To ask what you are doing whilst the kids are off?

[Shiv861]

So my 2 children are 8 and 3, I have stuff pre booked for today and tomorrow but have like £80 left until payday next week! feeling so guilty as friends seem to be doing loads :(

Sorry they are 6 and 3 not 8!

Mine were on half term last week but are 12 and the older one who still lives at home is 18.
i wfh and had booked Thursday and Friday off, we did an escape room and went for lunch on the Thursday and on the Friday we had a big walk and lunch out. Getting them out for food is a winner!
Monday dh took the youngest to a car museum thing, Tuesday mil took them to an exhibition, Wednesday the older one too the youngest bowling and they came home and each had a friend round.

We're both working as usual, so DS attends a football camp with roughly school hours. On the rare occasions his halfterm coincides with my Reading Week, we might go away for a few days.

Our half term was last week. My boys are 13 and 11 and the day they most enjoyed was breakfast with nan at the local garden centre followed by a walk by a local stream which ended up in stick races and blockage clearing.

It seems the toddler is strong in both boys when spending time with a grandparent.

Half term was last week for us too and we did nothing. You don’t have to spend money every half term. It’s ok to let kids get bored. It’s ok to stick them in front of the tv

I don't think you have to do planned activities every day. Kids need to just be sometimes and chill at home.

We had half term last week. On top of a couple of pricier days out I did a couple of museum visits (which are free), and had got some cheap craft stuff from Baker Ross and we did lots of that. Then the usual free stuff - parks, baking, some errands that I made into outings. And honestly - quite a lot of screen time!

Holiday club, swimming, museum, play date at home, cinema or soft play. Nothing super expensive, though of course it all adds up and cinema will definitely be a treat if we end up going.

It is hard when the weather's not good.

Mine are homebodies and love just playing together at home. At the moment they are building a huge den in the living room. They both get so tired by school they need to relax (they're only 4 and 7). They are doing intensive swimming course this week (half an hour each day) and their grandparents are looking after them for a couple of days so no doubt will treat them but no big plans.

Its crazy how much things cost, we went bowling on Saturday evening and spent and Spent £100!

Dd is 7, we’re going to Holt for a few days, then have things planned with her friends on Thursday and Friday. The weekend we’ll chill out as she likes to slob about before school starts up again!

We’re on a budget too and will:

• have a Lego marathon. Get all the booklets out and make a town, probably go to a supermarket cafe for lunch esp if there’s any kids eat free on
• going to the park that’s got some massive slides really early so DD 6 can go on them without other children being around which makes her nervous.
• practice on roller skates that she got for Christmas
• make flapjacks
• go litter picking (she loves that people always stop and give her praise)
• go to the cinema - will cost a bit more but not loads.
• rummage out some activity sets from birthdays that she hasn’t done yet

Our half term was last week and we were all ill, so did very , very ittle other than had a lot of screen time!

However, don't feel the pressure to spend money to do things.

Have you got a local park/nice walk place? In our half terms we usually do at least one day at a national trust place (we pay £11 a month for a family membership for myself and husband, 7 year old and toddler). We take food, drinks with us - so a super cheap day. Sometimes we do two of them in a week!

We usually also do a day where we go to a large local nature trail/walk which has a play park. We take food there too, sometimes a football and if we can meet friends there then even better.

A swim one day for under £10 is usually a great activity. A day at home baking/playing games/doing Lego/a movie afternoon or even a day at Grandparents to do similar always goes down well here too.

My general rule in holidays is that screen time is much more relaxed as long as we are also active. Eg - if we've walked the dog and been for a swim in a morning then I'm completely fine with a netflix binge in the afternoon, then Lego/books between dinner and bedtime.

Meeting up with friends for a playdate or in a park is always fun and free to do!

Don't put yourself under pressure or assume that you have to spend money to have fun.

We didn't do anything special, I had 3 days off with DD but she was a bit under the weather so we stayed home and played some games mostly with lots of rest. Usually I'm out 50 hours a week with work so it was nice for me too 😂. You can have quality time with the children without spending a lot of money, don't feel guilty for not splashing the cash like some other people are doing.

Do you have any friends in the same position? Can you either invite them over to yours or meet them in the park/woods/beach/museum depending on where you live and what's accessible? I always tried to do something like this as then we had a fixed time by which we had to leave the house rather than constantly postponing it which happened if it was just us, there was a friend for me to catch up with, other children for the DC to run around with and, as we'd done something, I was more relaxed about getting home and turning on the TV

We had a low key half term last week.

Explored some local woods, fed the ducks, went to a cafe for a cake, did the cheapy cinema tickets one day, went to the library, had a dog walk with friends, did some baking......it was lovely.

No need to feel guilty. We just do playdates and visits to parks or if it's really raining we might do some baking or craft.

Our half term was last week. Monday was the only dry day! Hopefully you’re more lucky
if you have the weather get out in your local parks, woods etc. Our community farm had good stuff on and the local
leisure centres seem to be doing more again - free swims for u16s etc
check out your local FB pages to see what’s going on

Half term was last week.. but no different here.. Grand kids are home educated.. no set activities.. least we can go swimming now.. because kids are back at school..
We can't go anywhere too busy.
Do you have libraries/ museums? Usually free things going on.
Google your local council activities..always loads going on here.

Go to multiple parks, pack picnics, snacks, coffee flask so you don’t have to spend a penny.

home activities like den building, colouring, playing with toys, watching films, treasure hunts, make your own pizzas, cake making

visit local museums, libraries, check out local Facebook pages that offer info on activities for children that are free like play ranger groups that pop up at half terms.

not every day needs to be filled with expensive trips. Split the day into sections.

Morning at home:
Have breakfast
An activity like play doh, colouring, toys
Then A film/TV/I pad time
Then lunch
Leave house after lunch for a park visit, museum, energy wasting activity
Home for tea time

Half term was last week. Primary aged child did a sports camp Mon-Fri, toddler did extra toddler classes(some of her usual ones were on half term), together they did some theatre shows, trampoline park, playgrounds, toy shop visit, library, dentist. We spent a lot, mostly on sports camp and dentist!