How do non-drivers keep children entertained during the summer holidays?

[Colbie34]

My DS has just finished reception so this is his first 6 week long school holidays. I don’t drive so I’m wondering how people that don’t drive entertain your kids in school holidays?

Before school he went to nursery 3 days a week so I only ever had 2 days per week to entertain him (Dad drives on weekends) so 6 full weeks feels like a lot! I feel like he’s going to be perpetually bored of the park 😅 He is good on the bus on short trips but we live quite far out of a big city so things like museums are an hour on public transport/bit of walking. It would probably be fine to do that a little but not everyday!

Any ideas? I do need to learn to drive but that’s not gonna happen this summer.

From memory it would be local park one day
playdate one day
swimming pool one day by bus
we could get to the beach via bus as well
and lots of stuff at home - crafts and such

Playdates
Paddling pool / water play if you have a garden
Art/craft
Baking
Lego
Obstacle course / sofa den
Gardening - special patch just for him?
Walks
Geocaching

Local library? They may have information about local activities. Swimming baths?
Treasure hunts, chalk drawing, play in garden with a friend, local I-Spy walks e.g spot a yellow car, blue front door etc. At 6 they are not took sophisticated to need anything expensive.

Lots of walking and going on the scooter. We had lots of safe paths and playground near by thankfully.
A trip of the bus was a treat by itself! Local cinema, trip to the supermarket cafe, local markets if you have any, anything can be interesting. Save the big trips for the weekends or when you feel up for the adventure.

Local things if you want to go further bus or train

Get an ebike and a tag a long or trailer. I'm not sure five year olds love museums anyway. Park and an ice-cream from a supermarket or corner shop sounds good. Any farm parks you could cycle to? Just exploring a different park in a smaller town will be a change from your local one. See where the bus routes go, you might be surprised. Local libraries usually have lots of things on. Churches often do holiday Bible clubs for a week in the morning. ( It won't turn him into a Christian, otherwise churches would be full) Sports clubs often do taster sessions etc. Don't feel the need to keep up with people on Instagram, building a den in the garden is a great activity. Home cinema with tickets, baking set up a sports day. Loads of things to do. Hope you enjoy your time.

@HushTheNoise I definitely do feel the pressure from social media! It seems like everyone does day trips and exciting excursions.

I don't drive due to medical reasons and we never had any problems filling our time.
For a couple of hours a few days a week, - arts + crafts, baking cookies, cakes and pizza, taking care of guinea pigs.
For a half day out, walk to the park, go swimming, walk to the farm shop to feed the goats,
For a day out go to the next city on the train for a cafe trip or to visit cathedral or museum.
Take the front, top deck on double decker bus to town. Look out for free stuff happening in town, or cheap coach trips to the zoo etc. We had the summer readers library scheme - don't know if it is still going, where the kids got a medal for picking a book each week, reading etc... was always some form of book related fun on at the library in the hols.

And - if all else fails give them a bucket of water and a paint brush. "Clean" the fence when I'm cutting the grass (I want to know where you are and make sure you are not getting in the way!)
Plenty of fun to be had.

Bus, walk, train. Tram where we are as well.

Lots of non-drivers live places where there is good public transport and plenty of amenities close by. We could do loads of stuff without taking out the car.

If I were you, I would maybe plan a day out once a week that involved public transport. It looks like DS will need to get used to it!

Do you have any friends with little ones who drive (not the little ones driving!)? Maybe you could have a day out where you bring picnic stuff and pay for other expenses while they drive?

Learning to ride a bike is good if he can't do that already.

Mine would have also been happy to do something at home for a few hours, then taking a bus to go and buy an ice cream would be an activity in itself.
It's a tricky age as they need a lot of interaction - but it beats teenagers you never even see as they are so busy with their own stuff!

DM didn't drive but then we were in London, local libary is a good shout.

Itinary for the week woild look something like

Monday- slow start then food shopping lunch choosen from Super Market or supermarket cafe home via swings if fine or libary if not. Maybe some baking with ingrediants choosen at shop.
Tuesday- Adventure trail in woods/ bike ride/ NT property maybe by train with picnic ( monday's baking). Coffee/ Ice cream out- good to meet up with friends for this one
Wednesday- Kids club @ cinema / soft play home for lunch
Thursday- Splash session @ local pool (round us it is a quid I think)
maybe by bus ?
Friday- Libary to swap books before the weekend and get the summer reader stamp. Maybe meet friends again.

Hope that helps

Library - it will be doing the summer reading challenge and maybe some craft activities

Local museums often do summer hols stuff

I used to scour websites and pick up leaflets to do anything

Have one thing a day - swimming, park, bus into town, museum, board games at home, friend to play, nature walk with list of things to find, cookie baking, water fight, soft play, den building, bike ride.

Then something calm for the rest of each day - movie, craft, reading, Lego, holiday diary.

Any friends can give you a lift to further places?

ETA loads of great ideas here @Colbie34

Second church holiday clubs, usually free or small donation; also supermarket cafes

Bus/train/meteo/bikes/walking.
Works fine.

at that age, my kids were really into Pokémon, so we spent all summer playing Pokémon Go (it's free). We'd end up walking to new places, new parks, etc. Battling gyms. They were really into it, and it filled many boring overcast days!

I'd be getting the bus a lot. We have a car but DS loves the bus, and he's the same age as yours. We often go on a bus trip just because he likes the bus... our buses take an hour to get anywhere as they go all over the place, so we'd get there in half the time in the car, but he loves the novelty of the bus.

What you do will depend on your area and your kids though. My son loves to cook so we do that most days, but even if we're making a curry or something, it's 90 mins - 2 hours to write a list, go buy the ingredients and cook it; so it doesn't take up much of a day for us. Baking takes even less time. Swimming is £6 for an hour here. We can do a couple of hours in the park, we often go to the woods or National Trust places and he loves to run around those. We have tea parties in the garden. I've never managed to make home cinema/film days etc work with mine but some people rave about them... Then we've got annual passes to a couple of zoos/attractions/museums so we go there.

I loved this with a friends' kid back in the day, but I'd struggle to recommend it now...

www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jun/12/pokemon-go-data-trained-ai-that-could-assist-military-drones-in-war-zones

I would think most people who don’t drive live in areas with good public transportation? Train and bus journeys are a treat in itself to a small child so I’d definitely be planning so me days out using those. Otherwise, local park, woods, paddling pool in the garden, helping with chores, crafts, Lego, play dates.

We used to do mad science (making slime, making bug houses, measuring time with sundials/water clocks/sand timers)
We’d take a picnic to the park on nice days, and let the kids have a super bubbly bath with loads of toys during the day (Day Bath!) if the weather was bad. That was also a good way to get toys cleaned.
Cinema day, with homemade film posters “showing” times, popcorn and cinema tickets.
Rejigging bedrooms to see if the furniture worked different ways round (which also helped with tidying)
Going to the shop and letting them be “in charge” of dinner.
Baking and cooking, or making smoothies or ice lollies. Sometimes it was delicious, sometimes it was a disaster but we always had fun.
Taking a nature walk and spotting wildlife, or taking an architecture walk and looking at different design choices on local houses.
Foraging from local fruit trees.
Making their favourite books into mini dramas, with costume, set and scripts.
Drawing maps of real or imaginary places.

Wow, we are massive nerds! We had marvellous summers though, and the kids remember them fondly now they’re adults.

Well, what have you got near you?

if you live in a house in the middle of nowhere outside a village and with no buses it’ll be harder than if you live in a village or town that has things.

most councils run some kind of summer events/playscheme. Most libraries do a summer reading challenge.

Alot of people who don't drive can't afford a car. The public transport is very poor here in Stoke-on-Trent. Non drivers tend to walk locally. We use the park or stay indoors & play or bake

It will depend what your local area is like and what’s nearby. I drive but rarely need to. My son (5) is never bored in the summer as we have a lot on our doorstep that appeals to him at this age: a beach, few good play parks, a library, woods, lots of nice cafes, a soft play, and all of his friends nearby.

This summer we’ve spent a lot of time at the beach and in our own garden with garden toys and paddling pool. He does like a train ride to the city sometimes. It’s an hour but he’s happy as he just enjoys the ride. We bring a few books with us.

When I didn’t drive we lived somewhere really easy to walk/bus everywhere sp appreciate you’re in a harder position!

But at that age I think one day trip out a week is plenty - take the bus, go to the museum or wherever, take a packed lunch, then go to a park or playground then head home.

On the other days let him play at home, the park, have play dates. They don’t really get bored of the same park in the way that adults would.

Can he have friends round to play? I used to take it in turns with 2 other mothers to have all 3 children for an afternoon.

Won't your husband be off at all during the 6 week holidays?

You could go camping in your garden, friend's garden, family member's garden if everyone is local.

Toast marshmallows on a BBQ, doesn't have to be fancy.

It's a thing
https://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/