6 Week School Holiday ideas on a Small Budget

[Frazzle51]

Does anyone have any ideas for doing the 6-week summer holidays on a budget? I’m struggling for ideas with my eldest two – 10 year old and almost 9 year old – that don’t cost the earth and don’t involve staring at a computer screen. I’ve already written a list of nearby places that are cheap or free (parks, libraries, museums etc…) and I’ve managed to book us onto a couple of cheap activities in the area, but a lot of the time will be spent at home and that’s where I’m a bit stuck.
I’ve picked up some new board games from Marketplace for a board game night, I’m planning a movie night with popcorn and snacks, maybe a Lego night, a BBQ and was thinking we could find some new recipes to make together but that’s about the extent of my ideas and it’s all stuff we’ve done before. Does anyone have any thoughts on how I can make their summer special on an extremely tight budget? Thank you!

Why does it have to be special?

Whatever happened to being allowed to be bored a bit? Just let the kids play with their toys, friends and do not much
Sounds like you have plenty planned.

Buy a basic tent. Let them camp in the garden

Use their imaginations? We made tents, in the dining room when raining. Also rode around and n bikes. We also watched why don't you each morning then nagged mum for craft materials or whatever the project was.y kids went to day camp or the museum drop in

They could master a new skill over the 6 weeks, like doing a cartwheel, or learning to whistle with their fingers?

Or DIY, or cooking dinner...

Don’t over-plan. They don’t need special things every day. Arrange a few play dates (on same days so you have four kids around) and hopefully you will get return play dates.

local authorities often do cheap sporting activities (£1 for swim or racquet sports here)

charity shop challenges- who can find the best stuff for £3… spend a morning having a clear out and donating stuff to or finding stuff to sell online and make some money back from local fb marketplace type sales.

cinema often have kids films cheap, or home movie days.

local bus trip

picking strawberries locally or similar.

Learn a new skill like cooking or orienteering

check out local charity kids clubs or church summer clubs- often run by volunteers so donation based.

£2 bus fare trip to somewhere new with a picnic?? A baking session (digestive or rich tea biscuits, writing icing and sprinkles?? Our local library used to hire DVDs for £2 a week. Odeon cinema have a kids club where adults and kids get in for £2 each ❤️

Let them each pick a day of activities? You can set a budget (which can be £0!), they get to decide what the family does/eats/listens to/watches.

Have “Mexico Day”, “Italy day” etc - find films/cartoons set in that country, help them do craft activities related to it, cook Mexican food etc.

Make obstacle courses in the garden.

Why can't they be at home? They don't need activities every day.

We roughly do: Monday - jobs at home which they help with and library (reading challenge and our library has board games to play).
Tuesday visit a park (we have many within a 30 minute drive).
Wednesday see friends
Thursday we have national trust membership so use that.
Friday play at home

They still manage loads of screen time around.

Our local pools sell a summer pass- it was £20 for the 6 weeks. We always got so much use of those.

I think your ideas already sound great. Also love the idea of themed dinners, pick a nationality or pick a favourite film and base it around that. My kids are now teens and don't want much to do with me(!) but I am sure all of our happiest days when they were younger were not the expensive theme parks and days out but the funny/random stuff we did at home together. I have a particularly happy memory of the day we all dressed up as their dad/my DH in time for him coming home and then had a disco in the house. We also used to love a day themed around a particular book, which we did for years. Might have to do it again in fact!

I also think they are old enough to have their own projects. Around that age my eldest spent a big chunk of the summer making a huge collage and doing crochet. Slightly older, she painted her own bedroom, which occupied several days and cost nothing more than a tin of paint. I think I bought her a few cushion covers too.

Lots of great ideas already

Geocaching is good - makes a walk more interesting

Arrange lots of plays dates

Stop motion app to get them to create mini movies

If the weather improves and you have a garden water fights are always good fun

A gardening project (again if you have a garden) getting them to grow strawberries is a nice easy one

And accept that they will have more screen time than you would like, it's somewhat inevitable, but it's their way of chilling.

I second geocaching - ours loved it at that age.

They also used to love doing the masterchef challenge where one starts something off and the other finishes it - with the only condition being that it had to be edible for dinner. It doesn't have to be fancy; a basic tomato sauce and pasta eg.

Thank you everyone, some great ideas. I'm off to make some notes!

Might be worth checking with the school as they sometimes do holiday clubs in the summer 🏝️ 🌞

Swimming, library, National Trust properties ( if you are a member), camping in the garden, bus or train ride to a nearby town/city, Splash Park if you have one nearby.

If you have a rectangular (kitchen/dining) table, you can get a table tennis net and bats in Tiger quite cheap. Our table is pretty small but we had tournaments all through lockdown that were great fun.

Treasure hunts were a favourite. We lived near woods and you had to find a certain colour flower, insect etc and then made a picture with your findings. The library Big Book Challenge was always fun. Picnic with friends at a local park with lots of games to do. Look at the local museum, they often had children’s activities. Lidl often have good garden toys
Ask the children what they would like to do.
Enjoy and don’t stress

Loads of great suggestions already and your ideas are already great.

id add, collecting small sticks on a walk, go home and make small rafts from them and the next walk is to a stream river where they can set them off and see who’s raft wins.

baking - which also leads to the treats you can take on picnics to avoid paying for ice creams etc

start a series of books and see how many they can read, also choose a family book for you to read to them

Local charities or councils often have family fun day for free

Message a few friends with kids and get some dates in the diary. The best days involve a group of children, a picnic and a tree to climb or a paddling stream and ice cream money.

You need people in the same position as you. Hang out together, swap kids (one adult takes olders, one takes youngers). Yes yes yes to cheap tent in the garden. A project is good - like walking a long localish footpath in stages over the summer (Cotswold Way, Pilgrims Way, Thames, Hadrian's Wall etc. etc.), or learning to roller skate off youtube (jumble sale skates, marketplace, school fete). Blackberrying towards the end of summer and bottling or freezing them. Travel to different libraries for variety. Elaborate dance routines, make a film, mooch around pet shops, customise cheap/old clothes, overcomplicated Olympics sweepstake. Have a list of laborioius housework jobs to hand out if someone complains of being bored (win/win - jobs get done, people magically get less bored). Do a car boot sale or eBay some old toys/clothes - kids like a bit of financial power.

A neighbourhood treasure hunt? A visit to a pet shop to look at the animals? Some garden centres have a playground - I used to use those. We could fill a couple of hours and I could get a coffee! Silly Olympics - can do this over several days with a medals table (include yourself) and challenges of any kind.

plan your weeks with a mixture of days out/days in and spendy days/free days, so you have a good spread of things to do.

Council websites/local newspapers and supermarket notice boards often advertise local events, so keep your eye out.

Plan your trips to avoid having to buy food when you are out. my children won't eat breakfast and then complain they are hungry when we are out, so i make sure they are fed before we do anything.

some more expensive activities have deals if you go at unpopular times eg my cinema does children's films at 10am for about £3 and bowling is half price on certain days after 6pm.

Friday night disco? Dim the lights, buy a pack of glow sticks from the pound shop, fizzy drinks and crisps and some cheesy dance music.

Do you live relatively near to a beach? Great day out. Take packed lunch. Buy an ice cream.