What do you do with your older kids on wkend

[FreshFancyFrogglette]

Hi,

Just that really, money is tight, and covid rates are still high around here.
Running out of things to do on the weekend with my 11 Yr old (girl). It's just the 2 of us on the wkend, although we sometimes go for Sunday lunch at my mums.
We've got some board games, and watch strictly on sat/Sun night.
Sometimes go for a walk, or she see's a friend/has a sleepover.
There is nothing that interests us on at the cinema - and I'm not 100% comfortable doing that yet.
Does anyone have any idea's?

One thing I wondered was if there were any free online courses that we could do together? Either a craft/drawing one, or something media/society/current affairs related?

She is into ghost stories/horror, but there isn't much that is age appropriate. She has watched Jaws, woman in black, goosebumps, sherlock Holmes, Harry Potter. Is there anything else with a dark/spooky edge that isn't inappropriate? She loves movies, but I struggle to find things that aren't cheesey.

We love animals, but can't have many pets where we are. We are thinking of getting another rodent soon, as our hamster took up a bit of our weekends, playing with him, cleaning him out etc. He recently died aged 3.

What does everyone else do?

Tia

I think you guys are off to a great start. Why not choose a meal to make together each Friday or do some baking together? You could take extras over to your mums. Maybe get a different cookbook from the library each week. Does she have any aunts or uncles? Maybe you could set up a time to play "among us" together with them.

For something fun and spooky (but not too spooky) the podcast "welcome to nightvale" is really cool and has a huge back library you could listen to an episode or two while you have dinner on Fridays or something. My husband loved to watch the X-Files at that age, I believe it's on Netflix.

Does she like YouTube? Maybe you could take turns doing a makeup tutorial on each other but with cheap drugstore stuff. Or paint each other's nails in a fun way?

Thank you! Definitley like the idea of doing some cooking together, library is back open, and I have just paid off my fine, so can definitely do a visit there.
Will also be looking at YouTube for tutorials, because we have recently started doing nails/make up things, and hadn't thought to check there.
:)

Camping?

Hair wraps (with string)

Late night drive as a one off

The Addams family? Not the cartoon one ?

Swimming

Leant an instrument together

Make up silly dance routines

What about buddy the vampire slayer ?

Buffy

What about fostering a dog from a rescue place for the weekend? They used to do that at the rescue place where I used to work.

Geocaching. It’s free, or once you like it you can pay an annual fee (£25) to access more of them. If you like getting out and about, they are everywhere! My dd is 11 and enjoys finding them with me and my older dd. We are quite competitive in our family, there are a few of us into it! There is a big variety of types, some easy, some very hard, some you need to work out puzzles etc. It’s a great hobby.

Borrow My Doggy (is that it’s name?!) for dog walking

Does she do any groups/activities?

Www.geocaching.com

Rats are brilliant pets and give a lot more than hamsters. She’s the perfect age for them.
Learn a skill (something crafty?) while listening to audiobooks. Percy Jackson. Tolkien. Many hours of Stephen Fry reading HP.

A friend and her son help out at the local cat rescue each weekend. Are you within easy reach of a city or town with some "spooky" history? Google some local ghost stories or legends and do your own ghost/history walk?

I was going to also suggest ghost walks or legends. They usually do then on the weekends once it gets dark 4pm onwards. We had some great ones growing up on the coast about shipwrecks and smugglers

Knitting/crochet - some really good videos on YouTube for techniques.
Cooking is a good one. Do you have a garden? Cook outdoors?
Not scary, but one film my DD liked at a similar age was Clueless.

Junior Parkrun is a free 2k run that takes place every Sunday at many locations. Maybe try that? Even if she’s not a runner (yet!) she may enjoy seeing her times get faster. You could marshall at the event too.

Thank you everyone :D some great suggestions!

I'd forgotten about geocaching, but have heard of it before, and am interested to find out what it's about. I don't drive or have access to a car, wonder if that will that be a problem? I live in a city with good public transport though.

Yes, Buffy, nightvale, x-files all good suggestions I hadn't thought of.

We watched ten things I hate abt u, and mean girls, so I think clueless would be a good one. I'd held off because I remembered it having some adult themes, but she's probably old enough now.

I would so love to do adopt a doggy for a weekend, but the block I live in is strictly no cats and dogs, no garden either :(. We could walk a dog though, if we were allowed to just do that, pick one up, walk them, and then return them.

Wil look into it. Feel like I've got some good ideas now :)
Ty everyone.