I posted this last year in the middle of the summer holidays, a good article to refresh for 2014 🙂 By now mummies and daddies might be tearing their hair out, so here is some inspiration. Keep reading for free ideas to keep the kids amused during the summer holidays…….
So according to media this week it costs around £1200 to keep a child entertained through the summer holidays. Really??? I have 3 boys so does mean I’m going to spend £3600? ( I don’t think so..although childcare is costing quite a bit to fair)
Free Stuff
Craft activity at home
I have a good stock of this stuff at home as I used to be obsessed with making cards..and I never threw anything away! The boys love cutting up old christmas cards and re sticking the bits onto new cards. Anything with glitter. Stickers. They love to paint. Basically anything messy they love. Just make sure you put some old newspaper down on the floor and on the table;-)
What about using the recycling stuff, now our councils are obsessed with us recycling everything..save a few plastic containers/plastic bottles/cardboard…clean it up (;-)) and let them loose with their creative minds.
A friend recently shared with me ‘making potions’…let them loose with a bucket in the garden. With mud, sand, water, leaves, fairy liquid….alot of fun. But as Suzi pointed out, dont let them wee in it;-)
And the good old paddling pool and hose pipe. Quick make the most of these before a hose pipe ban is introduced. Our paddling pool was £4.50 from tesco last year…hours of fun are to be had by all 3 boys.
Childrens Centre
Check out the activities at your local sure start childrens centre. Our local one has tons going on over the summer hols. A big campaign at the moment seems to be getting the kids out to the local parks, so 3 times a week there are fun activities-play rangers at the local park over lunchtime. Every mon/wed and fri And yeah this is free.
Treasure Hunts
Try out Geocaching. Its a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location. You’ll find treats in the treasure chest..but you must take something along to replace what you’ve taken. Check out the website for more details.. http://www.geocaching.com/guide/
Splash Parks
There are alot of these popping up all over the place in Hertfordshire, so I hope they are also being build in other counties. We are very lucky to have a lovely enclosed one in Stevenage, Fairlands Park and another partly enclosed but very safe one in St Albans Verulamium Park. There is also a new one just built in Letchworth, but alas not enclosed so you always need to carefully watch your kids. Baldock too.
Beach
You can’t beat the beach, I grew up in Cornwall and spent every weekend at the beach….so I love it. And living where I do in Hertfordshire boy do I miss it. Cant wait for our week in Cornwall at end of August to spend every day at the beach..be it rain or shine its still fun with the kids.
It’s worth the trip from here too, Frinton on Sea, Walton on the Naze, Whitstable….a few nice ones in essex/kent. Am sure theres plenty of other nice ones. Here is Norfolk, near Great Yarmouth.
Sport Stuff
Go to the park and play sport. At the park two weekends ago, DJ, JJ and I counted all the following sports going on..tennis, volleyball, baseball, football, cricket, badmington….all with cheap stuff bought from the supermarket. Maybe not free but inexpensive.
London Free Stuff
An array of musuems are free to visit in London, Natural history museum, V&A, Science Museum. All very good for kids, busy in the holiday so get there early. And the trip on the train into town is half the excitment. Kids under 5 travel for free on the train dont forget! And get a family railcard to save even more.
Have a brilliant summer holiday and do post your ideas if you have more..Mrs Mummypenny would love to hear from you!
3 Responses
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Good day! We often forget, mainly due to lack of time and work, to give more time to our children