nearly summer hols how to have an os school hols

sandy_may

I have 4 children aged 12. 10, 8 & 6 years old and I LOVE having them home in the summer.

We have National Trust and English Heritage memberships and spend a lot of time visiting properties with picnics in tow. We used our Tescos clubcard vouchers to pay for EH membership (£15 in vouchers for family membership) and it has been well worth it. We live near Kenilworth Castle and my younger 2 who are boys love cavorting around the castle in their Knights costumes. Membership allows each adult to bring in 6 children so we can even accommodate friends! In fact we even held number 3 childs birthday party there which was a huge success. We took 6 little boys dressed as knights, bought them each a foam sword in lieu of a party bag, set a treasure hunt around the grounds including a huge picture of a dragon to be 'slain' (like pin the tail on the donkey only 'who could stab closest to the dragons heart') and ghost (dad in a sheet hiding in a tower) and all rounded off by a picnic served on 'silver platters' from tescos - total cost £18 and the boys had a fantastic time!

We also do the reading challenge, go walking & climbing (we have our own gear) both locally & in places like the Malverns and set up obstacle courses/other crazy races with the garden toys.

My children also stage a play each summer. This years effort is 'A Midsummers night dream' and they not only write their own script, they are also incredibly inventive & resouseful with the dressing up box! It's all a good laugh.

We do days out when we have discount vouchers but mostly we do free things such as the walking/climbing & NT/EH properties. There are often special events on at the properties too including crafts etc, just check the websites for details.

'Saturday morning pictures' is a good deal too. £1 a ticket including games with prizes. If we see a 'current' movie it has to be via 'orange wednesday'.

Our latest discovery is orienteering. A local club holds events which are open to non-members. For £1 we can go as one team & have a fab evening racing through the local woods or around the park following clues. It really is excellent fun, the children love working out the routes on the map & clocking their times, working as a team. Check on the web to see if there is a club or event near you ; we go with Octavian Droobers.

Ours swim competitively with the local swimming club so we still have squad training throughout the summer which helps to burn off any surplus energy!

Wherever we go we always take our own drinks & picnics; if we have any spare cash we sometimes buy a couple of cakes to share but the children are very good really & realise that we don't have oodles of money so they generally don't perster for expensive things..I often get the children to prepare the picnic.

Hope you all manage to have lovely summer with the children!

vastsarah_2

like lii-me we cant do the surprises as our 12 year old has aspergers.
We draw a calander for the 6 weeks ,we put ds days out with the kids club that he goes to 2 times a week,mainly tuesdays and thursdays.
(paid for by the mental health team):D
its a new set up this year hope it will be ok, for normaly he has 1:1 days out.
Then his birthday is in august ,any days that his dad is home.
The calander is very like a time table with days even showing what mum is doing when he is out ,nothing too intresting or he wont want to go to the club.days show when to buy uniform,shopping coming, any dental,doctors app.
If we go away it only for a few days at a time ,in case we need to make a quick:eek:.getaway.
When we are home we have lots of kids in the garden/house playing and as long as they behave and treats the animals well they can come back,i dont mind about noise or mess but mess with the pets and thats it.
We dont have alot of fizzy or sweets in because of ds adhd,and 2 in braces,but plenty of crisps,fruit and cake.
If the weather is nice every one gets kicked outside to play even if they sit down with the lego which is the latest obseation (SP)all very neatly lined up.:p
Im thinking of stopping pocket money for the hoil as they cant budget very well,just the younger 2.
The oldest 2 are working 19+17 and the middle one 14dd is away for 2 weeks with the cadets:j
my bigest problem is trying to keep the house work done even minmum amounts and seeing my gran on a tuesday might only be able to do her mornings for the hoils.

chardonnay_2

our boys (stepkids) will be with us for 2 weeks in the summer. they didn't want to go on holiday so we are planning days out instead. hopefully as cheap as possible. some ideas we have are

swimming at least once a week - the pool in burntisland is a fun pool with waves and slides and as we are on benefits we are going to get a fifestyle card which we will get free which allows the whole family discounts on council run facilities. fifestyle is not just for those on benefits so check out if your council offer a similar discount scheme.

the boys have orange mobiles so we will go for the 2 for 1 cinema orange wednesdays each week. we will take all our own sweets /juice etc.

we have a laserquest in edinburgh which the boys love - we bought them memberships for £20 each which means they only have to pay £2 per game. we use our family railcard to get there and an hours fun for £6 is a good treat plus it is good fun their fitness and wears them out.

we have also thought about trips to the local country park with their stunt kites, & a picnic. trips to the beach and bike rides in the local woods.

my aim is to find some more free/cheap interesting stuff to fill the rest of the days.

savingpennies

I love the summer holidays. I'm a teacher so I see it as a stress free, care free time that I can spend with my two - 15 and 12. Where I used to live this became a problem with one neighbour who assumed because I was off more or less at the same time as the kids I 'wouldn't mind keeping an eye on her two' whilst she was at work all day! I think she thought it would be cheap child minding. I didn't take her on telling her that I spent my working life with other people's kids and that summer was time for me to be free of them. She never spoke to me again.

Queenie

chardonnay wrote: »

....

my aim is to find some more free/cheap interesting stuff to fill the rest of the days.

You might find this useful:- http://www.fife.gov.uk/orgs/index.cfm?fuseaction=event&orgid=60304273-A856-11D6-BF4D0002A5349AC9&contentid=5029

Discodee

sandy may you sound just like me! lol
We go to Blackpool pleasure beach and bowling with clubcard deals ( and a haven holiday each yr too) and we go to pizza hut with pigsback vouchers! You seem to do same as us too.
One thing I dont advocate is keeping bottles of orange juice. Most of them contain the dreaded abd highly dangerous aspartame ( and anyone whos kids have aspergers or ADHD should in particular avoid this, although it is also carcinogenic so i'd advise anyone to avoid it)
Pure orange juice, or fizzy water, or capri sun/five alive sachets are ok. the latter two are often on bogof working out at less than 15p each! I buy them in bulk when they're on offer. Or you can get 3 packs of pure orange juice sachets for about 40p, but it is of course cheaper to buy a 1 litre pure orange and split it up!
The EH thing sounsds great. sadly we have none near us, but are blessed with numerous parks and country walks and also several beaches (But rarely get the flippin weather to use them any more!!!!And it's going to worsen each yr unless people wise up and use their cars less, bin their mobiles and recycle!!! which is not going to happen) So we really are lucky. I think kids prefer old fashioned fun personally. wasnt life more fun when we had no dvds, computer games or mobile phones? I think so! Kids were certainly healthier

liuhut

Well ours has started well as DD1 has got Chicken Pox...just waiting for DD2 to get it now!!!
My OH just popped to Blockbuster to get them a DVD to watch this afternoon and they have all the kids ones for 25p for the day...not sure how long it was on for but with the popcorn it only came to £1.80!!!

Footpather

Just before the holidays I plan several trips, some free, some you have to pay for and an odd dearer one. I write these all on pieces of paper and drop them in a hat. I also write more pieces out with chores or jobs to do (weeding the garden/tidying their rooms etc). Then they pull out one each day (usually the night before in case of early starts/preparation needed) They must agree that what is picked out is what they are going to do though. I usually do it on a weekly basis so there is a balance of outings/chores.

moogiegirl

As we haven't got a car and live in the middle of no
where summer holidays are tricky. To keep my DD's happy we have theme days. Pirates, Dr Who, Princesses and knights are all themes we have used before. On a theme day we dress up, bake food, watch a film and make craft things in that theme. We also go to the beach but as this involves getting DD's (6yrs and 4yrs) and 1yr boy on a coach plus a buggy by myself, it will be only a couple of times.

piratess

Does anyone know of any good websites to find out what free or cheap things are on in the local area!? Ive got 3 children living at home 13 9 and 2 and my 12yr old son is coming to stay for a week in august he has ADHD so is a bagfull of energy in himself! ...

I live in Sway (new forest) but dont drive ive planned to do picnics up in the forest .... but other than that im stumped! id like to go hire bikes for an afternoon but cant find any information about it ..

any ideas would be great! many thanks