How do I cope with the school holidays and no money?

lilly81

Hi Everyone,

I am a lone parent and I recently lost my job. its going to take until January to get any income support or housing benefit. I put a bit of money aside to cover January's direct debits.
I am living off £42 per week for me and my 6 year old son.
The question is how do I entertain him for 2 weeks school holiday without spending very much.
All suggestions welcomed

Lilly X

Kittikins

Hi Lilly - really sorry to hear your news, sympathies from a fellow single mum with not much spare cash. I'm sure people will come up with loads of great ideas suitable for a 6 year old but things that we and my DD age 3 do that she loves (for free) are:

* going to the park with a flask of soup and having a "picnic" in the cold!
* covering the kitchen table and floor and getting REALLY messy - we made about a million saltdough decorations the other week and have painted and glittered them - loads of fun; maybe you could make monsters/dinosaurs?
* make papier mache animals and paint them? I think there's a thread somewhere on here on how to do it properly
* errrm, making cookies?

Hope you get a new and far better job soon, all the best for Christmas and the new year

Kittikins x

Toonie

Perhaps spend time together baking and making things using things from around the house (snowman can be made from a toilet roll, cotton wool, glue stick and a piece of card for his hat).

You could make paper chains and decorate the house for Christmas, go for walks and see if you can find any pine cones, or twigs which can be dotted with glue and sprinkled with glitter. Maybe invite a friend of his + mother/father for the walk as well?

Make some salt dough decorations, paint them and then varnish with a little watered down PVA glue.

looby-loo_2

Museums are often free and some have Chirstmas holiday events.

chalky_75

So sorry to hear your news

Ideas off top of my head

Time spent together costs nothing but means the most

Get the thank you letters done with lovely drawings and art work !!!!

Sit and share books -

Make a ragrug

Make sock monkeys-- your little one will love them and then sit and make up stories together about an adventure for a sock monkey. You make the first line. Here is a monkey called

---

and he met a

---

Let your son add the details and let the story adventure carry on for as long as possible. Then you could write it and he could do the pictures.

Make musical instruments out of yogurt pots and rice. Tins with lentils and dance all around the house.

Make dens for all his bears and soft toys. Put a blanket over a table or a bunk bed and put cushions inside and a torch and have a little picnic

Put a tent up inside and gp camping together,

Make pasta jewelrey for Grandmas

Get a cardboard box and make it into a spaceship, robot etc etc

Sing all the songs you know together

Go on a treasure hunt inside if it is bad weather with clues either pictures or words.

Make a puppet show with sock puppets or stick puppets.

Cut out pictures of anything that intersts him and make a scrapbook

Paint on the windows-- great fun and easily washed off

Make cornflour gooo--- will keep him busy for hourd

Cook together.

Teach him how to knit - big thick wool.

Turn the lounge into a zoo and make plasticine food for all the animals and make signs about feeding time etc etc.

Play all the old games of Hunt the thimble. kims game, hide and seek . pin the tail on the donkey, I spy etc etc.

Play sound games -- e.g think on an animal that begins with a, b. c etc etc

Hope this helps

babs2008

Hi, Here's my suggestions:

Baking's always fun. I have fond memories of baking pies, buscuits and cakes at that age.

How about one of the free dvd rental sites? - those that you can use the trial and then cancel.

Winter walks and building snowmen (if it snows that is).

Get his friends round for a christmas party or sleepover. Ask other parents to provide some food etc. You can use the cookies/cakes you baked earlier. Next time it can be their turn to host

Other parents at his school must be thinking the same thing. How about a few days out as a group?

juliapenguin

Big hugs lilly81 - I've been there and done that and it's so frightening. However, the suggestions above are fantastic and I think will really help you. Just try to keep as calm as you can about it so your little sweetie doesn't panic and worry you'll both starve!

Why don't you have a look on your local Freecycle and see if anyone is giving away any toys/books/videos? Most Freecyclers would be so happy to see their stuff go to such a good home and it would be fun to have some different stuff to bring out bit by bit.

It's a great opportunity to teach him to cook, as well. There's loads of lovely cheap biscuit recipes on here and you'll both enjoy the making as well as the eating.

Maybe buy a bag of 'raw' popcorn, practise popping it in a pan until you can do it really well, then invite one of his friends over for a kid's film on TV/DVD and a big bowl of popcorn. You can just put sugar or salt on it, or heat up butter and sugar to make toffee and get really sticky!

Honestly, he will love having the time with his mum and you might find yourself in years to come having happy memories of this challenging time.

Good luck!

PS Roughly where in the country are you and do you have much transport? People might know of good free activities that you've not thought of.

xxx

sillyvixen

make papercut snowflakes and decorate a window.
make christmas candles - household candles, pva pictures cut from leftover wrapping paper onto candle, paint in an extra layer of pva and roll in glitter (cheap pressies for for grandparents from your little one)
there are loads of decoration ideas on the web with little outlay.

purpleivy

Home made playdough? I can find the recipe, only flour salt and not a lot else

poppasgirl

Im sorry to hear that you have recently lost your job, thats gotta be tough just before christmas.

When i wasnt working and had the children at home, we used to walk to the park, take a ride on the bus just for the sheer hell of it, we used to on a cold day, get newpapers out on the kitchen floor, get some old mongy potatoes, cut them up and make potatoe prints, they loved it.

Have you a vid cam? hook it up to the telly, put some silly music on, point it at the kids and they can see themselves on the telly, you dont even need a tape, just so they can sing to the music and dance.

Internets free at the library and kids love looking at books.

Parks great this time of the year, take them out get them some fresh air, it wont kill them!

Take nature trails, are they able to read? if not make a list draw pictures of things like leaves, trees, paths, certain colour cars, lorrys etc and get them to find the things on the list, making sure they are safe of course.

We used to play a game of yellow car mini car, if you see a yellow car, you get a point, if you see a mini you get a point if you see a yellow mini you get 2 points, get the idea.

When my son was little we used to sing nursery rhymes in the car or walking along, it stops them getting bored and makes the time go quick.

painted_lady

Hi, sorry to hear about your job.
Just some initial ideas (although you got some great ones above)
- nature walks in the park, get him to look for signs of winter, maybe take a digital camera with you if you have one and get him to do a scrapbook or photoalbum of it?
- make musical instruments, shakers from toilet roll tubes etc and maybe get some of his friends round and they can be a band?
- "a day in the life of . . . " get him to record what a day in his life is like, collect everyday things and have him record it, I did this when I was 12 (1988) and have old bus tickets, coins (the large 10p), a handwritten diary page, labels off tins, photographs of family, where we lived, what foods we ate etc. You could almost do it like a time capsule. It would depend on his literacy skills, but you could do different aspects of his life, such as what a school day is like, fave activities, any clubs he is in, what his christmas day was like. If his literacy skills are not up to that, then maybe he could tape record or video record this, if possible? Would also be great to look back on when he is older. Everyday things change so much over time, remember the (now) retro heinz tins of the 1980s.
- my brothers loved nothing more than playing football on the fields, does he have any friends you can offer to take out and do things like this with?
Just some ideas.