The heat is on - the children are home on summer vacation. Here's how to be a cool mom in hot climes.

Whether your kid's a loner or a party animal, the length of the summer vacation will lose its sting if you have a whole load of options under your belt to keep her occupied. Adapt our easy suggestions to make this a great time for your child, her friends - and their parents as well.

Alone

These suggestions are sure to spark off your child's creativity - your house will never ring with the 'I'm so bored' refrain again.

Get Her Crafting. Get your child into making cards for the next big festival or upcoming birthdays, recycling cereal boxes and soft drink cans into pen holders, working on papier mache projects. We love the craft pages on www.familyfun.com and your kid will love having something to display at the end of the activity.

Give Her A Green Thumb. Let her plant trays of mustard seed on cotton and record how her windowsill garden grows. Or go more adventurous. Level the ends of a potato to stand upright, scoop a flat space out of the top end to form a shallow trough, place a few mustard seeds on moistened cotton, and watch Mr Potato Head grow his green hair. Draw on eyes, mouth, etc...

Let Her Play And Learn. Pick a good site and let your kid play online under supervision. www.sesamestreet.com has great educational games (your child won't really realise she's learning!), and www.disney.go.com is worth a dekko (we love the Winnie The Pooh game and the click-and-colour Magic Artist feature).