kids summer holls help

KittyKate

Oooh...go to your local pond/river/canal and float home made boats.

Borrow a digital camera and go on a nature trail with the kids, taking photos will encourage them to look for interesting things - use Snapfish to get the prints for free and the kids can scrapbook them.

Look in the reduced section of your supermarket - I find they often have those cookie making kits reduced, a fun baking day and you can take the cookies on a picnic.

Go to free screenings at your local cinema.

Find out if your local bowling alley does half price day - ours does games for £2.50.

Buy some corn to pop and have a 'cinema at home' - sign up for a free DVD rental month (remember to cancel!)

Go to car boots and give the kids £1 or 50p each.

Make 'homemade mcdonalds'!

I cant think of any more!!!

gingerdad

a good source of free nature activities is https://www.woodland-trust.org.uk/fun

earwig

thankyou so much for your wonderfull ideas i have checked out my councill south beds and they have three thing on these hoildays a play what not suitable for my two year old and two thing in leighton buzzard what is about ten miles from where i live and at least two bus changes so thats a no go we dont live by any rivers or ponds but do have a couple of parks local picture house is ten miles away and an hour on a bus each way the baking thing sounds good and both kids love art stuff so will do that also swiming we can do have two swiming pools near so will do that and we do have bikes so will give that a go to keep them coming please thanks

sammyw

http://familyfun.go.com/
This site has tons of ideas - there's even a summer holiday challenge with a special idea for each week.

saleofthecentury

Hi there.

I was just looking on the Showcase Cinemas website, as I heard BlueWater Cinema were starting a 'baby-friendly' slot at 10am on Tuesdays. Whilst on there, I saw that they're running a 'Bookworm Wednesdays' programme for the summer holidays, at which any child of 6 or above can have a free ticket to a changing programme of movies on every Wednesday morning at 10am - in return for reading a book and writing a book report on it - so that's quite encouraging if you're trying to get your little ones more enthused about reading. It's got the added advantage of parents and / or guardians being allowed to accompany the child for free, as well as any siblings under 6, none of whom have to write a book report themselves!

I'll copy and paste the details here, or the website is:http://www.showcasecinemas.co.uk/special_prisons.php?page=

BOOKWORM WEDNESDAYS
FREE CHILDREN'S MOVIES AND GREAT PRIZES!
BOOKWORM WEDNESDAYS is an exciting and rewarding summer reading programme designed to encourage our young patrons to read during the summer months. Every Wednesday morning at 10:00 a.m. just bring a book report with you to one of the participating Showcase Cinemas to enjoy the selected Bookworm Wednesdays films and that's your price of admission. Accompanying parents or guardians and children under six receive free admission and do not need to submit a book report.

Each week the participating cinemas randomly select TEN children's book reports which will be drawn from all submissions and each winner will win a merchandise prize pack to be handed out that day. At the end of the five-week programme, one grand prizewinner from each location will win a year of movie passes for themselves and a friend.

Dates and film schedule for 2006:
Glasgow and Paisley

Wednesday 19th July - HERBIE: FULLY LOADED
Wednesday 26th July - CHICKEN LITTLE
Wednesday 2nd August - NANNY McPHEE
Wednesday 9th August - MADAGASCAR
Wednesday 16th August - WALLACE AND GROMIT

Bristol, Coventry, Dudley, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham,
Teesside, Peterborough, Bluewater and Reading, Cardiff, Newham

Wednesday 2nd August - NANNY McPHEE
Wednesday 9th August - MADAGASCAR
Wednesday 16th August - WALLACE AND GROMIT
Wednesday 23rd August - HERBIE: FULLY LOADED
Wdnesday 30th August - CHICKEN LITTLE

Not so good if you're miles from these locations I suppose, but might be of interest to any moneysavers living nearby.

Good luck with the summer holiday entertainment - my little one is 18 months old, so not quite there yet, but I imagine it's a massive challenge to keep them entertained for six solid weeks! Maybe one day for the trip to the library to choose the book and one day to write the book report before the cinema on the Wednesday - might sort out entertainment for 3 days of the week?!?!

onredbull

HERES AN :idea: IDEA.

I have not tried this yet but really want to:

You will need the following:-

~PATIENCE :rolleyes:
~AREA TO MAKE MESS
~OLD CLOTHES
~LOTS OF OLD NEWSPAPERS
~BIG OLD BOWL OR BUCKET
~A FEW BALLOONS

~WATER } (i think this is the ingrediants- )
~FLOUR } (-to make paper mache.:undecided )



All you need to do is blow up the balloons and tie.
Then get your children to help rip up the paper - They will find this Fun. :dance:

While they are doing this you can mix the flour and water to make the mache. :huh:

Dip the paper in the paper mache and stick on the balloon to cover the balloon a few layers thick.

Let it Dry - possibly over night.

Then pop the balloon and you have a paper ball shape

You can then decoarate it in many ways depending on the age of you children by :-
1. You could stick things on it to make it into a globe (make up your own world)
2. Design your own football with your football team. :footie:
3. Drawing faces or sticking things on it to make eyes and hair ect - maybe you can use/draw things to make it resemble family/people you know or each other, possibly a grandparent or family member by drawing glasses or usin black or yellow wool for hair.

Then you can put them on the window sill or at the table and make conversations with your new friends (paper mache heads) or give them as presents to people - Fantastic Oppurtunity :cool: and reason to go and vist people :coffee: and get out of the house.

The kids will be able to tell everyone what they made and the fun :j they had.



:idea: If this is too messy - try looking on websites like national trust, nature sites, and parks for activities or info packs to be sent in the post for children to venture outside and learn about nature.

:idea: Look in local paper.

:idea: MILTON KEYNES - HAS LOTS ON THIS SUMMER INCLUDING ARTS AND CRAFTS, INFLATABLES, THOMAS AND LOADS MORE.

HOPE ANY OF THE ABOVE HELPS ANYONE.

PS - IF ALL ELSE FAILS -:beer: (in moderation of course)
HAPPY SUMMER.

Rachie_B

I know how you feel as this yr will be the first yr that i can drive in the summer hols and my kids are 10 & 4 !!

some ideas for you
"paint " the patio / path

give them paint brushes and buckets of water in the garden
they can paint pictures then watch them change / dry in the sun

another one my son likes is being allowed to draw on the patio with big chunky chalks ( 49p in poundstretcher!)

its easily swept away at the end of the day but keeps him amused for ages !

junk modelling - collect anything you can from around the house and let them be creative

make HM playdough
make collages out of old magazines / newspapers

make a den in the house / garden

even on a budget you have to do more than sit in the house playing computer games !!!

get out there! ,load the buggy up with a picnic and a ball and a blanket and go to a park

or even if just a change of scene pop to a friends house and pool resources / ideas

have a look on your local https://www.netmums.com site

they will have ideas of things to do / places to go and theres a meet a mum section so you & your kids could even meet some new friends into the bargain

the_painters_inn

Hi, I thoroughy encourage you to check out Surestart, it is run by the government and they, amongst loads of other cool stuff organise days out for families and children. Last year I was in a bit of a mess and at a bit of a loss with no money and these people really helped me out big time. They have trips to the park, outings, ours has their own minibuses and they have stay and play where you can take your kids to play while the mums and dads have a cup of tea. My kids loved it. They have a newsletter and as far as I know run all over the country.
http://www.surestart.gov.uk/
Check it out! I on the other hand am going to try out some of the stuff that others have mentioned in this forum.
x x x x x x:j

Spendless

Hi-mine are 6 and 3 and here are some of the things we have done/are going to do.

6 yo - football one AM per week at local school run by the coaches of our town football team 'footballing in community'. £2 a session, he needs appropriate clothing/shin-pads/trainers or football boots, drink and snack with him. Check out your local football teams website or e-mail and ask if they know of anything similar in your area.


Park-next week they are having local radio station there 1 day a week in Aug, with fun activities etc. Take a picnic. When mine wanted an ice-creamthe for a 2nd time we walked over to the nearby Lidl and bought a pack of 3 lollys for 89p;)

Museum-we went to local one yesterday, very exciting as some years ago my Dad found a hoard of roman coins and they are still on display in museum.

Swimming- we spent 4 hours at our fun pool yesterday me and eldest, little one was at nursery. Our council run pools don't charge till kids are 5.

Check out what age admission charges kick in, it is likely you could find places to go where the youngest is foc.

I assume it's the same through-out the country but here you don't pay on buses or trains until they are 5. Are there any free museums (or ones where you can pay with your tesco points as prev suggested) a short journey away so you could just pay 1 adult and 1 child return fare and take a picnic.

eilz

wannabedebtfree wrote:

Orange Wednesdays for the cinema is BOGOF, if you dont have an orange mobile ask a friend who does to text for the code, and then they forward the code to your phone, you get the BOGOF (never done this myself as OH has Orange, but I know a student friend who swears by it....probably fraudulent!!)

Can anyone confirm if you can get away with a friend on Orange to order a ticket and send it to you via txt, will it still be valid and work, will the clerk at the cinema catch on that you are not on the Orange network? Thanks.