6 weeks of summer fun for all the family
It can be difficult planning what to do in the kid’s summer holidays. It’s a long time to try and occupy young children, and often the activities that spring to mind will cost money. Which means keeping them entertained can also rack up a hefty bill. Which means ideally you want cheap things to do in the summer, that will guarantee to keep the kids entertained. So we’ve pulled together a summer plan, so that you don’t have to.
With 3 summer holiday activities for kids in each week, you can decide whether to have a busy week or a calming one with a dash of fun. Hopefully you’ll find our plan enough to give 6 weeks of summer fun to children aged 5 – 11.
Week 1
Get their hands dirty with gardening
Teach your kids how to nurture through gardening. You can pick up a bag of seeds from garden centres and larger supermarkets and get them to help plant things in the garden.
If you don’t have a garden or it’s raining you could always get them to try planting cress to sit on windowsills. You can then make it a regular activity to water them to keep it growing.
Free audience tickets
Watch your favourite TV shows in person for free, you can look on:
- Applause Store for Britain’s Got Talent, Family Fortunes, the Masked Dancer and a lot more. Register your interest to be added to the waiting list and hopefully you’ll be called up!
- SRO audiences for It’s Me or The Dog, The Voice UK, Dancing on Ice, The Great British Bake Off – An Extra Slice and many more.
- Lost in TV – Ready Steady Cook, The Cube, Ninja Warrior UK and lots more.
You should never have to pay for tickets for any of these shows. If you see them being sold on ticket sites then please ignore them and sign up for the waiting list of the show instead.
Craft club
The well known craft shop Hobbycraft offer online craft workshops every week, from how to make your own t-shirts to paper projects. It’s always a great idea to get the kids to be creative, and there’s lots of creative craft ideas for kids on Pinterest that could help you with that.
Week 2
Free Lego magazine
If you’ve got children between the ages of 5-9 and they are interested in Lego (like most kids that age), then you can sign up to be sent a FREE Lego Life Magazine every 3 months (4 times a year).
The magazine includes lots to keep kids entertained with Lego news, themed games and puzzles, comic strips, posters and a look into future Lego sets!
Free children’s farms
There are lots scattered across the country, but here are a few that we know about:
- Stonebridge City Farm in Nottingham
- Bath City Farm near Bath
- Surrey Docks Farm in South-East London.
If you don’t live locally to any of the farms mentioned above, why not try taking a look on a Day Out with The Kids – a website full of ideas for kids, including free farms to visit. Just search your local town or county to see what’s about!
Turn your garden into a water park
This activity is definitely weather dependent so plan it for a day that the sun is going to be out and hot! Get the hose out and the paddling pool and let the kids get drenched whilst having fun. This is a great activity to do if they also have friends around.
If you don’t have a paddling pool you could even give them buckets or bowls full of water to chase around and throw on one another!
Week 3
Theatre lotteries
This would require a trip to London, but if you would like to take your kids to the theatre then lots of West End shows hold theatre ticket lotteries.
This gives you the chance to get tickets for around £10-25 when they would usually cost over £100! These ticket lotteries are free to enter and can get you tickets to some of the best shows including Matilda, School of Rock, Wicked and many more.
If there’s a specific show you know you’d like to go to, simply google the name of that show followed by ‘lottery’ and the link you will need to enter should appear. There is a separate link for each show, so it’s a little difficult for us to give precise links!
Free museums
There are lots of free museums in the UK that you can take advantage of – lots of them are full of interactive activities for kids to take a part in as well!
The Money Saving Expert has pulled together a regional UK guide of the best free museums. Take a look and plan your trip as there is something to suit everyone’s interests!
Treasure hunt in your garden
Grab a few treats or goodies, whether that’s new pens, a new football or just some packets of sweets and hide them around the garden and get the kids to hunt them out. If you want to be nice you can give them clues – but if not, it could keep them entertained for hours!
If you don’t have a garden or the weather isn’t what you planned, you could easily do this in the house. Hide things behind the sofa or in a kitchen cupboard they could reach – they’ll be looking forever.
Week 4
Pet workshops
If you have a local Pets at Home, then they often do events in stores where children can learn about animals and get to play with them too. Check on their website for events near to you.
Pick your own fruit
There are so many pick your own fruit farms around the country, so why not take the kids to pick their own strawberries, cherries, blackcurrants, plums and much more. This is a great activity on a sunny day and can keep the whole family entertained for hours.
Once you return home with lots of freshly picked fruit, you could even make a delicious desert or tasty treat with the family to make it that little bit more exciting.
Campout and star gaze
If you feel safe and secure enough in your garden, why not camp out under the stars as a family and maybe even wish upon a star.
If you don’t have a garden or a tent, or don’t feel safe sleeping in your garden then why not set up camp in your living room for the night. You could make a den and watch their favourite films, all topped off with some popcorn.
Week 5
Head to the beach
There are so many beautiful beaches that we can often forget about, all under our noses right within the UK!
Plan a day trip to your nearest beach and make a fun day of it. If you’re bored of your nearest beach why not take a trip to a beach in the UK you’ve never been to, and spend the day exploring.
Free junior park run
You may have heard of Park Run before, they hold community events for people who enjoy running and are held in parks up and down the country. Well there’s also a junior one which takes the usual 5k run down to 2k for smaller legs.
Children aged 4-14 can take part in weekly Sunday morning 2K runs all across the UK. Kids are also welcome at the 5K runs, but these are usually a lot busier, and are held on a Saturday morning. The good thing about the 5K runs is that you parents can join in too – even the dog can!
Become a nature detective
Why not take advantage of the wide range of amazing parks in your local area. You could pull together a list of 5-10 things that you know the kids could hunt out in the park, for example a daisy or a pigeon and get them to try and find all things on the list. You can also take advantage of the play area whilst you are there.
Week 6
Cheap attraction deal
Why not finish the summer holidays with a trip out to an attraction like Chessington World of Adventures or Sea Life Brighton. If you decide to get the train to these attractions, then you just need to buy a National Rail ticket and register for the Days Out Guide to get 241 entry on lots of different attractions.
If you want to drive, it’s sometimes even worth buying the cheapest single ticket to the destination train station, this is probably a ticket from the station before the destination. That way you can still save yourself around £20-30 for a family of 4. You must have both the voucher sent to you from the Days Out Guide and the valid rail ticket for each person attending to get the deal.
Tennis coaching for free
Why not see if Tennis for Free have a session in your local area? There are currently 129 venues up and down the UK, which means hopefully there is one close enough to you.
They offer weekly free coaching sessions for children, young people and adults so that everyone can play tennis if it’s something they enjoy.
Geocaching
Have you ever tried Geocaching? Well now might be the perfect time. You can sign up for free on their website and enter your postcode to find geocaches in your area.
Geocaching is referred to as the worlds largest treasure hunt. You hunt for plastic tubes that have hidden toy stashes in them.
All you need to do is create an account on their website, download the app to locate a geocache nearby, but remember to take a pen.
Once you find one, sign and date the logbook and place it back where you found it. You can also log your experience on the app.
You are supposed to place the toy back in the geocache when you put it back unless you have something of equal or greater value to put back in it. This keeps the game going for everyone.
With this in mind we’d suggest taking a few old small toys with you in case one of your kids becomes particularly attached to one of the toys they find!
And just like that the summer is over.
We hope you find some of these ideas useful and that you and your children have a lot of fun together this summer!
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