What do you do with DC on the weekend?

[Grockle]

I am running out of ideas. I'm not well and struggling to keep 8 & 10yr old boys busy without spending lots.

I have no help & no respite.

Beginning to dread the bank holiday.

where do you live - city or country?
is there bus or train station near? woods or beach or park? pack a picnic football and old clothes and go build dens

go swimming - some places under 16s go free

Any bushcraft clubs near you? Usually a day course is around £25 I think? Geocatching? www.geocaching.com/

If you are looking for things that don't involve going out - if that is difficult for you - there are some great crafting and cooking things you can do.

Do you have a garden? Could you arrange a 'treasure hunt' in the garden, or an assault course?

Setting challenges with rewards and prizes always keeps kids interested.

Our local multiplexes do cheap cinema tickets on slightly old kids' films (as in the films are slightly old) on Saturday and Sunday mornings, and during the school holidays. Tickets are about £1/£1.50.

And I am extremely evil and force "family reading time" on the kids. We all sit down with our books for, say, half an hour. Sometimes I doze off.

Hi Bank Holidays are quite daunting. Can you arrange to meet up with friends with kids one of those days?
Getting them outside for a few hours will be good and then you can veg out for the rest of the day and not feel guilty. Get a new film out to watch and make poporn.

Hello, thank you.

I live near the beach & forest but I have limited mobility and can't go very far atm.

We used to do geocaching when I was more mobile and running round in the forest/ on the beach/ by the river.

Assault course is a great idea!

I crochet and the boys were fascinated. I gave them each a ball of wool a few weeks ago & they learnt to finger knit. I'm not good at doing crafty stuff with them but I should really. One of them likes to bake.

If I can get out, cinema is a definite & a friend may come over on Monday so that will help. The days just seem long and daunting if I can't get out and, although DC would love to spend all day on the Wii/ Minecraft, I'd rather they did other stuff too.

Thank you for the ideas.

Movie night or day at home can be fun they chose the movie and snacks.
Or one my boys (8 and 13) like (when i can fit the time to do it with them as it can be long) is we have a games day or night and play a few board games together in a row and make it fun for them.
Or let them to chose something yummy to bake or chose and help cook the dinner one day.
I have found letting them chose certain things that we do (within reason) makes it more fun for them.

Can't they just play at home? Why do they constantly need to be entertained, feels really unrealistic. They should be using their own imaginations and playing by themselves at that age surely?

B&Q do diy lessons for 7 to 11 year olds £5 per session.

We recently got as many parents and kids as poss to get together on a sat afternoon with picnics (some adults brought wine!) for a mass game of rounders in a park! Then if you cant get around so easily you can referee and organise.... ended up twenty of us and we plan to do it most weekends through the summer. Youngest player was 6, oldest was 48 - was brilliant!
I also play badminton at the sports centre with my boys (8+14) each weekend and we swim 3 times a week.

I started going to church, c of e so quite relaxed :) I was scared at first but everyone was really friendly and there's Sunday school and creche. All free of course, I put some money in the collection when I have spare.

I've never been before but it's great for socialising.

I find it hard if the weather i rubbish. If the weather is nice we will go to a park and take a picnic-I take a book to read while they play.

When its cold and wet it is so hard. I find Sundays to be the worst as my friends who have partners are doing family things and those who are single mums, their kids tend to be with their dads (my ex works shifts so sometimes will have the kids Sundays and some times Saturdays). Also my daughter has her horse riding lesson in the middle of the day on a Sunday so we can't take off any where for the day.

A trip to a soft play can pass a bit of time, or maybe a local museum. I am lucky as my parents have a caravan up in the lake districts so whenever I can I take the kids up there between April-October to get them out of our boring town lol!

I just invite more children over TBH. Mines an only child so having 4 or 5 in the house/garden keeps them all entertained for free.
We do sleepovers every weekend and that stops the horrible morning feeling that you should be out doing something.
Getting a dog helps too. Having to walk it has been a lifesaver for when the screen addiction gets too much.

My DS is 6 and he goes to a drama class on Saturdays. It's not until the afternoon and so we spend most of the day being lazy.

Sundays are my lie in day (hurrar!) and again, lots of being lazy with videos and then about 1/2pm we go for a walk.

We both do so much during the week with school and work - it's nice to have some chill out time!

My DS is 10 and we do lots of things together, but I'm finding now that he wants to less and less.

Some of the things we do together are:
Movie night, with popcorn, etc
Watch box sets of comedy shows
Draw together
Build dens together
Make large junk models (mainly terrain for his war hammer stuff now)
Bake
Cook tea
Go for walks and picnics
Swimming
Have friends round to play and for sleepovers
We also do an A-Z challenge every year (previous years it had been anything we can think of, this year it's and A-Z exercise challenge)

DS also does loads of sport, everyday he has some sort of club, so that takes up a lot of time, which helps.