Entertain 3 Children for Free (virtually) Over the Summer Holiday!

HairyHandofDartmoor

To give you a quick summary of the situation I have 3 children aged 16, 14 and 11. After today they are all on their summer holiday and will need entertaining. The older 2 will go out with their friends sometimes, but will still need entertaining by me, as they will have plenty of time to get bored inbetween :rolleyes:

To complicate things, we can't afford a holiday this year, I can't drive, and my OH who can drive is too busy working to take more than 1 day off a week (including weekends) to drive us anywhere

OH has promised we will all go out 1 day a week in the car, but that leaves 6 days a week to enterain 3 children with no car and very little money!

So this is my summer holiday diary about how I manage to do just that. Any suggestions would be welcome, if I can give anyone in a similar situation ideas then that would be great

My first idea has been to buy a Family and Friends Railcard. This cost £26 for 12 months (gulp) but will give 1/3 off adult fares and 60% off childrens fares on the train. As we live 15 minutes walk from Plymouth station I thought I could take the kids out by train for the day once a week and my intial thoughts of places to go are Paignton, Torquay and Exeter in Devon and Bodmin, Truro and St Austell in Cornwall. I also thought I could research bus journeys as we may be able to get to the beach for the day by bus (if the fare isn't too expensive.) We would take our food with us so the only expense would be transport, which I am hoping to only spend £12 a week on.

Other ideas include the local parks for picnics and walks, Plymouth Hoe (also good for picnicing) and if we can catch a bus to Cremyll we could catch the foot ferry across to Mt Edgucumbe which is a lovely country park just across the water from Plymouth.

The Railcard should arrive in the post in the next few days so I can start planning our first train outing (my youngest has never been on a train so it is quite exciting!)

Unfortunately it is chucking it down with rain this morning, so I hope it improves as all my plan involve GOOD WEATHER. We can't afford to go indoors!

Sorry for such a long first post and wish me luck. I am determined to give my kids a good summer, despite all the odds!

tiff

Good luck, I'll be interested in how you do as my two are 11 and 8. We are going to Ireland for a week to stay with family, but apart from that we have nothing else planned as yet. Our school breaks up on Thursday.

benbenandme

Good luck with this, I think there are lots of us on here who recognise that feeling of ... how the hell do I entertain them for that long with limited funds ?? :rolleyes: So, to start off a list of possible ideas (although yours are older than my ds so some may not be applicable for their ages) ...

• dvd parties / make popcorn etc yourselves
• let them have friends round for sleepovers
• cooking ... let them design a menu themselves and make dinner or stick to fairy cakes if thats not their thing
• bike rides
• check out local leisure centres to see if they are participating in the govt swimming scheme - at ours children swim for free
• let them sort their rooms out and have a car boot challenge - see who can make the most money from selling their old stuff then let them choose what they spend it on

Hmm, I'll need to have a think for some ideas, I will keep popping in to see how its going though, good luck

HairyHandofDartmoor

I don't think our pool is participating in the Government scheme as I had to pay for the kids at half term, but yes swimming is reasonably cheap and DS1 and DS2 like it. About the only rainy day activity I can afford too! Luckily we are 10 minutes walk from a swimming pool.

The best thing about our situation is that we live only 30 minutes walk from the city centre!

With DVD parties and sleepovers the older 2 are a little old for this, but they loved this kind of thing when they were a bit younger, so it is a great idea.

The cooking idea could be a good one! They would probably enjoy making cakes, etc!

I used to walk up to the library with them when they were younger just to get them out of the house and to give them some fresh books to look at.

I hope we can all give each other great ideas!

boredofbeingathome

I used to have exactly the same dilemma when my three were younger and at different stages in their lives.

Have you any of the Walkers trips vouchers? Tesco days out vouchers? Always good for one offs and keep an eye on local papers for things which are free.

There are lots of summer fetes about at the moment as well. One of my daughters wanted her own patch of garden when she was younger and created a fairy grotto, my son created a star trek one and thought about a pirate one. Very easy to do and kept them entertained for days waiting and watching and adding bits.

Garden centres with pet centres attached are often a good day out.

Picnics and a walk.

Truro is a good day out and there is the free Cornish museum there with Egyptian exhibitions. You could take sandwiches and eat them on the benches nearby. There is an event on in the summer i think it is run by BBC. There are lots of sight seeing there and of course the Cathedral...depends on taste really.

Have you thought about the National Trust membership or English Heritage? You can have umpteen days out with them and cashback through Quidco, but i would try the free days out membership with walkers or other offers first.

We also used to pitch a small tent in the garden during the day and let the children play in that..good times.

They will enjoy it whatever you think of, so i wouldn't worry too much and before you know it they will be back at school.

barbie_babe

Abbey well water are doing free swims too.
http://www.getbritainschwimming.com/main.php

benbenandme

depends on your kids I guess, but how about doing something voluntary once a week?

40somethingmum

Hi:hello:

Thank you for posting on my "similar diary". I am sure we can keep each other company over the coming weeks.

Good Luck.:T:T

40SM

kissjenn

If you have or can borrow a gps system you could try something called geocaching. Essentially it's a set of treasure hunts all over the country. We've been do it for over 3 years and you find tons of places you never knew existed. Some can be done without a GPS if you have an OS Map but they're very difficult that way.

The site is free to join https://www.geocaching.com , just put in your postcode and see what comes up. My DS is 16 and he's been building them for a couple of years to. That takes lots of time and resarch and very very little money.

skylight

Use the Family Railcard code though for half price card. Should be on the code board.


Edit; Perfect, someone has already posted! http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1829319

savingholmes

just wanted to wish you luck! Do you have any craft items - could you do a craft day... Perhaps post on the special occasions board too for ideas... There are a few that have set up holiday hampers with ideas for cheap places to go. Try typing in free days out in and your county to get ideas of free places to visit and then do the same again using the word "cheap". Look out for special offers on meals etc to try and get free days out...

We are hoping to visit a couple of places using Tesco clubcard vouchers!