Lone parents, what do you do with your kids in summer holidays?

[SlinkySienna]

My son is due to start school in September, and I'm worrying about school holidays. I'm a lone parent and have no idea where he's going to go. Also feel slightly bad he's not going to get lovely long holidays to just stay at home and will have to spend them in some kind of club. What kind of clubs do you use? Do your kids enjoy them?

My children had wrap around care with a child minder. So went to her in the holidays. As they got older they did clubs with their friends. This will be my last summer needing childcare so will be a mixture of leave. Family and being home when I'm working. And few days of clubs. They aren't so keen to go now.

Not a lone parent so DH did cover a few days.
I did a reciprocal agreement with a friend, so we took each others children for a few summers. When DD was 5/6 she continued going to her nursery.
The issue I always found with summer clubs is they are often not a full day, so not enough to go to work (like 9.30 to 3pm!). So these agreements help. Where I live there were very very few summer clubs anyway (unless you play football) so the summer holiday was a huge source of stress.
I did work for the council so I could build up some lieu time to take more time off.

I ended changing to term time work as I couldn’t manage holidays but realise it’s not an option for most people.

Term time only child minder.

You use a term time only childminder, in the summer holidays...🧐

May be I got they the wrong way around ☺️. I use 2 child minders. One which takes me kids to school and another when it's the school holidays.

Have a look on your local council website they may have details of holiday schemes.

I used a play scheme run by a local church it was great and I could use childcare vouchers.

Some schools near us have wrap around care which they run all day in holidays. It’s great as goes 8-6.

I worked annualised hours so got extended holidays (8 weeks) which really helped. I also did 'holiday swaps' with a couple of struggling parents, not all lone parents though. So I'd have extra kids for a couple of weeks, and in return DD went to them for a couple of weeks each too, so that made up the extra four weeks needed. It was tough though.

Childcare is expensive I do 4 days during the week. I use breakfast club during school time and work hours where I can collect DS myself.

Holiday club in the hols... DS enjoys it keeps him busy.

Our local council gym/hub runs clubs all summer
There's a few dotted about the town look on your local gov.co page
They had added extras for breakfast and late pick up to

Holiday club and work school hours.

Covid has helped a lot with how I now figure out the holidays as it has resulted in much more flexible working arrangements for me.

Last couple of years it's generally broken down as

3 weeks of summer camps of various sorts (Usually sports)

2 weeks I'll take annual leave and hopefully his dad will take at least one week

The remaining 3 weeks I'll wing it working from home. I'll probably work some of the time in my mams as there's loads of kids on the roads and she also likes to take him off out. He'll also be with his dad 2 days a week so I only have to figure out the 3 days pw

It's always a bit of a juggle but it usually works out

We found a lovely relaxed council summer holiday club where dcs could play/do art/sport/cook/cycle around the tennis courts/read.

It was less expensive than Supercamps and ds prefered it. They ran 8am - 6pm. As an only child, it was his chance to run around with his little 'tribe'.

I always spent two weeks of the six weeks at home with him, so we had plenty of time together as well. The best advice is to book as early as you can.