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

HairyHandofDartmoor

skylight wrote: »

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
/QUOTE]

AAAgggghh! I've already bought it, it came today! :mad: I'll remember that for renewing it next year!

HairyHandofDartmoor

Birdy12 wrote: »

I'll be taking advantage of the Vue cinema where they have a morning showing of a film which is changed every week. Each child costs £1.70 and, for every paying child, an adult goes free. I think that Showcase Cinemas and Odeon may do a similar same thing.

That sounds good! We need a rainy day fallback and that sounds much cheaper than they normally charge! Thanks for that!

I may also go to Blockbuster once a week and let mine choose a film as, last year, they had loads you could rent out for 50p for 2 or 3 nights. The PS2 games were pretty cheap to hire as well. This went down well if friends were coming round as I'd lay on hotdogs and popcorn (well, any 'cinema' grub).

I think Blockbuster is a good idea too. They get bored with all our films at home.

Something I've done this year is take advantage of the 4 weeks free DVD hire with Movies Direct through WH Smith. You can have 2 DVD's out at a time. I started my freebie session last week and I can't knock it. You just have to remember to cancel the subscription before the free period ends and make sure that any DVDs are returned before you cancel.

I will also second Tesco Clubcard vouchers and Walkers points. I've just bought some Walkers crisps from Tesco on a 'buy one get one free' offer and have managed, in one go, to accumulate enough points for a family pass to a National Trust place. Not bad for a £2.41 spend - think I'll be getting some more tomorrow!

I'm expecting Tesco vouchers anyday and want to go to the National Marine Aquarium for free as we can get there by bus!

HairyHandofDartmoor

chevalier wrote: »

How about checking if there are any council run holiday programmes on? Or anything at the university for the older 2?

Am very envious of you living in Plymouth. Went to poly there when it was a poly, and regret leaving 20 odd years ago in some ways.
chev

We are lucky to live here I know as even without driving there are some great places to go!

PasturesNew

At 14 I had a holiday job. At 16 I was temping in the holidays.

Send them up the chimneys!

HairyHandofDartmoor

Well, it was the first day all 3 of them were on holiday today. Our planned trip to Plymbridge Woods after lunch was postponed as OH had a sudden rush of work and was tired after a hectic day yesterday.

So instead we went to the shops by bus. Wasn't as cheap as I would have hoped as I spent £3.70 on bus fares (should walk all or part of the way next time) and bought DS1 and DS2 a tennis racquet for £10 each. But there is a tennis club near us which apparantely charges £2 per child for a session, so I'm going to try it out this saturday!

They wanted a milkshake but I said they had to buy it themselves with their pocket money. I do feel a bit mean now though! Maybe I should give them £1 towards it?

On the way home we looked in at the local museum which is free and we hadn't been to it for about 7 years, so that was quite entertaining, and we met a bunch of DS2's school friends in there too!

So not a free day out, but could have been worse and we all enjoyed it as the kids poked around in all the kind of shops they like and it was a lovely sunny afternoon and it's just nice to get out of the house.

HairyHandofDartmoor

PasturesNew wrote: »

At 14 I had a holiday job. At 16 I was temping in the holidays.

Send them up the chimneys!

I wish! Then they might earn some money instead of just spending it!

I did suggest a saturday job to DD who has just turned 16, but she is quite shy and was not keen on the idea. I don't want to force her as children mature at different ages.

They are quite helpful with drying dishes and hoovering, etc.

lizzie_dripping

A group of mums from school make a standing arrangements during the summer holidays to meet up every week in the playground at the local woods.

We take a packed lunch and some games and the children of all ages have a great time. Because the group is quite large (about 15 families) even if you don't go every week there is always going to be someone there.

Yesterday we had a brilliant afternoon and all I spent was £1 on an ice lolly. :T

chevalier

for rainy days you could have a look at this thread
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1799687

it has a load of sites for playing free pc games, which might help pass the time.

Also there is www.friv.com that has free games but they might be a bit babyish
chv

benbenandme

if you go on bbc bitesize and add /typing after the address there is a thing to teach them how to touchtype, always a useful skill to have even if its just for doing homework

HairyHandofDartmoor

Well, it was a lovely sunny day yesterday, so OH dropped us on the Hoe after lunch. We walked all over the Hoe, looked at the sailing boats, etc, and I bought them an icecream for £1.50 each.

Then we wandered down to the Barbican and browsed in the antique shops, etc. There was some kind of classic bus rally on the Hoe and in the city centre an outdoor play was going on in the Piazza, so we had some free entertainment!

Apart from the icecreams, I only spent £1 on a bottle of water as we were dying of thirst and £2.30 on bus fares to get home (walked halfway to save money!)

A reasonably cheap day out, but I should have taken drinks with us. We really enjoyed it though and they seem happy to potter around at home today (especially as it's dull and drizzly today). I think all the walking tired them out yesterday (hee, hee) as they're not even arguing!