This Friday school finishes for the summer which means more time at home and more hours to fill.

So what to do with the children during these extra hours?

The temptation is to hide indoors from the sun and let them watch more television. But the little voice inside my head will be whispering ‘Bad mother! Why do you have children if it’s just to sit them in front of the goggle box for hours on end?’

Another option is for them to have a siesta, but my daughters grew out of naps years ago and whenever I’ve tried to re-instigate a little midday lie down it has always been a total disaster. And even if I did get them to sleep for a bit, they’d be up until midnight, which would surely be worse. In an attempt to get them to sleep one day last summer I actually put them into the car and took them for a drive, hoping the movement would rock them to sleep.

Needless to say this did not happen but we did have a very nice excursion visiting a castle in a nearby village.

So, back to my dilemma of entertaining a four and a five-year-old in the midday heat.