nearly summer hols how to have an os school hols

rosieben

we've a couple of thread that might help -

how do I cope with school holidays and no money

and one about feeding hungry kids during the holidays Grocery budget and school holidays

hth

when my kids were little we did lots of picnics - the only wheels I had were on my shopping trolley so we'd load it up with drinks, food, football, books, blankets etc etc and take off to the woods or fields nearby, probably much easier if you live in the country - don't forget some basic first aid kit for stings and grazes!

Pink.

Hi kahunababy,

These threads might give you some ideas:

nearly summer hols how to have an os school hols

How do I cope with the school holidays and no money?

How can I amuse up to 7 kids on little money in half-term?

I'll add your thread to the first link later to keep the suggestions together.

Also try these threads from the Families board:

summer holidays

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

Pink

icelandic_queen

The kids here in Northern Ireland finish at the end of June and aren"t back until the 1st of September, it's practically 9 weeks!! Thanks for the links pink-winged as I'm dreading the holidays. Lots of picnics, library and cheap days out.

Spendless

I've had to roughly get mine planned already as I now work. 3 weeks are covered by me and DH taking AL, a 4th one, DS has a place at summer school via the gifted and talented programme. However it's 25 miles from where we live so we've had to do a lot of juggling and call in a lot of favours to transport him there and back.

The same week I've put DD in a dance summer school, where she'll work towards a production they'll put on at a local theatre on the last day. DS's summer school is free, but I've paid for DD's, but I'm just thinking of it in terms of splitting cost between them, and it's still cheaper than some childcare would cost me. The remaining 2 weeks I need to sort out, but can't until the holiday clubs I use 'open' their books, which isn't usually till a couple of weeks before.

We had 2 inset days here this week, and on 1 of the days, my 11yo and his friend spent most of the day in the garden making a tent from 'nothing'. They secured 3 planks of wood, with rope, covered with tarpulin. They found all these materials round my house. The only thing they got stuck on was tent pegs, but a trip into town to our market and a stall that sells everything and for £1, they had all they needed. They learnt these skills in Scouts. They then slept in it that night, (my back garden is very secure) . We'll ignore the bit when they came in at 4.30am cos it was raining.

Kavey7

When we were small my mum used to keep the empty washing up liquid bottles for me and my brother to use as water pistols.
I've recently used this idea for my little one as the weather has been nice.


I just wondered if anyone else had great tips for reusing old items, or any other free/cheap ways to entertain the kids, especially as the summer hols are on the way!

Pink.

Hi Kavey,

When mine were smaller I used to encourage them to paint their works of art in the garden as there was much less chance of them doing damage and it always seemed easier to clear up afterwards.

This thread has lots of ideas that may help:

nearly summer hols how to have an os school hols

Also have a look at the MoneySaving in Marriages, Relationships & Families board as there are quite a lot of threads over there on how to entertain children.

I'll add your thread to the first link later to keep the suggestions together.

Pink

MaggieBaking

Kavey7 wrote: »

When we were small my mum used to keep the empty washing up liquid bottles for me and my brother to use as water pistols.

My husband's got a belting scar from where his brother ran out of water so just threw the washing up bottle at him!! :rotfl:

Kavey7

Thank, Pink!

quintwins

i once read a tip in a mag (that i no longer buy ) about giving ur kids a bucket of water and a paint brush and letting them paint pictures on fences or walls, best bit is no clean up after the sun does it for u

Fifibonbon

Washing up liquid bottles were out at ours this weekend:)

Don't have so many match boxes now, but give a small container per child, must be the same size though. Get them to see how many different things they can fit in (this can be things from the garden or the house) but take care I have lost earings with this one. I have also done this with a tresure hunt type list - so the box needs to conatin something beginning with B or something red etc...

If you have a little money, a bag of marshmallows and cheap spagetti goes down well for building towers. Best not to eat it afterwards, but you can take the towers apart and re-use the stuff.