Cheap things to do in the Summer Holidays

[1AngelicFruitCake]

I’m starting to plan for the summer holidays and the cost of petrol is going to limit what we do compared to usual. Most of their friends are going abroad, we’re lucky enough to be having a Uk holiday but that still leaves 4 weeks. I’m a big believer in be bored, make their own fun etc. But as they’re getting older (8 and 6) it’s nice to go out for few hours/day.

Love to hear your tips for making the most of treats out without breaking the bank!

Visit every park in your town in a day (take a picnic)

Make food (without using the oven!) - fruit kebabs or fridge cakes

Ice game (for your younger child perhaps) - freeze some small toys overnight like toy dinosaurs. The next day, they can bash all the ice off and release them!

Agree with park days. We take a smallish tent and pitch it in the park (not strictly allowed in most places but no ones ever told us off) and take rugs, cushions, books, a thermos. Settle in for the day. Make sure there are loos!

Check out your local wildlife trust website. Ours had loads going on during the hols: www.essexwt.org.uk/events?tags=510
There’s also the library. Get them signed up for the summer reading challenge and see what else is on. Ours has regularly craft sessions for kids.
Also check the cinemas. Our local cinema has cheap morning films for kids www.myvue.com/offers/mini-mornings

A lot of museums have something free going on for the summer too. And the council libraries will do a reading scheme and maybe reading clubs. 😀

Gocashing = real treasure hunt!
I have done a few with my DC around that age. If you are lucky, there will be some great areas locally to explore. Just remember to stick to the rules, place the box back where you found it and if you take something out, replace it with something else. (These are usually small tokens like little toys or we used to leave £- coins when abroad.)

www.geocaching.com/play

My kids love a chip walk. Walk to the chip shop at lunchtime, buy a portion of chips, take to park, eat chips. Simple and cheap.

Do you have bikes? Is there an easy route near you?

Local library

Check out park sport- our council run £1 sessions for golf, dance, tennis, nerf gun wars etc with qualified coaches.

Really research your area - as if you are a tourist .. we have a fabulous outdoor pool near us ... can spend the whole day there for £3 each, take a picnic ... it's wonderful (I go on my own before the schools break up ). Many local people don't even know about it !

At the start of the holiday, get them each to make a list of lots of different things they’d like to do, making it clear that you’ll do a few of them but definitely not all. Some of their ideas will be way beyond the realms of possibility, whereas others will be incredibly unbelievably mundane (one year one of mine listed, among lots of other things, ‘Go to Rome’ and ‘Find a snail’ - guess which one of those she got to do? 😁).

Tick them off as you do them - and repeat any that were free/cheap and successful.

I spoke to a neighbour during lockdown who has a dog, she told me about lots of walks in our area that despite living here for 10 years didn't know anything about. We found a castle, remains of an old bleachworks, old graveyards, and a lovely spot by a burn where we could paddle.

We are lucky to be on the coast so beach days are fab, and our has a good park nearby.

I second geocaching!

We all love it from toddlers to teens

And adults too. Addictive and wears everyone out

Strawberry picking!

I was going to post a very similar thread!

Placemarking while I read back. :)

If you are lucky enough to live near a pebbly beach, take coloured pencils and water colour paints and paint pebbles to add cheer to someone's day.

You can't remove the pebbles but drawing on them with water soluble colours is fine.

We do this, it's free, it makes people smile. It all washes off in the next high tide.

We do a junk modelling day. I start collecting a few weeks before the start of the hols. A morning's entertainment for the price of a few rolls of masking/duct tape.
Theme days are popular too - pirate/Italian cooking/spa. Painting rocks, making playdough, chalk patio pictures etc also go down well. We also like obstacle courses in the garden, scavenger hunts, build highest tower just with dried spaghetti and marshmallows etc. Pasta making is also v fun - the dc then run their own Italian restaurant complete with menus etc.

Sorry - misread - those are cheap things we do at home! Out we do free museums, local pool with a picnic etc.

I've decided this year we need to limit bigger trips as we have had several events throughout this year and have a few following the Summer.

So far my plan includes visiting a variety of parks, some bigger then others.. Always with a picnic

Country Parks? I'm quite fancying a visit to Druridge Bay as we have never been, plus Hamsterley Forest and Guisborough Woods

Beaches we have several locally so the plan is to visit on rotation with picnic/ice cream or chips. Most will cost us very little.

Youngest likes farms and again we have three or four locally

Apart from that I will add in a few bits like
Crazy Golf, Swimming, Cinema

Bigger day trips will include Whitby, Scarborough, South Shields and possibly Mother Shiptons Cave at Knaresborough

We usually do York Maze but it's looking at £80 for 4

Stokheld Park is more likely but will only take youngest as at 13 oldest prefers to dodge some of these

For him he will probably go out with friends, cinema, quad biking, trampoline park but I'm letting him lead as I've learnt not to throw money at things he isn't bothered about doing

wet weather/evening activities

Build dens with duvets, chairs etc, have a picnic inside
film nights - get the kids to design tickets, buy popcorn etc
sleepovers - in your lounge,

Go on borrow my doggy and get a dog for the afternoon

Do you have tesco clubcard vouchers? You can triple their value for meals out etc

Watch planes at your nearest airport. In a side street with free parking. Download Flightradar24 so you can play 'guess where that plane is going'.

Let them play out with various friends in the neighbourhood.
Go to a coast that has pretty much nothing apart from a beach.
EH/NT places with a picnic.

Thank you for your ideas. Lots for me to make note of. Yes they have scooters and bikes so will be using those. I've not heard of the wildlife trust in local areas so will look that up.

To add my own, look up family activities on the local council website or surrounding councils as there are usually lots of free or cheap activities. Shopping centres often have themed events. I went to a space themed event one year where my children got to paint, use space props and watch a short film - for free!

Brilliant ideas here. I had not thought about looking up family activities on the council website either, so that is a good one.

Local museums are often free. You cud try taking the bus / getting a bus pass as it might keeps costa down. Libraries often have free events and you can do the summer reading challenge!
All areas have HAF funding, it’s called healthy holidays in my area. It’s free activities for fsm pupils but in my area they have an extended offer.
Your area may have the love to explore app which is free too