Keeping children entertained during the holidays is definitely a daunting task, whilst it's lovely to have them home for the summer because we do secretly miss them when they're away it can be a little worrying when you think about keeping them busy and making sure they don't get bored. Then on top of that, you have them pestering you for costly activities, day trips and holidays that sometimes aren't affordable.
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Have a look below at some of the things you can consider for keeping your kids entertained this summer, hopefully without breaking the bank:
Out And About
Normally during the summer holidays, you will find that there are extra things going on in your local area, this is normally because local businesses, councils, and kids clubs are aware that parents are in need of things to keep the children busy. Most of these activities are often free. Some of the things you should be checking out include:
- Check your websites from the local council, buy the newspaper act like a tourist and scour the visitor centres for leaflets and you will be sure to find something that your family will enjoy. A great place to find activities in the library, you will find that they also hold their own events such as storytime and craft days.
- Check to see if your local swimming pools offer reduced rates or special activities during the holidays, often you will find that they have days where they add inflatables to the pool.
- Museums and galleries often launch new events and exhibitions in the summer, you may even find that some art galleries will put on special events. If you don't have anything like this locally try having a look nearby and make a day of it.
- Have a look at your local leisure centre, they normally have activities such as football, cricket, and badminton that they can enjoy.
- If outside is good weather, take a trip to the park or try arranging a hike or walk around some of the local areas or national parks.
- Have a day out with some friends or family to a theme park. Often you can get reduced rates for groups. Hire a minibus and travel together too to save money. You can get some great deals on minibus hire St Helens. You can club in together for fuel and parking costs and take it in turns to drive. The children will love it as it feels like a school trip!
Home Day
Of course, it's inevitable that you will spend some days at home, sometimes you will find yourselves stuck at home, but that doesn't mean it has to be boring. Have a look below at some of the activities you could think about doing:
- Create a home cinema with loads of goodies, you could use the whole day and watch all your favourite films or just pick one and spend some time creating a home cinema in the living room with hotdogs, popcorn, and a fruit salad.
- Get In The Kitchen, a great activity that you can do with the kids is to choose a recipe, shop for ingredients and get cooking. Depending on the age of the child and interests you could pick anything from the main meal through to cupcakes.
- Have a route through them cupboards and find out the puzzles, games, and books, they may seem like too easy of an answer but often simple, old-fashioned entertainment can be really fun and just what you need.
- What about playing dress-up? You could sort through any old clothes and turn them in creations such as pirates, princesses, and monsters.
- Some kids will enjoy putting on shows, so why not ask if yours would like to create a play or a magic show. To show to you at the end of the day. You will often find they like to practice a few times and will get the bug to create more. Don't forget the camera for filming the special show!
- Think about creating a den, depending on the weather this could be a sheet over the washing line or a space you create in the living room. You can use anything to create space, such as boxes, lights, cushions, and blankets.
- A fantastic project is to create a scrapbook together using photos from your family pictures. You can print off free prints from online for extras to use. They are a wonderful way of creating books to store all your favourite memories and they can always be added to in the future.
- Who said that picnics meant you had to go out and about? When you have a sunny day try setting up a picnic in your back garden. You can even play games like swingball, water fights, mini-games and even set up activities like back yard prospecting.
- Organize a treasure hunt around your house and outside, you could include maps, clues, and treats for the children to hunt down.
- Hold a mini Olympics with games that require small items of equipment, you could arrange a sack race with old pillowcases, a tug of war with just use your imagination. It's a great activity for playdates when you have other children around for the day.
- If you have a tent, why not set it up like a mini campsite in the garden and have a camping trip right there! You could even go as far as having a BBQ and smores. If you don't fancy camping out yourself, the children most definitely will!
- Kites are great if it's going to be a windy day, so why not make your own? You can get cheap crafting materials from online to do things like this. Literally making your own fun.
- While on the topic of being creative there are loads of things you can make together, cards, postcards, scrapbooks, paper planes, origami, paper mache, and even jewellery. An arts and craft day can give them the chance to show off their creative side, could even get some canvas and paints, which can be bought in bargain shops for as little as a pound, the canvas can then be hung around the house and in their rooms.
Think Old School
A nice touch for the summer holidays is to think about what you use to do as a child. It's bound to be different to what they get up to now and it will not only give you the chance to share your life with them it will create memories of the fun games you as a parent introduced. Think about all your childhood games such as marbles, hopscotch, Kirby, cat and mouse, what's the time Mr Wolf and many more. Buying some chalk or marbles is not going to cost the earth.
Something else that you could consider is getting the kids to think about designing their own games. Using things like old cereal boxes, paints and old game pieces can work wonders for their creative juices. You can even use things such as toilet rolls to make skittles with a ball to play bowling at home.
Don't worry about filling every minute of every day children also like to have downtime, encourage independence and allow them to explore their own space, whether that's in the garden or their rooms.
Arrange A Holiday
A holiday doesn't have to mean breaking the bank, they can be done on a budget. There are several ways you can get the perfect family holiday away, you could try looking at Seaside holiday parks In North Wales which always works out reasonable, try a midweek break (always seems to be good deals. If you can't shake the feeling that you want a holiday abroad try booking as far in advance as possible, you will often fall on better deals, low deposits and free child spaces. Some of the top tips for finding a good deal include:
- Booking in advance is one of the best things you can do as it's often when the best deals are around. You will be able to fall on the best room availability, best prices, free child spaces and the best flight prices. Not only this you have longer to pay it off. Some of the savviest families always book their holidays in advance and book their next before they've travelled.
- Speak to travel agents about which dates are more reasonable, often they will see deals and dates that are cheaper and know these off the top of their head rather than needing to search around.
- Make use of the colour-coded calendars, some sites such as Disney's have calendars which show you the cheapest dates coded with colours. If you follow these then you will be making sure you're getting the dates available.
- Try to be as flexible as possible. It's best not to book any time off work until you know which dates to book, often when you're stuck with certain time frames you will find it more difficult to find your ideal price.
- Have a look for vouchers and offers, sometimes you will find that newspapers or holiday parks will offer vouchers for money off or deals specialized to help families on a budget be able to afford a breakaway, it's a good idea to keep your eye out for these.
Hopefully, this guide will help you to keep the children busy this summer holiday and any in the future. Do you have any other ideas to share? Please share them in the comments below
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