3 ways to keep Your Children Entertained During the Summer Holidays
Keeping children entertained over the summer can be challenging, but our mix of indoor, outdoor and paid-for summer holiday activities will fit the bill.
The annual six-week break is just around the corner. It can be a fantastic time for bonding with your kids and even rediscovering your own inner child. However, summer holidays can be a trying time when you're trying to juggle work and childcare, so we've put together a few suggestions for summer holiday activities for all the family.
To keep everyone happy, you need a mix of home-based, outdoor and paid-for activities. Here's our choice of the best ways to keep your children entertained this summer.
Have fun at home
Here are some ideas for at-home fun.
- Make up your own games
- Bored with Monopoly and tired of Cluedo? Try making up your own games! Card, scissors and glue are all you need to invent your own instant classics.
- Inspiration from TV shows
Whether you want to have a bake-off, start a sewing project or learn how to make your own jewellery, crafts are a great way to spend a wet afternoon.
- We're jammin'
Get together all the musical instruments you have in the house - or create your own with pots, pans and jars of dry pasta - and start making music. Alternatively, you could put on your favourite family playlist and go wild!
- Unlock your inner artist
There's no better way to unleash your creativity than with paint. Invest in some cheap squeeze bottles of bright poster paints, rolls of wallpaper lining paper and black bin bags. Prep the area well and then let everyone express themselves using hands, feet and anything you can find to create crazy posters for their bedroom wall.
Get outside for summer holiday activities
Here are some outdoor fun ideas.
- Build a den
Find a corner of the garden or the park and start gathering branches, twigs and other stuff to build your den. No outside space? Use blankets and furniture indoors instead! This activity is guaranteed to keep even older children absorbed for hours. If you have a tent, why not spend a night camping out in the garden?
- Start a garden
This could be a window box or a small area of the main garden. Buy seeds that grow quickly and let them loose with child-sized garden tools for hours of outdoor fun. Even sprouting seeds in a jam jar can get kids interested in growing their own food.
- Go on a picnic
Indoors or outdoors, there's nothing like a picnic to make even the most boring sandwich taste delicious. It's a good way to clear out the fridge. Get the kids to find some suitable recipes to prepare their own picnic food, then clear a corner of the living room or garden (or pick a local picnic spot) and enjoy.
- Go on a scavenger hunt
You'll find plenty of ideas for scavenger hunts on the internet, but one of the simplest is to find something beginning with every letter of the alphabet. Head for the local woods or nearest beach - and good luck with X!
- Join a Green Gym or Park Run
There are plenty of organised outdoor activities to boost your fitness and have fun. When you join a Green Gym session, you'll be helping plant trees and sow meadows while burning calories. You could also head for your local park to run, walk or stagger through your nearest Park Run.
- Organise a garage sale
Kill two birds with one stone by getting the kids to tidy their bedroom and sort out any old clothes, toys and books that you can sell (or donate to charity). Bake up some biscuits for the hungry hordes of buyers and use any profit to fund a family day out.
Enjoy a family fun day out that everyone can enjoy
There are plenty of family attractions to choose from when it comes to great summer holiday activities, but it can be difficult when you need to entertain both younger and older children without spending a fortune.
One option is a children's activity centre that provides soft play for younger children and a more adventurous offering for older kids. That way, everyone goes home happy after having enjoyed a great day out.