6 weeks hols looming - any suggestions on cheap entertainment for Kiddywinks?

scooterwife

Make a shop, make dens, use fabric (old curtains, bedspreads, old clothes) and have a fashion show. (can be done with newspaper & wrapping paper, and lots of sellotape as well.)
Make playdough (see the under5s website for recipe) this keeps for weeks in an airtight box in the fridge. Make 'stretchy dough' from self raising flour & water - this doesn't keep but the more you play with it the stretchier it gets (think pizza dough)

scooterwife

have a treasure hunt - you can either give them a list of things to find or if you are well organised you can arrange clues beforehand for them to follow.

SuziQ

What a great thread-I was actually sitting this morning wondering what I am going to do with my 3 with very little money!
Something we invented a couple of years ago which is very popular with my 3 is 'the chip-nic!) This was invented when they wanted a picnic but I had no suitable food and no way of getting to the supermarket. I packed some bottle of drinks,paper plates and rugs and we walked to the park via our local chippy-hence the 'chip-nic!'
I always try to arrange a few meets with friends with similar age kids-it's amazing how much more interesting the local park can become for them with the 'right' company! We also plan a few trips to the swimming pool,a trip to lego (my youngest's choice-he recently got awarded DLA so this is a treat I culdn't ordinarily afford,also got the Tesco 2 for 1 vouchers) and a big must for all of us is the new film Wall-e which even my 17 year old is desperate to see! We are also planning on tidying up our awful,totaly ovrgrown garden.Both the lads can't wait for the skip to arrive!

Robbda

• Check out your local Country Park, Mini-Beatsting & Ponding Dipping for ages 6 - 12 £2.10 for the morning (mums & dads welcome too)
• Bicycle rides - take a picnic this is a good website to check out route - fab one in Essex and you can hire bike for the day too http://www.sustrans.org.uk/default.asp?sID=1132926327968
• Train Travel Family rail card £12 before July 31st!http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1049447(Thanks woozywendy)
• Council run Swimming pools have odd days and courses for kids int he 6 week inflatable day/life saving/scuba diving
• Contact your local council mine a running cheap football schools for a week

FREE LONDON:

• Tate Modern
• Museum of london http://golondon.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=golondon&zu=http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/
• Natural History Museum www.nhm.ac.uk
• Sience Museum http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=golondon&cdn=travel&tm=6&gps=71_804_1276_885&f=10&su=p531.50.336.ip_&tt=11&bt=0&bts=1&zu=http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/

2-4-1 with train companies & cheap Travel for theatre, attractions etc:

• http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/NewsItem.aspx?id=561
• http://www.nationalexpresseastanglia.com/leisure_offers/2_for_1_london_offersTrain Travel Family rail card £12 before July 31st!http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1049447(Thanks woozywendy)

Robbda

• Check out your local Country Park, Mini-Beatsting & Ponding Dipping for ages 6 - 12 £2.10 for the morning (mums & dads welcome too)
• Bicycle rides - take a picnic this is a good website to check out route - fab one in Essex and you can hire bike for the day too http://www.sustrans.org.uk/default.asp?sID=1132926327968
• Train Travel Family rail card £12 before July 31st!http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1049447(Thanks woozywendy)
• Council run Swimming pools have odd days and courses for kids int he 6 week inflatable day/life saving/scuba diving
• Contact your local council mine a running cheap football schools for a week

FREE LONDON:

• Tate Modern
• Museum of london http://golondon.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=golondon&zu=http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/
• Natural History Museum www.nhm.ac.uk
• Sience Museumhttp://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=golondon&cdn=travel&tm=6&gps=71_804_1276_885&f=10&su=p531.50.336.ip_&tt=11&bt=0&bts=1&zu=http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/

2-4-1 with train companies & cheap Travel for theatre, attractions etc:

• http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/NewsItem.aspx?id=561
• http://www.nationalexpresseastanglia.com/leisure_offers/2_for_1_london_offersTrain Travel Family rail card £12before July 31st!http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1049447(Thanks woozywendy)

SuziQ

Shame this thread died-thought it would go on for ages!

ANY_CHANCE

Dont forget museums are free and sometime they have free activities there

Trips to car boot sales

Doing Car boot sales -My kids love doing this and we make money at the same time and clear the house

Making dens and picnics in the garden

looking round garden centres

Take the neighbours dog for a walk if you dont have your own

In bad weather drive to a local veiw point have a picnic in the car

paddling pool

Pick your own fruit at a fruit farm then make a pudding with what you have picked

My children are on holiday after today, like Cleosmum my children a various ages 14, 8 and 5

I am still on placements through the hols but i am going to make myself plan something with them everyday. I will try to get them to do a summer hols diary to take back to school, they can add pictures, writing, painting and get them to think about stuff they can do whilst on hols

benbenandme

Give them a matchbox and see how many different things they can get in it ... eg. a blade of grass, a safety pin, a button etc
We used to play this for hours when we were kids
I'm doing a scrapbook with ds this holiday, it keeps him busy for 5 minutes a day and helps with his drawing / writing

Robbda

What a fab idea! any chance! he loves dogs :T