Tell npower your top tips and ideas for enjoying the summer school holidays - you could win a £300 Love2Shop voucher NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

The team at npower would love to hear about your top tips and ideas for enjoying the summer holidays.

npower say "We know that the summer holidays can often be stressful and finding activities to keep your children busy can be a challenge so we’d love to hear your hints and tips for a fun-filled stress-free summer. We can’t wait to hear your great creative ideas for getting through those 6 weeks come rain or shine."

With 6 weeks or more off in the summer, finding ways to keep your DCs entertained can sometimes be a challenge. So, what are your top tips for planning summer holiday activities? Do you like to do some research and advanced planning? Or do you prefer to be spontaneous? Does the weather affect your plans at all? What top tips do you have for having fun whatever the weather?

Please note, your comments may be used - anonymously of course - by npower on their social media channels, website and possibly elsewhere, Please only post if you're happy with this.

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Thanks and good luck

MNHQ

Our activities depend on what the weather is like.
If it's a dry day we try and get out somewhere, to the park, the lakes or a walk around the forest. We take a picnic and go for a nice long walk.
If it's raining we plan an activity together to keep us busy, We make playdough, cakes, biscuits, bread and the children like to help make their own dinner.
We do lots of arts and crafts to keep busy.
We often get together with friends so that they can keep each other entertained.

Keep an eye out for free events at your local museums and parks. My kids are teenagers now and they'd be happy playing video games or sitting on Whats App for 24 hours a day. So we don't let them do that.

But the odd pyjama day helps everyone refresh.

Come rain or shine make sure you get those kiddies out at least once a day. Find different places to walk, cycle explore and get rid of some energy and noise outside!

take a picnic and get to the park or beach if weather allows, like to find all free things to do as it can be expensive otherwise

I absolutely love any points type schemes where I can save up for days out. So tesco clubcard is great for us. I spent all my points on Christmas and by the summer hols we had enough for 4 tickets to the dinosaur park and 4 tickets to Colchester Zoo. We take a feast of a picnic and spend a minimal amount on two fantastic days. Oh, and if we aren't doing much the day before we bake some sausage rolls and rocky road to take.

If you explore there are plenty of free activities but maybe we are lucky in Norfolk. My boys are very nearly 6 & 8 (the third is due in Oct) and we've been picnicing in the park with friends, exploring a castle, bike rides round a lovely nature reserve lake- where you can also pay for water activities for a small amount. We've also been to the beach twice and a lovely stream near us where we can paddle and use nets to find fish.

I work 3 days a week but have had two weeks off and am looking forward to spending next year on maternity leave. We love the summer holidays!!

Lots of outdoor play and fresh air. My older two boys asked to go to football camp and a multi sports activity club for a few days this holiday and not only have they loved it's eliminated the "I'm bored!" comments!

Our children always have a week away during the summer holidays with their youth club. It's cheap and cheerful, staying in a youth hostel and they love it. It helps to break up the the long holiday and they always want to spend more time with their youth club friends when they come home.

We usually have a subscription to either National Trust or English Heritage, so we try to plan some days out at their properties. We take the dog and a picnic. Again it's cheap and lots of fun.

Before the holiday start find out about free and cheap activities going on in your area. This way on those days the kids are driving you crazy from being bored you are ready for it.

We try to do one big trip out a week either a day at the beach, local park with paddling pool, bowling, safari park, cinema etc then on the other days we take picnics to the local park, or even have a picnic in the garden on a rug, also den building in the garden is great fun with sheets, chairs, cushions etc that keeps my boys occupied for hours. They also love going on bike rides and both my boys are doing our local library school holidays reading challenge where they will get a medal at the end having read six books, Rainy day activites include baking, and my sons current favourite thing is making a giant rollercoaster across the lounge with his lego rail track that kept him busy for two days so far

Pick up some crafty bits and pieces and get creative - low cost and lots of fun for sunny and rainy days alike!

After submitting my own thoughts I intend to read the rest of this thread as I for one am a mother who is always on the lookout for ideas for the summer Holliday; I am a mature student so I too get summer off which is fabulous but can be hard work trying to entertain my 2 year old Daphne and also my niece and nephew, and due to my student status I always need the options to be cheap....or free!
I do tend to have to plan in advance to a degree as I like to ensure that I have enough plans in place to keep Daphne stimulated and happy but due to the nature of british weather, my plans often depend on what I see out of the window once I have woken up!
I however love to be spontaneous in the summer holidays but I believe that this would be a lot easier to do if I was wealthier as a lot of the attractions/parks that I've looked into are unfortunately beyond my budget at the moment. The fact that I live in Cumbria can be wonderful in terms of walks and outdoor exploring but also debilitating as theme parks and children activities are often a couple hours travel away, which in itself can be very expensive.
My top tips would be to plan at least one activity each day, even if just for 15 minutes exploring the nearby park, we often look for fairies and goblins (the fact that we haven't found any to date doesn't seem to affect Daphne's enthusiasm), and if the weather is horrendous then there's always the options of a soft play centres which can be pricey but I find that if I fill the majority of days with free activities, I feel less guilty about spending a few pound on a good session at the soft play!

When my boys were younger we used to join in with the local council play schemes.
Play outdoors when the weather is fine.
If it's raining then plan some crafts, games sessions (no not computer games!!) or library sessions.

Keep it cheap! Bucket and spade to the nearest beach! Craft work at home for rainy days. Nice walks and nature treks. Get them baking too!

to always have a bits and pieces box for crafty days when the weather isn't good.

Have a 6 week planner on the wall, put on essential things like appointments etc then try and arrange 1 play day per week and friend over, a day out, holiday club sessions etc and put on the planner, before you know it the 6 weeks don't look so scary

I have been searching online for any special events that are going on nearby and made a note in my diary. I also make sure I have loads of stuff in for picnics and I check the weather so I can plan for the next few days. I have also roped family in to help out a bit

Hide laptops, tablets and smartphones.

Plenty of outside play...and when it rains TV never fails!

Set them a little scrapbook project to do. They can add photos, postcards, tickets etc of places they have been. But also add art, poems, lists etc on days at home.

I have lots of boxes which come out as needed! A dressing up box, a cut and stick box, an outside nature box with magnifying glasses and nature books, a making box, a cooking box, a papier mache box with old newspapers and wallpaper paste, collage box and so on. I add to these throughout the year so hopefully there is always something new in them every time we get them out!

the library summer reading challenge is good to do

Take turns with friends to help look after the children. Gives you a free day every so often & I find it's easier when the children have their friends over, i don't have to entertain them so much.

My DD and I have been making our own book, DD tells me what she wants written on each page and then we draw an accompanying picture. Hours of amusement that keeps her busy and when it's finished I'll laminate it for her to keep :)

We have a pot with simple activities on bits of paper. The kids take turns to pick one out each morning and that's what we do... a trip to feed the ducks, bake a cake, minibeast hunt, make pizza, plant some veggies, balloon volleyball, home cinema ( DVDs, home popped popcorn, and we even make our 'tickets'... that's probably a favourite!)

.... whatever costs little and keeps us busy. They love the excitement of the 'surprise' element too :)

I think the best way to attack the summer holidays is to make a plan in advance. Find free days out on the internet local to you, pencil them in on the calendar. Stock up on arts and crafts, they dont have to be expensive you can save up empty packets or breakfast cereals boxes to paint and make junk models. Buy paints etc from poundshops. Buy cooking ingredients leading up to the holidays basic stuff makes great cupcakes and biscuits. You can also make salt dough to cook and paint. Buy some food colouring and get a recipe of the internet to make your own playdoh. We usually make a shop from old cardbord etc and then makes things to sell using the playdoh. Its great fun!