Holiday Activities for the kids: share with Lidl your top tips - vouchers to be won NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

The team at Lidl know how hard it can be to entertain your children during the school holidays, whether that’s the cold February half term, the longer Easter hols or the never ending Summer break. So we’re keen to hear all the activities you do with your children to stop them from uttering those dreaded words… ‘I’m bored…’

So, what’s your saving grace? Do you try and get them outside for for a kickabout in the park or a game of rounders with friends? Or - if the weather’s not playing ball - do you have some ideas for keeping kids occupied when they’re stuck indoors. Maybe you have some Easter-related food you make together, or arts and crafts tricks? And above all that, how do you stick to a budget and keep costs down?

Add your top tips and plans of action to this thread and you’ll be entered into a prize draw where 5 winners will each get £50 to spend in Lidl.

Thanks
MNHQ
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I buy a few craft activity sets/new magazines/sticker sets and keep aside for wet or brining days with nothing planned. It's exciting opening a new toy/set (usually from the pound shop so very cheap) and it keeps them amused for a good while, possibly even until the next day. Intersperse that with lots of meeting friends and various trips out. And ice cream for good behaviour bribery in cafes!

We are fortunate to live in a beautiful part of England and love to get the children out and about in the countryside and beaches as much as possible. We also have annual passes to the local Sealife Centre and the local zoo and theme park. However, this must be balance with indoor activities and we read, watch videos, play games amd do craft activities. Variety is the spice of life.

I try to let the children get a bit bored. They get more creative and play with different toys in different ways.
Otherwise I take them outside - either in the garden or on a decent walk, cycle or scoot.
Failing that it is swimming in wet weather or the cinema.
But outdoors no matter the weather (except extreme rain) - we're not made of sugar :)

I take my girlfriends son to the park or beach,bring a ball, you can never lose.

DS is still at nursery but the nursery has two weeks' holiday in December and another two in August. His favourite thing is to spend time with his grandmas, so we're hoping that either they'll come to visit us or we'll go to see them. Either way he'll want to do swimming, trips to the park and soft play (free one in the local shopping centre) and hopefully the paddling pool and a picnic will keep him busy for less money during his August break.

Our library has great activities for older children during the school holidays but unfortunately that means the ones for his age group are cancelled.

I'm currently a SAHM with my toddler (and my adult teen!) so every day is like the holidays at the moment. We do a variety of things including toddler groups, trips to the beach, walks to the harbour to see the boats, and occasional shopping trips to our nearest big city.This year, once we've moved, we'll throw baking, play dates and a couple of festivals into the mix :)

Out and about we use our national trust membership as much as we can. Woodlands provide lots of fun especially if they have stream to paddle in and dam. A pack of sharpies to take out and about for instantly decorating stones or sticks and double-sided tape for nature collages bring an extra level of creativity.

getting the kids to help with cooking (any type of cooking - it doesn't have to be cakes / biccies or kid friendly recipes - they can even help to prepare lunch or dinner) - is a definite boredom buster.

My daughter has also invented a new game that keeps her amused for hours - she has some play coins and 'jewels' and hides them, makes a treasure map and then we find them and vice versa. We love that she initiated this game and it is lovely to spend time with her and the other kids like this as they are all happy to be involved with playing pirates.

I ask the kids and get them to suggest places they want to go or things they want to do. I stock up on dvds and baking ingedients as these are always good, and arrange playdates for my youngest.

We always do some cooking or baking when there really isn't anything else to do. It's so important to me that my little one grows up well equipped to eat well

For us it is either baking or doing crafts which can both get a bit messy. We have discovered that they are now both of reasonable age to sit through board games so we've been enjoying that as a family too.

Making robots with boxes. I always save cardboard boxes, especially big ones, and then bring them out on rainy days for robot making. The really big packing boxes are the best but cereal boxes, loo roll or wrapping paper centres and any old cardboard will do and it's usually free. Add sticky tape, felt tips and shiny foil or sweet papers and you can easily kill an hour or two.

Swimming

Swimming

I rarely remember mine saying they were bored. DD always turned to arts and crafts when in need of something to do and would turn up a few hours later saying "Look, I've made a cushion!" or something equally inventive while the boys would bring something they'd made out of Lego. I think teaching them to amuse themselves and find things to occupy their time has stood them in good stead as they can find enjoyment and entertainment in little things.

My two are football obsessed, and we have a fab park near us, so I take them there with a ball for an hour or two. If the weather is bad we have a craft box, so we'll get that out on the kitchen table and it will usually keep them busy for a while! Also, can't beat a good movie to keep them (and me!) occupied.

I always keep a box of bits and bobs. This can be anything we collect in day to day life like cake wrappers, tin foil, wool, nice leaves etc. If the boredom card is played the box is whipped out. We write 3 subjects on 3 different pieces of paper such as Space, Under the Sea and Sports and have to make something to do with that theme

You can't spend all your life entertain your children, just give them the space and tools to use their imagination.

Trips to the park and even a trip to the shops are good to stop the boredom.

we do ALOT of arts and crafts in this house we make everything and anything from items for the home to cards and gifts and also we love getting involved in entering creative competitions so they are rarely bored as they dont have the time! we also enjoy walking and playing outdoor games like rounders, weather permitting!

We have 5DC,2 of our DC are disabled and since I became disabled health issues can sometimes stop us from being able to go out as much as we'd like.

Days that we have to be in the house we play board games,pictionary,guess who I am game(write a name of someone famous on a post it note and stick on another persons forehead and they have to try and guess who they are,for younger children you can make it cartoon charaters or you can guess which object you are,same idea just an object around the house/garden instead of a person or cartoon character ).

We play hide and seek.

Have a treasure hunt around the house,you can make an authentic looking map write the map out on a piece of plain paper and then brush with cold tea,put the "map" onto a baking tray and place in a low/medium heat oven,it should take under 10 minutes.
To make it look even more authentic roll the map up and tie with a ribbon.

We have movie and popcorn session,we make homemade popcorn with the children and sit and watch family movies together.

We play find and fetch them,we get the children into groups and tell them an object to go and find and we set a timer the first one's back with all the items they had to collect are the winners.

Some days we'll cook together and have themed evenings.
One of they're favourites is a Pizza and Sundae night.
We make or buy plain pizza bases and set out bowls with different toppings and the children top they're pizzas and we stick them into the oven for them.
Afterwards we set out sundae dishes,tubs of different flavoured ice creams,different sauces and toppings and everyone gets to create they're own ice cream sundae.

We do arts and crafts,we've tie dyed socks and t-shirts.
We got packs of 6 pairs of plain white socks for a few pounds and the white t-shirts were only £2 pounds each and the kits cost under £5 each,we managed to do 3 pairs of tie dyed socks and 2 tie dyed T-shirts for around £6 per child.

Paper can end up costing alot if you have alot of children or children that love painting and drawing alot but you can pick up whole rolls of wallpaper for £1 and let your children,draw and paint on the inside of the roll.They're great as well for if your children want to draw around each other or they're parents.

Easter time we usually make Easter nests,have an Easter Egg hunt,make Easter pictures,paint eggs and make Easter hats and bonnets.

For days out we find alot of the local museums really good,so many museums are free entry now and lots of them put on drop in sessions where you can go and do arts and crafts/play games/try on costumes.Some are free and you can just drop in others you have to book and some charge a couple of pounds per person for a make and take home session.

Parks and a picnic are popular with our children, sometimes we'll meet up with a group of friends and we'll all take some play equipment with us if there's space to use them at the park,things like a football,frisbee,a rounders set.

We check out our local leisure centers for any offer on for when the children are on half term,lots of them offer drop in sessions for free or for a minimal fee.Quite a few council run one's offer £1 swim sessions.

We got DS a kids kindle which he adores but we also play little games of how many can he spot of x, and a also go visit national trust places, he loves running around the gardens.

I save old cereal boxes, loo roll tubes, pot noodle cartons etc and let them make stuff. PVA glue, paints, glitter and they become little architects designing and building structures, vehicles, ships and anything else that their imagination conjures. Not only does making things relieve the boredom for an afternoon, extra fun is had playing with what they build..

Getting them involved with helping to prepare meals and doing some baking is a great day with the kids. A painting day but make sure to put lots of newspaper on the table and dress them appropriately!

But I do agree with others that we need to get kids to be imaginative and play themselves without constantly needing attention and things planned. Yes we do these things but it's not possible all the time.