Want to join me on my no-spend Easter holiday with the kids?

[PourquoiTuGachesTaVie]

I'm starting my plans now so I have plenty of time to think nick ideas from the internet

I have a 4 year old and 4 month old and would like to not spend most of the holiday watching tv. My four year old has hit a stage where he is unable to play on his own because all his toys are boring, apparently.

My basic plan is to spend half the day outside and the other half doing some sort of structured craft, play or learning activity. Even if it's just an hour of jigsaws . I just need to keep the costs to a minimum, which hopefully shouldn't be too hard although it means I can't retreat to soft play.

I'll be back later with the start of my list...

I will join, 3 kids, live on a farm and apparently there is nothing to do lol

I'm in, 6 yr old nd a 3 yr old, plus a couple of teenagers.
I need to go to the pound shop to stock up on craft stuff, we're making an Easter tree. Have a look online for local police or fire museums, they are usually only a couple of quid and I know my one does stuff during the holidays, also, have a look at animal sanctuaries, again a couple of quid to get in and its a good cause.

Check your local authority website as they will often tell you about local events.

Other ideas;
Library
Watch a cartoon film and make popcorn
Plant some seeds
Easter egg hint
Visit a new park

Free museums, many also do free stuff on holidays
Picnic
Feed the ducks
Visit any local places of interest
Baking
Watering the garden
Visiting friends or having them to visit
Using up craft stuff you have in the house
Library, csn usually borrow story CDs or DVDs as well as books
Making popcorn

Local park, National Trust/English Heritage are all free (if you are members).

I am in. Had such an expensive few months and dreading the holidays

I have one dd age 3.5

Don't drive so often have to get buses which is £4.20 per day!

Our local library is doing craft afternoons - free but you need to get a ticket. Also BBC Things To Do site often has free events.

ELC used to have a £4 kite that we had a lot of fun with. Just need a hill and a picnic.

Make a treasure hunt for your local area? We've printed nature hunt sheets off the internet before - Twinkl had an easy autumn one for preschoolers, but there are loads out there. A few years ago we did ispot for a whole year. There is a list of things to spot each month and you can upload your pictures or details of your finds.

Geocaching - especially easy if you have a smartphone.

On rainy days move the furniture around, make camps, use up the craft stuff, go to the library (do you have a toy library nearby?). Decorate old t-shirts with felt pens (most people have some stained school polo shirts somewhere, no?).

Children's centres often run stuff in school holidays and often allow school-aged children to come to playgroup (ours lays on lego and other Big Kid activities).

Most importantly you need some friends who are equally skint or determined to save - no good hanging about with people who casually drop £20 on cake in soft play. It is too depressing.

We'll be doing a mixture of the following; tie-dying white t-shirts, vests and undies, making biscuits, bike rides, making collages from old magazines, a movie afternoon, having friends over for x-box session, using local library.

Some great ideas here, especially geocaching, think we will give that a go.

Ds's to do list involves an Easter egg hunt and eating Easter eggs.

In the summer we made a giant marble run from the contents of the recycling bin and a whole roll of selotape.

I have a teenager and have been thinking about this as I haven't got any spare cash right now. Our local museum was refurbished recently, so might try that as it'll be free - in your case a museum might have planned activities for little ones. Also, inviting a friend around for a few hours won't cost much - maybe just a sandwich, veggie sticks and biscuits. Just going on a local walk pointing out things, will make a change. Do you have any birthdays coming up - your four year old might like the idea of making cards for people.

I have three kids, I rarely spend money in the holidays.

We normally start off the day with a dog walk in the park (either local or one I drive to so yes some fuel costs), often take leftover bread to feed the ducks.

Then take the dog home and either do indoor activities, visit friends / family or if the weather is nice enough do somewhere outside with a picnic :-).

My kids (now teens) got into geo-caching (high tech treasure hunting) late last year, and it's really surprising how many ones there are to "find" even in the rural area where we live, in bigger towns and cities there are loads. All you need is a mobile phone with gps, some wellies or reasonable walking shoes/boots, appropriate clothing for the weather, snacks or picnic lunch and enthusiasm. Some people also take little trinket to replace the "find" with, but you can just leave the original find with a message if you wish. My boys now do it on thrir oen, often tsking the dog along for ghe walk, but younger nice and nephew loved it too, going along with an adult to find the treasure. My kids have now also put some new "caches" out for others to find which they have also enjoyed, as it includes plotting the route and putting it on the website.

I will join! Was just thinking this morning how am I going to entertain them all for 2 weeks?!

My plans are
Lots of baking and cooking, getting out in the garden, dusting the bikes down and getting out, washing the cars etc etc

If you've small kids, what about an Easter Egg treasure hunt? You can get clues on the internet. I designed mine so that the kids were up and down the stairs several times, out the back garden etc. You don't have to have an expensive egg at the end of it, just a small egg (or a few small eggs).

Check out your local library - ours often has free activities during holiday times.

I've added a couple of visits to a family member's cafe (food on the house - result! ) which also ticks the visits relatives box.

Ds finds it hard to see his shoes at the bottom of the stairs (where he always leaves them) at the moment, so I'm not sure how successful a treasure hunt would be. Worth a try though, so I'll have a look for some ideas for clues.

I wanna play please

What geocaching???

hi coffee. Google it and it will send you to one of the websites. You put in your postcode or location you are going to and it gives you start points and sat nav directions for your phone to find a hidden "treasure" at the end point. The treasure is usually in a little box and you have to search for it in the area. You do sometimes get clues as it could be any where, under a rock, in a tree etc, and its often a trinket, poem, small story and they often leave a bit of paper for you to write you have found it. Gives great satisfaction sometimes to find a really well disguised treasure.

I'm gonna see if there's something in the area!! Sounds great

Lots of great ideas thanks.

Definitely try your local libraries- ours haven't all put the details on the website so I'm glad I rang to check, lots have indoor Easter egg hunts and crafts.

Making cards is a great idea - could also make gift tags?? (Scraping barrel slightly maybe but I'd have LOVED that when I was a kid).

• Makeshift sandpit outside - use yoghurt pots and the like for sandcastles
• Actually, yoghurt pots has reminded me of making bird feeders when I was a kid - can then monitor the birds and record it on a chart (stickers?!)
• I recently saw a great blogpost on making a doll-size village out of the contents of your recycling bin - waah everything and spray paint in one colour, then use bits of paper, fabric scraps, marker pens etc to decorate each "building" and put them together to make village, voila
• Plant seeds in little pots on windowsill or outside
• Cut pics of animals out of magazines, stick on sheet of paper and go to local park to make tally chart of how many you see (birds, dogs, cats, ducks etc)
• Make BFG "dreams" by filling jam jar with variety of oil, water, food colouring, glittery shit etc and shake it all up
• Get travel brochures from travel agent and do extensive cutting and sticking with a theme, ie, let's do a poster of all the lakes/beaches etc
• Christ I'm exhausted

This has reminded me that I used to have a book when I was a kid called "Free Stuff For Kids" - anyone else remember this? You could write to all the addresses in it (quaint!) and they sent you assorted mildly-diverting crap through the post

Oh yes, Laquila, I loved that book! Barely a week went buy that I didn't receive an exciting package in the post (usually one of my own SAEs lol).

Ahh glad soemone else remembered it! Ooh SAEs - you don't see those much any more. It seems incredible that there was a time when 90% of commerce and communication happened by mail!

You can get a code for a free taster box from Toucan box online, we've had a few of them and it keeps the kids entertained for a while.
We usually do a lot of craft stuff, planning on making Easter bunny ears, trying origami bunnies, some papier mâché, decorating eggs of course. There's usually a few places where you can find Easter egg trails (local shopping centres, national trust properties, even supermarkets). We have a cheap pocket kite which comes out whenever it's vaguely windy.
Pinterest is always good for craft suggestions, I look for themed things or things made from paper plates/cardboard tubes.

Hi, does anybody have any ideas for entertaining an 8yr old and 6yr old cheaply? So far (Friday was an INSET day for us) we have visited a museum, and today we have been to the local park and library. This afternoon we are chilling out at home. I'm worried as I have no money at the moment and I don't know how to keep them occupied (particularly 8yr old DD).