Great Family Days In written by Claire Balkind has oodles of ideas for entertaining children at home. This book would have been great during lockdown but equally has a place for those rainy day or just when you need a little inspiration for a day at home. With the cost of living continually increasing, ideas for home adventure are perfect. There's no age expectations for these activities and you can adapt as you feel suitable for your child/ren.

This was a great book, especially with lockdown. It gave lots of ideas of great activities for the whole family.

There are so many to choose from and there was lots of different levels eg harder ones or easier depending on how you felt.
An absolute godsend for lockdown

Let's be honest, lockdown has been hard. For many parents keeping the kids entertained has been stressful and people are running out of ideas. This book is a genuine gem. Sit back and browse the many ideas that can be done at home. Go on, give yourself a treat, have fun.

Wow - if parents get one book during a global pandemic it needs to be this one!

This book is full of amazing ideas to keep your kids entertained during lockdown but that can also be used during the long school holidays, on rainy weekends and more in the future.

I loved the introduction from Claire who seems down to earth and 'normal' with the same worries and fears we all have and had at the start of this crazy year! She isn't pretentious and isn't interested in perfection parenting at all, or making others feel bad, she simply wants to help! The ideas are all great and varied with sections including Achievable Art, Let's Get Physical, Screen Free Game Time and more! She also has a handy list at the start of some of the basic things you should try and have in, to keep your kids entertained.

Claire hasn't put an age limit on the activities as she is a self proclaimed non-expert in child development, but they are all able to be adapted to suit your child's age, ability and likes/dislikes. I loved the Wellbeing Wonders section as you all know - my passion is mental health - and these practices are great to start from a young age. She has also provided a handy timetable at the back which you can follow, or use to make your own. The book is colourful and easy to follow and it will be something I come back to again and again. Loved it!

I got this to enjoy with my young daughter, as winter and the lockdown issues are meaning we have a lot more time inside, so I wanted to make sure we had lots of great activities to enjoy, as well as for her to learn something. There are a great deal of activities, with lots of varieties, making it great. They are easy to do and fun. Overall, a great book!

This book is filled with brilliant ideas for your kids. With the winter weather coming, and lockdown keeping most kids indoors, this book gives you so many wonderful ideas for both fun and helping your kids learn something great. It has lots of variety and they are all easy to do. I highly recommend!

This book has some wonderful ideas for keeping little ones entertained during rainy days and during lockdown.

if you have small and extremely active beings in your house who also need buoying up and keeping busy through rainy days and (please no) another lockdown, check out Great Family Days In: over 75 ideas for rainy days, school holidays, and everything in between by Claire Balkind (Pan Macmillan). A mother and teacher herself, Balkind’s books of activities includes a range of distracting things to do – whether you’re an adult or child, to be honest, and whether you prefer sport or art. And it’s truly helpful when it comes to organising the activities – from the list of useful items to keep stocked up at home, to the cheerful key that makes it easy to pick out the activity you need just by flicking through. Do you need something calming, or something to burn of rainy day energy? Do you need a distraction fast, or do you have time to plan ahead? It doesn’t matter, every option is catered for. And if that’s not enough, the book itself is an activity: throughout its pages are hidden 25 illustrations of puzzle pieces for you or your little ones to find as you decide what to do.

This book was full of great ideas but why where there no photos included with at least some of the activities!? This would have added so much to the book. What a shame. Some step by step photos and some end results photos would have been excellent..

I love this book!
Lots of ideas and laid out in an easy to follow format. I admit there isn’t anything amazingly new in there that hasn’t been done before but I do think this style of writing and lay out is what captures the imagination and sparks enthusiasm to get creative and keep the little ones busy.

Excellent idea book! Something every parent should have (unless you have endless ideas). At first I thought the book could do with pictures of the activities, however I think we were happier with some of the art results than we would have been if we compared it with perfect results in the book. Something for everyone here with both indoor and outdoor activities. The book has brilliant icons that for example lets you know if the task needs preparation or If it is messy.

I thought this book would be a great help during lockdown and the ideas here are really great and are excellent suggestions for parents who want to tempt their children away from invasive screens. However, I felt it could have done with a bit more pictures. It is very text heavy which is unappealing to children who are interested in doing activities on their own but need a bit more graphic guidance.

This is not just a fantastic rainy day resource, it’s an everyday activity bible! I consider myself an arts and crafts mum but still found loads of ideas in here.

As I read through I could imagine my children undertaking these activities with variations based on their age. Even my almost 11 year would love to be involved - in fact she wants to make a Pom Pom wall hanging after school today inspired by this book.

The instructions are clear, and despite the lack of pictures of the finished items you can clearly work out what to do.

There are loads of arts and crafts for kids books available but what this has that the others don’t is a sense of achievability, even a section called Achievable Art, and smaller, more simpler versions of the activities when you are shot of time.

I like that this covers important areas for children’s well-being, activities outside in nature, raising the heart rate with physical activity and essential mindfulness activities (make your own peg worry dolls are a brilliant idea).

I could see myself buying this book as a gift for friends and family. I will definitely be buying a physical copy of the book for my three children to properly leaf through, dog ear and leave gluey trails of glitter. That’s sums up their general impact on my life!!!

Just wonderful!
As an NNEB I can say that this book is just perfect and should be a go-to for so many families, pre-schools and anyone working with young children.
Great Family Days In, is bright, attractive and written in a friendly and informative way. Reading it is like having a friend suggesting ideas, not preaching, but allowing you to adapt and change according to your own individual needs and those of your children.
Some of the ideas are ones that I have used before, others are new, all are very achievable at home, with very little outlay.
The bubble mixture recipe and sock idea is inspired, one that I will definitely be using many times over!
I particularly like the 'short of time' shortcuts, sometimes we just don't have the time to pre prep activities, but you need something to entertain the children whilst you make that phone call or write that email.
The range of ideas is vast, physical activities, art and craft and cooking and wellbeing.
Claire Balkind has written a book that will be used again and again, shared and made into a family favourite. If you have children or know someone with children, buy this, you won't regret it.

Great Family Days In by Claire Balkind is an amazing selection of things to do when you can’t get out. Featuring all sorts of interesting and fun things for everyone to get involved in. It shows you what you need, how to do it and how to do it if you’re short of time. A brilliant little helper.

Some interesting ideas for younger children but many of these can be found for free online so I'm not sure whether people would be willing to pay £15 for this

My review is based on the blurb of this book. Unfortunately, I was unable to read it due to formatting issues.

This book is fab! As a childminder as well as a mum, sometimes its tricky to find a book with different ideas in to keep everyone busy and happy. This book is very colourful and the cover is so eye catching. I really like that at the end of some activities that if you are short of time then the activities are adapted so you can still have a go at them. My only criticism is there is no photos of the activities but the illustrations are cute. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this brilliant book.

This book is fabulous. It has a lot of ideas that helped through lockdown and is going to be a massive help throughout winter for things to do.