I’ll be honest with you — I’m dreading the upcoming June holidays. Although COVID restrictions are lifting and more places of entertainment are opening up, as a parent who mostly works from home, I’m not looking forward to having my quiet late mornings and afternoons completely disrupted with my little monsters constantly whining that there’s nothing to do at home. My home is not equipped, and as such, neither am I.

But here, I’ve made a helpful list for parents who don’t want to be breaking the bank having to go out and explore expensive little Singapore every day during June, trying to find some form of entertainment for the kiddos.  

1. Entertainment Systems

You need at least a Smart TV to survive June. And you need either a Netflix or a Disney Plus subscription while you’re at it. For as little as $12.98 for Netflix and $11.98 for Disney Plus, you can just do a commitment-free subscription for the one month to keep them occupied so you can preserve your sanity. I’d really recommend Disney Plus over Netflix; it appears to have way more kid-friendly shows and the portfolio is far more comprehensive.

If you have gamer kids, having some kind of video games ready will also be extremely helpful. I’m no expert on games but we have a PS4 that seems to do very well in keeping our older kids entertained, and it didn’t cost us a fortune. 

If you have kids who can’t seem to pipe it down, have them unleash their vocal prowess via a home karaoke system. There are cheap bluetooth microphones you can simply connect to your Smart TV, fire up YouTube and have your tots sing along to their favourite tunes.

2. A Mess Room

It could be a relatively unused room, your bomb shelter, your service yard; this dedicated mess room allows your kids to contain their crafts, toys, activity equipment, and messy items to ONE room in the house that you can reverse and scrub down when July swings around. You can pad the place with layers of newspaper, junk A4 paper, or even plastic sheets so your walls don’t suffer through the abuse and require a repaint. 

Or you could take it a step further and line your walls in whiteboard film or blackboard laminate and break out the markers or chalk and let your kids spend hours and hours in this room going crazy with creativity. It’s very much like a padded cell, but far more entertaining.

3. Temporary Home Library

Consider emptying out some shelves in the study and building your own home library. Heck, you don’t even have to populate it with your own books! Just head to your nearest library, have a lovely afternoon enjoying the free aircon and profusion of kid-friendly literature, read to your kids, then take back what books they enjoyed the most to sit on your shelves for the next few weeks. Rinse, repeat, and you will always have bookshelves stocked with fresh reads to keep your children perpetually entertained, throughout June. So much better than spending a ton on self-owned books that they will read once and chuck aside to collect dust.

4. Water Play Area

Similar to the mess room, this is a space where your kids can make a splash without destroying any beloved furniture or flooring. You can create a water play area in the bathroom, the service yard or if you have the luxury of an actual balcony, that’s your prime splash spot. If you have toddlers, throw in a few plastic jugs, or a little tea set and let them have an entire afternoon pouring away. Older children can amuse themselves with water guns, or play scientist with plastic bottles and old medicine syringes. 

If your play area is small, have a kiddy pool party with lego men, Polly Pocket dolls, or other waterproof toys instead of actually allowing your kids to get into water. If you want to be the ultimate sneaky parent, get them to scrub their toys clean in some soapy water with unwanted or spare toothbrushes and make a fun time out of it. Get them to dry their washed toys in the sun at the end of play time and you have yourself a win-win situation. 

5. Dress Up

Before the holidays start, drag out all the unwanted kids’ clothes you can find and leave them in a pile or in a trunk, chest, or box — whatever you can get your hands on. You can then have them play dress up with the old clothes, while simultaneously spring cleaning their wardrobes and possibly reintroducing long-forgotten pieces of clothing hiding in the back of their closets back into their daily ensembles. 

At the end of the holidays, simply pack off all those old clothes and ship them off to be donated to the needy or if you are really good with a sewing machine, consider taking them apart and giving them a new lease of life by upcycling what pieces you can with a redesign or some creative alterations.

6. Box It Up

My oldest child seems to be getting ready for June by turning into a rag and bone lady; she’s been amassing and collecting huge cardboard boxes, and I’m not about to stop her. At first, I thought she was building a fort, but it appears the child has stranger motives in mind, recreating objects from the dark, creepy online games that are trending among older kids these days. She has recreated a medieval looking lantern, and is currently making a pair of bat-like wings for her younger sister from another cardboard box. 

Whether they are fort building or creating strange items, cardboard boxes are a great way to keep your kids entertained. Have them explore ways to recreate interesting items from their favourite shows and games and fashion them out of cardboard and scrap paper. It is also an environmentally friendly solution to disposing of unwanted boxes and junk paper and giving them a new purpose in your home!

Rachael Sia, 

SIXiDES Editorial Team