Top tips for ‘surviving’ the school holidays PLEASE!

[Guest]

With just putting fuel in the car and feeding them getting pricier each week, I’m after any cheap and cheerful entertainment ideas.

We don’t need to be out everyday but I don’t like being stuck in for days at a time, so neither do they. 2 boys aged 5&8.

P.S. I do actually love the holidays so don't come at me with they’re my children so I should enjoy spending every waking minute by their side.

[Amy]

I've got teens. I plan to let them play as much PlayStation as they want and occasionally chuck food in their general direction.

[Laura]

Picnics in the park, at the beach or just in the garden. I find a paddling pool provides hours of garden fun along with other garden toys and games. Get some cheap craft sets, science sets, tie dye kits things like that. We enjoy board game days and cinema at home days - close the curtains, put a film on and grab snacks. Den building is fun. They could camp in the garden if you have a tent. You could make a treasure hunt

to do around the house. Get them to write a song or put on a play. Baking is always good. My daughter loves Just Dance and karaoke. The summer reading challenge is good if they like to read. Also look at your local area for free events. Lots of museums do things during the summer holidays. The National Trust have a lot of things going on too although you have to pay entry unless you're a member. Failing all of that it is ok for them to have a few days watching TV, playing on tablets, playing with their toys etc.

[Karen]

When my girls were young we had literally zero spare money after mortgage/bills/food, but I hated being indoors during the summer holidays! We used to pack a lunchbox each and go to the local park or beach on any day that it wasn’t raining, where we spent all day with kids playing , we often invited friends who’s parents were at work so they had friends to play with and childcare was cheaper for me as the parents would re pay the favour when I was at work (luckily I’ve never had a mon-fri 9/5 job!)

If it was really hot the girls took swim wear and splashed in the sea went rock pooling/fossil hunting etc, we often had a dog in tow to entertain them aswell, I took cool bags and put ice poles in there with the drinks ,when at the beach we collected debris to take home for arty projects on the rainy days, we were lucky that a local charity in lots of free kids sessions aswell which the girls joined in with they did roller discos, treasure hunts gardening clubs etc, we also used to put a tent in garden and set up a “bonfire” (disposable bbq and camped out a few times eating sausages and beans and marshmallows (I hated the camp nights but my youngest especially loved them and often invited friends to stay over for them! holidays never cost me more than normal days apart from Any increased childcare but the girls still say how much we used to do in summer holidays! Look on local gossip pages to see if you can find any local activities xx

[Karina]

Find a local river. We take a bucket and some nets and spend hours at our local river. Our kids would pick this above most activities!

[Rachel]

We've made a 'bucket list' for the summer holidays. Kids made a couple of expensive suggestions (Wembley stadium/the zoo!) that I doubt will happen, but also lots of inexpensive ones.

Some of the highlights are: making biscuits, trips to a couple of different parks, library reading challenge, tie dyeing the old PE tops, bug hunting, cafe trip, swimming pool, watching a film and eating sweets, sleepover in the living room (just our family), visit grandparents, go on a bike ride, have a friend over, go swimming, watch a film and eat sweets! We will probably manage them all.

I will probably also add in a few walks, paddling in rivers, climbing trees, playing hide and seek in the woods, campfire cooking, picnics etc as I love being outdoors.

The National Trust has a great list of things to do before you're 11 and 3/4 which I think we will try and complete next summer when they are 9, 9, 7 and 4yrs (I think my youngest is still a bit too little to fully appreciate it this year).

[Naomi]

There's a list floating around Facebook of free places to go to in my local area. There may be one for yours as well?

We live 10 mins away from a city, but it takes half an hour by bus. So sometimes for an activity, we get on the bus and take a picnic to the park in the city and then come home again.

Also, I seem to have a tonne of playdates lined up in the summer holidays. That's a good way to kill time! X

[Amy]

Walks! Find local nature reserves, forests, streams etc

Mine love going looking for cool rocks and doing hunts for things and take sandwiches to have picnics .. don’t have to spend a fortune to make amazing memories xx

[Cazz]

I would start by collecting a tarp, a ball of string/guy ropes/paracord and a picnic blanket (you can find them free or very cheap on marketplace or free sites etc) and a bag of clothes pegs. This will give your kids an instant den pack/rope swing maker. Then find your local parks / woods and get them to build it, different areas bring different challenges, with that and a packed lunch honestly they will be at it most of the day. Mine used to love making dens and would get it out in the garden still now. You can do challenges and competitions too. If they build the den in the garden you can camp out in it too. Have a look on rspb for their big camp out nights and so on.

I used to collect cardboard boxes too for modelling and building with the boys. Then we would do other days at the beach, rounders or cricket etc in the park. We used to play old schoolyard games like fish in the net and skipping. I'd take them on bingo nature walks, treasure hunt trails and have them build butter tub boats/stick boats to race down the stream we also had cheap fishing rods from poundland and they'd race their rubber ducks (I'd tied the line to an eye hook I'd screwed in the top) down the streams (I had the line as our stream was awkward to get to in places but if you don't need it) I have taken them crabbing, beach combing and we have planted lots of herbs and things in the garden for snacks so we harvest them. Bike rides, are another favourite too.

Most of these things are free or really cheap, if you can't get tarp a sheet would work or an old duvet cover/curtain.

Suggested: Secondary school kids… Do you give them extra money on top of lunch money to buy “crap” after school?

[Michelle]

Honestly, the best way u have found to keep occupied throughout the summer holidays is to loosely plan! Assign a "theme' for each week, an activity for each day.

I.e. Monday - Arts and crafts, Tuesday - Cooking, Wednesday - Science, Thursday - Nature, Friday - board games.

Then Google activities with your boys, write it all on a calendar, then you and they know you have something planned.

Parks, walks, garden play etc can all fit in the spare time depending on weather.

[Tasha]

We have a Wish List Jar.

The kids give me some ideas and I think of lots too and write them on small slips of paper that we then fold and add to the jar.

I put a mix of cost/location/duration slips.

Examples are:

Woodland walk with picnic

Local park to feed the swans

Movie Night Sleepover (tent in lounge, popcorn, little sweetie bags, drinks, movie)

Bike ride with picnic

Beach day (thermos flask with hotdogs, finger rolls, snacks and drinks)

Crafty day. I get all the craft stuff out and have at it!!!!!

Baking day. Cookies and cupcakes.

Garden games day.

⇒ Useful: With the weather warming up I need to get my son some garden toys!

Park Day. Local country parks are £2 for a days parking. Take a picnic.

Walk along the river to feed the ducks.

Build a fort in the lounge.

When they were younger I made a shop out of a big cardboard box, scales, paper bags, basked from Amazon. I used empty packets and fruit from the bowl and my boys took turns being the shop keeper. Helped with money recognising and maths!

Trampoline reading nook. Pile duvets/blankets and pillows on trampoline and all snuggle up to read. Great for star gazing later too.

As I work from home some activities had to be shorter like:

Homemade pizza day

Make a smoothie

Icecream picnic (tub of icecream packed in ice, muffin tray filled with sprinkles, choc buttons, fruit etc, cones/tubs. Blanket. Garden or park.

Build a fort in the lounge

Hide and seek

Board game evening/afternoon

Water ballon war

Garden Nerf gun target challenge.

Good luck. I hope you have a lovely summer

[Sarah]

Mother of 4, ones and adult and 3 teenagers. Tried and tested over 23 years of mother hood, whatever you do, whatever you plan, however much you spend, most days you will be left exhausted and like what's the point go with the flow, enjoy the less formal time tables and schedules. Sometimes the last minute local park etc turn out to be the best days.

Don't put too much pressure on yourself x

[Kerry]

I used to do scavenger hunts round our local area, I’d give them a list of things they had to spot eg yellow car, red flower etc. I’ve taken pictures on my phone of things in the house but really close up and they had to find them. Let them plan a meal for the day and take part in making it?

[Sarah]

I plan a doing day and a nothing day, one day out one in. That way you aren’t putting pressure on yourself constantly and you can relax on the in days guilt free. I do the good ole swimming, park, museum, library, beach if you have any within driving and if you can afford a couple of treat trips
out to place at middle and end to act as milestones.

[Tracy]

Look for some stones/rocks and paint them. Hide locally for others to find. Look yo see if you have a fb page locally where you can post pictures. My daughter loved doing this, we would walk miles to find them.

Make pizzas. We make pizza wraps for school (work in school kitchen) kids love them and very cheap. Packet of wraps, tomatoe puree and cheese plus any other filling you want. Roll up pop in oven till cheese has melted.

[Marquita]

You might be surprised when you ask them some things they really want to do

Don't get me wrong we have a few expensive days out they have said but majority are cheap/free if you have a car with petrol already and take a lunch

I asked my kids some things they really wanted to do

Go camping, chessington were the more expensive things

But they had things like a beach day, painting rocks, feed the ducks, visit different parks and Forrest's we haven't been to before

Have a p.j day where they don't leave their rooms, movie day in the floor in the living room

Watch a sunset

[Nicky]

We used to have a Busy Jar. A glass jar we decorated with lollipop sticks in, each with something to do, scavenger hunt, Teddy bears picnic, painting, movie night.

If I had suggested the things they'd have said no, but loved getting to choose a random stick out to see what we were all doing.

[Pauline]

Go to the park a lot, I normally go for a couple of hours take a few snacks, once they start getting hungry it’s home for food, go for walks I normally do a scavenger hunt or if I can’t be bothered with the prep (for 4 kids) I just ask them to find random things whilst we’re out,, old clothes wellies/ boots for muddy puddle walks (I let them go wild) I do an earlier tea so we go out after then when we come back it’s bath hot chocolates n movie (or just bed depending how tested I’ve been that day). If you can travel then trips to the beach (as long as you can avoid the amusement centres etc) are normally “cost effective” failing that a few £ each in 2ps will keep them busy on the penny machines. Tbh I don’t struggle toooooooo much because mine are young (eldest is 10) so anything that involves exploring play and dirt are a hit! Also movie marathons, picnics etc. I also chuck immune outside to play with their friends as much as I can.

Over the 6 weeks I tend to ask the girls each what one thing would they like to do, so that’s 3(youngest can’t communicate fully) big spends” during the school holidays which I try to budget as best I can. (Not sure how helpful any of this is, just a little insight) x

[Irene]

A tip I used to use is buy all their snacks for the week then separate them into what they are allowed daily put them in a box with their names on if they eat them all in one sitting then that's upto them they got no more until their allowance the next day surprising how quick they learn how to make them last allday lol x

[Shanelle]

If you drive everywhere. Get the bus to a park. Where I live, I can get a double decker to the next biggest town which has a castle with museum inside & a big park in the grounds. Take a picnic & it's a relatively cheap day.