating in many experiences for these events, with our room focusing on sensory and creative play. Some of the activities we participated in during our Halloween Week included Jelly Eyeball digging, for this we used orange jelly and lychees. Find the bones in the dirt, for this we used black rice (cooked) and bone lollies. Our last experience was Colour that Spider. We used spider prints and coloured paint. To celebrate Day for Daniel and Child Protection Week we focused on our emergency vehicles, painting fire trucks, police cars and ambulances. This helps our children identify who in the community they can look for if they need help.

Our Early Learners children showed a great interest in climbing, outdoor play and animals. In the last month Miss Talia and I have been encouraging this by creating experiences reflecting their strengths, interests and needs.

Outdoor experience helps the children to connect to their world, develop gross motor development , risk management skills, supporting communication and hand eye coordination skills. By encouraging the children to explore their outside world, we help them build respect for the environment through play, discussion, role modelling and play based experiences. A child is never too young to learn about our environment and sustainability and that is why I try to encourage the use of recycled materials in all our art and craft. My goal as an educator is to encourage the children to look after this beautiful world we live in and to use the 3 R's in life, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

Below are some websites I use and suggest for any parent wanting some ideas for their children to do at home.

https://growing-minds.org/early-introductions-to-sensory-gardens-infants-and-toddlers

https://littlelearningclub.com/sensory-activities-6-12-months

https://mamainstincts.com/baby-safe-sensory-play-activities

Kind Regards, Ms Rachael and Mrs Talia.

Dear Families of Junior Early Years to our Spring Newsletter.

I would love to welcome our new and current families to the classroom. My name is Puneet Kaur and I am the Lead Educator in the Junior Early Years classroom. It has been a fun and super exciting month with the children. Last month we celebrated so many events in the classroom such as Child Protection Week, Halloween Celebrations, Diwali and many more. At the Halloween celebration, we were involved in lots of spooky activities and had an awesome Halloween morning tea party! Children and educators wore so many different costumes on this occasion.

With Christmas around the corner we are super excited to celebrate the festive season with our children, educators and community. Children have begun talking about their wish list for Christmas. Educators have started planning some exciting and fun-filled activities for Christmas! If you have ideas or cultural inclusions for Christmas, please let us know.

While celebrating events in the centre. We also focus on children's development according to milestones such as enhancing language and communication , fine and gross motor development and cognitive skills to ensure your child is a curious thinker. Current ongoing interests of the children include colors, letters, counting and daily weather discussions. We also planned some gardening activities for the children so we can support the children to increase their interest in planting and support ways children can connect with the natural environment.

I have provided some websites below for parents, if they want some information related to activities or if they want to do some activities at home with your children. I hope you enjoy these helpful sites!

https://www.uniting.org/home

https://search.activebeat.com/health/advice

Thank you families and children for another great term!

Kind Regards, Miss Puneet Kaur, Miss Astrid and Miss Tomomi.

Dear Families of the Early Years Classroom.

Welcome to the Spring / Summer 2021 Newsletter.

I would like to thank all the families and community for their support over these few months. There have been many great celebrations over the months including Day for Daniel, Child Protection, Fathers Day and Halloween.

Day for Daniel is Australia's largest national child safety education and awareness day. It is held on the last Friday of October every year and honours the memory of Daniel Morcombe.

During the last few months, we have been exploring who we are, all about our heritage and different aspects of our culture. This has helped us to understand each other and encouraged Being, Belonging and Becoming. The children have shown great interest in learning about the different countries and trying new languages which is fantastic as we want to ensure children can be confident and support to explore all cultures involved within our centre and classroom.

Kind Regards, Mrs Rebecca and Mrs Sonya.

Dear Families of the Pre-Prep/Kindergarten Room.

These last few months will be the last few months for our Pre-Prep class of 2021 before they start 'Big School' on the 24th January, 2022. I would like to say, it has been a pleasure in teaching all the children in the Pre-Prep/Kindergarten classroom.

As we are approaching the end of the year, the pre-prep children will be revising on their acquired literacy and numeracy skills for the next couple of weeks, and they will also have the opportunities to participate in school readiness experiences.

The children will also be enjoying engaging in some craft projects using recyclable resources in preparation for Christmas, and our group discussions will also focus on promoting sustainable practices. The pre-prep room has also been learning about making healthy choices, and therefore learning more about healthy foods, which will lead up to our upcoming in-class cooking projects in the coming weeks.

Kind Regards, Mrs Antonietta and Miss Simone.

Welcome Before, After School Care and Vacation Care Families.

Welcome to School Care for Spring / Summer 2021.

During the month of Spring the children participated in some creative arts activities through painting recycled egg cartons and decorated with some different materials from our recycle area. The children used different creative arts utensils to complete this and supported their curiosity as involved learners.

The children's favorite centre event for school care was Halloween. The children had many assorted conversations about different costumes, who they trick or treat with, community events for trick or treating and making their own costumes. Throughout the mornings and afternoons the children are developing very strong relationships with each other through helping each other through schooling, maintaining their friendships and school and what it means to be a supportive friend.

Kind Regards, Mrs Naila.