To not be able to afford to take our dc's to theme parks ,so it will be back to the good old basics in the 6 weeks hol as we just dont have the money ,

[sweetbloom]

I know that most kids get to do expensive days out but it is just so expensive for a family for one day out,so its going to be the following. Even if we could afford it I can not justify all the money sothis is what we will be doing if I have not gone mad by the end of it.
Camping in the garden
Barbecues
Paddling pool
Bubbles
Painting
Play doh
Art and crafts
Walk in the woods
Feeding the ducks
local parks
Baking cakes
Picnics

Please feel free to add any ideas you may have.

Sloanypony:

Well, I'm going to go against the grain a bit and say that theme parks can be really good fun, although I must admit we have only really been during other school holidays like Easter and Whitsun - never the main summer ones. AND we have never paid a penny to get in beause we save up our Clubcard vouchers. (but not sure if you're allowed to use them in main summer hols, never really looked) Point is, even if you can't use vouchers for a theme park trip during summer hols, you can bribe them to be good ALL school holidays with the promise of a trip during October half-term/another weekend/whenever.

You HAVE to take a picnic cos the food IS crap. Yes, the queues can be long sometimes but our kids are patient as they know if they whinge then they don't go on the ride, and they are usually so hyped up they are just full of excited chitchat about what they've seen/been on and so the time passes quickly.

They are certainly not ALL horrible places. Drayton Manor (Thomas Land) is lovely for little ones. A real family atmosphere with lots of littles with huge grins on their faces at seeing their favourite engine - what's not to like about that?!

English Heritage is a good season ticket to have as well.

Some of the mums at school were talking about how expensive summer holidays were. And how their children expected to go all the time.
And I thought to myself , 'you what'. I take ds1 to these things, a theme park, or a soft play, vvv occassionally. once or twice a year.
Makes me feel ill, all this parenting, where kids need to be entertained every second of the day.
My kids don't. I have the money to go. But I refuse in principal.

And I love rides, twister etc as much as anyone.

Op your list and those now added of all the other things to do, is LOVELY.

The ones of us who entertain our kids every minute with expensive activities and toys are probably the ones who are being unreasonable as the kids don't learn how to find their own things to be interested in and do and how to be self sufficient and they turn into spoilt brats. (I think I've made this mistake and they always say - in a whiny voice - "What are we doing todaaaaaay?")

Theme parks are hell aren't they? And in the holidays, no way.

Space, I want space in the holidays.

Not sticky hot children in queues... and the rest

We went strawberry picking recently and my 3 declared it the "best day ever".

We spent £10 including the fruit and some ice-lollies for 5 of us.

Can only usually do theme parks once or twice a year - they are so expensive.

We have decided this year that we are going to do a zoo, a riverboat ride and possibly a sea life centre. Apart from that, I'll be expecting DD2 to help me decorate the playroom.
We are very lucky with where we live, because I can just open the door and let her outside to play with the two little girls next door who are roughly the same age as her. She can pretty much entertain herself then. We are going to visit family in Ireland for a few days in August (the fares were ridiculously cheap - under £40 all in for each of us) but that trip will involve lots of free, family-based entertainment (BBQs, visits to relatives, playing in the countryside). We usually spend our summers in America at my mum and dad's, but the fares were way too high this year (over £1000 each!). Even then, we don't do anything when we're there except from swimming in the pool (in the garden) or going to the beach. It's heavenly and soooo relaxing. We sometimes take a day out to drive the few hours to Disney, but I can't imagine how people spend 2 whole weeks doing that. We are always glad to get back home to our quiet pool/deserted beach after the mayhem

First time to post so be gentle - lol

Try "Geocaching" for the best treasure hunt fun ever. Basically, there are treasure finds all over the WORLD!

From Wikipedia:
Geocaching is an outdoor activity in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called "geocaches" or "caches") anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container (usually a tupperware container or ammo box) containing a logbook. Larger containers can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little value.

You are allowed to take one item and replace it with one of your own. I have even been part of a travelling coin which has been to 4 different countries.

All you do is register on a GeoCache website and start finding treasure. The kids go balmy to see who can find the hide and it is great fun for the adults in charge. You can use a Sat Nav or a GPS. Good luck ...
PS if you don't know the area and you are going into woods, make sure you take your mobile in case you get lost ... for 2 hours ....

How can you declare that theme parks are ghastly if you've not been to many, or even one?

Reminds me of DH's childhood... never taken to FunFairs or places like Alton Towers because "he didn't like those sorts of things which was fine because it suited me too", insisted MIL.

So then in his 20s DH finally gets to visit Alton Towers and he thinks it's the best place ever, can't wait until DS1 is old enough to go back with him.

Gawd, museums and NT properties are boring and stressful: have to spend the whole time making sure DC are moving slowly and quietly and not touching anything they shouldn't or bickering loudly as if I didn't have enough stress making them behave in every other public place. And everything else people are describing sounds like so much hard work trying to be creative or trying to keep the DC from getting so furious with each other that they throw paint over each other's heads -- and onto the car, with my luck.

I'm planning to be a hermit myself this summer doped up with Prozac else I won't survive six weeks of them at home , but I wish that I could post that during our daily outings to theme parks, hot and smelly soft play and McDonalds with my rambunctious brats I'd be enjoying reflecting on all the smug creative exhausting are you really all Stepford Wives or what? yummy mummy suggestions made here.

We're taking ours to Alton Towers but not in the summer hols, we're taking them in the October half term and we've had to save up for months to do it.

We won't be doing much this summer either. I'm looking forward to having the odd lie in and I think the kids are too lol

Make a fire pit in the garden. Use concrete slabs, old bricks or patio edging bricks. Use a grill or stainless steel plate to protect the bottom concrete slab.

Mix together about 2 cups of flour, water and salt into the consistency of bread dough. Roll out into a sausage and twist around a clean long stick (approx 2cm thick). Hold the "bread stick" over the fire until the dough is golden brown, turning slowly so that it is well cooked. When done, remove from fire, pull out the stick gently, pop in a tsp of butter/ some tomato sauce and a frankfurter and walla! Hot Dog!! Kids think you are a genius and they have made bread as well as lunch!

Also love toasting marshmellows over the fire using skewers.

I must admit I am a bit of a pyromaniac ... but kids love it as well.

We have Merlin Cards that get you free into Legoland, Alton towers, Thorpe Park, Chessington as well as Madame Tussauds, aquariums and the London Eye. We have had them for nearly a year and used them countless times. But I won't be renewing them because its fine to go a couple of times to a theme park but then its boring and the "thrill" is (for me) scary but not fun (how can it be fun if you are scared??). Saying that the fireworks at legoland at Halloween were very good.

After a year of endless visits, the DC aren't all that excited about another trip, especially if the parks are likely to be busy. In fact, sometimes they ask if they can hang out at home instead. However they still like NT properties and museums because the NT properties do treasure trails which keep them amused and museums are interactive these days.

I'm not sorry that we've had this year, but it just goes to show that even primary age children can get tired of being thrown around on rides.

frazzled74 posted about :
"£1 day trip to france".
How do you do that, then ?
Have i missed the boat on that one ?

Oblomov, phone p and o and tell them you want to book the £1 daily mail day trip, didnt need a code or anything, i paid £1 each way plus a booking fee, came to £12 for 4 of us.Its on all through july and august.

thank you frazzled.

I don't understand why theme parks are so busy as everyone hates them so much.