Holiday "care" for teenagers

[TheoriginalLEM]

So the long summer holidays are looming. Dd will be 14 so beyond the scope of most holiday/activity clubs.

She is a bit of a loner and her school friends live a significant distance which makes meeting up an occasional thing rather than the norm.

She WILL stay home alone but isnt really happy doing so. She is very young for her age. School friends in lower years.

What do you guys find to keep teens occupied in the summer? School holidays?
Dp has been taking the holidays off (self employed) but it is difficult financially and quite frankly hes boring! I want dd actively occupied rather than vegging in front of screens all day.

Im in the south east. Willing to pay a reasonable amount (but money IS an issue) to keep her occupied. She doesn't need looking after iyswim.

Active nation (look on wenaite if you have one close to you) do holiday club weeks (it's about £135 for 5 days 9-4pm and is Ofsted registered) I send my DC 8-14 to a week each summer as they canoe, climb and do lots of outdoor activities which really wears them out, teaches them new skills and they make friends (leaders are used to children going alone so help with that).

Other than that volunteering, CVS (2 m-f weeks residential and 1-2 weeks local volunteering) all for princely sum of £30-50 total! You choose the weeks. My DS did that after GCSEs last year.

My DCs stay home other than that, they meet up with friends, do homework, do jobs and chill. I work PT so they only have 3 days... I'd make a few days short ones over holidays if I didn't, so that I could plan trips out to beach etc with them.

*website

If she’s doing DofE has she got her practice and real expeditions planned in for the summer? That’s two days for each plus a day before she can use to prep and a day after to recover quietly at home. And all the planning time - lots of submitting route plans and what have you for DoE

If dog walking is out, then please do consider cat sitting.

I would love for a nearby teen to take over from our cat sitters as they've just put their prices up again.

Just be grateful you don't live in Ireland. Our kids are off for 3 months over the summer!

Re volunteering - I checked that out one year and nobody would take her while under 16. I've sent mine on activity type courses, so windsurfing, art, lifesaving etc. We also pay them to do work around the house - things like painting, gardening etc, rather than the normal cleaning/tidying I expect done.

Girl guides and church youth group have been my lifeline over the last year. DD is 15 in April, last summer she went to guide camp for a week, went to Brownie camp (as a young helper) for 3 days and helped at the church ‘holiday club’ which ran 9-1pm for two weeks in August. The rest of the time she is often home alone but invites her pals to ours for summer lunch club!!

If you keep your eye on the PGL special offers they can be really good value. For instance she could try a 2 night stay at Easter for £87, and then if you book 4 or 7 nights in the summer they give you that back. There are often fab deals in the last minute deals they show on FB.
My 12 year old goes, and there are a lot of teenagers when I drop off/pick up. He went to the first timers break first, and it was great as no one knew anyone or how it all worked.

We do a mixture of things - 2 weeks off as a family, a week at PGL, a week at watersports club locally (he can cycle there), and the other weeks a mix of lurking at home, a 10-2 youth club which runs once a week and I can flex my hours a bit to wfh and spend a bit of time with him.