What are you doing today with your children? (school summer holidays)

athensgeorgia

I'm really enjoying this thread too, but its also making me sad cause i can't do anything with my kids cause i have a broken knee.

I had so many things planned and was really looking forward to the hols but we're really limited now. So far we spent a week in St Ives which i booked months ago and was really looking forward to, it was good but slightly spoilt by being limited to what we could do. Then the other days have been taken up with hospital appointments so not really fun for them at all. It obviously been really cheap though seing as though i can't take them anywhere which helps seeing as though my wage has halved being on ssp.

So if anyone has any ideas for us which doesn't take much planning and doesn't involve any walking round and its suitable for 9, 8 and 3 year old girls then any suggestions would be greatfully received.

flowerscotland

Today my girls were at playzone, a weekly event organised by the council in the school, they go at 10.30 and I pick them up at 3

I got to do some housework and have a few posts on here too They have fun at it and do loads of different activities.

Not sure about tomorrow I will check the weather and decide, they want to go to a local zoo.

vikki_louise

hiya, if your looking for somethign different to do then please consider sending a card, writing a letter or drawing a picture for a seriously ill child at https://www.postpals.co.uk

It will really make the sick child's day and we have found that the kids sending the post really enjoy knowing they have helped someone worse off

jellyhead

we had a very rainy day at alton towers yesterday, it had been arranged for months though, with friends from scotland away as a halfway point in a journey they were making.

I've been a bit rubbish, had pleurisy and couldn't walk or breathe well for a while, but now I'm recovered I've got a fat swollen moonface from the steroids, and people stare when we go out lol!

Youngest is watching the lion king for the first time, he's suddenly into disney films

mummy_Jay

jellyhead wrote: »

we had a very rainy day at alton towers yesterday, it had been arranged for months though, with friends from scotland away as a halfway point in a journey they were making.

Youngest is watching the lion king for the first time, he's suddenly into disney films

How did the youngest enjoy alton towers?

Mines only 5 and I keep debating a trip to alton towers but I'm not sure if its a bit old still for him. Though last year (whilst i cud still squeeze him in under th parent and toddler tickets) we did Drayton Manor and he loved it but its just too expensive now he's need a proper kids ticket.

cobbingstones

mummy_Jay wrote: »

How did the youngest enjoy alton towers?

Mines only 5 and I keep debating a trip to alton towers but I'm not sure if its a bit old still for him. Though last year (whilst i cud still squeeze him in under th parent and toddler tickets) we did Drayton Manor and he loved it but its just too expensive now he's need a proper kids ticket.

do you have any tesco clubcard vouchures? This is how I afforded to go

mummy_Jay

cobbingstones wrote: »

do you have any tesco clubcard vouchures? This is how I afforded to go

Thanks but I don't have a tesco's card. I have the raring2go voucher £17 for adults and £12 for kids but its still a question of is 5 too young for it?

cobbingstones

I think most of the rides are 1.4M how tall is your child? It may be worth looking at the alton towers website and taking it from there. If you do go prepare a picnic, the food at these places can be expensive x

mummy_Jay

He's only 1.16m tall and I know he wont be able to do any of the big rollercoasters but that was also the case with Drayton Manor but they had loads of stuff for the little ones so it wasn't an issue.

I looked at the website for alton towers but I'm still not sure, hence I was wondering if anyone had taken a kid of simlar age to my boy there and how much they enjoyed it??

jellyhead

5 is not too young, no, but it depends on the family and who wants to do what.

We managed a good day for everyone, with 7 kids ranging from 2 up to 13. Everyone got to do a lot, apart from the 2 year old who was too tiny for a lot of things. Still, there's a soft play area, and she had a good time in the farmyard area.

There's LOADS for a 5 year old to do, in fact I think the boy who turned 6 this week had the best time out of all the children, doing the same things as my 4 year old. They loved the pirate show in the courtyard (while eating lunch, 2 birds with one stone), charlie and the chocolate factory, the rapids, the driving school, runaway mine train and the frog hopper most of all.

How many children do you have though? Alton Towers is a huge place, very spread out, not like drayton where everything's close together. The main problem with keeping a range of kids happy is the distance between areas, and some areas having nothing for smaller kids to do. The cable cars are broken, so expect a lot of walking!

A 5 year old can have a fabulous time there, but if the adults also want to do a lot for themselves or there are bigger children wanting to go on the big rides then time will be limited. Some families split up, or let older kids go off on their own. We split into 2 groups for a while, to enable the kids who are 1.4 tall to go on big rides with adults, while the younger children went on smaller rides quite a walk away. I know some families prefer to stay together for a day out, but our smaller kids weren't the type to sit happily in a buggy for a couple of hours just because daddy wants to go on rita.

If you do split for a while then guest services have a parent swap pass which the person who queued for the big ride gets stamped, then the parent who did the childcare can get straight onto the ride without queuing.

Alton has lots of rides and only a few of them are too big for a 5 year old (I think there are only 7 rides that my 4 year old doesn't go on?), but if there's a range of age groups then you might prefer drayton for keeping everyone happy.

How tall is he?