Cheap Holiday Fun for Children During Summer

Budgeting and Forward Planning for Activities Helps to Save Money

Sep 10, 2009

Long school holidays mean additional expenses for parents by way of extra childcare. Added to this is the cost of keeping children occupied and entertained.

Often working parents plan their days around school-going children. When the long summer holidays arrive, the parents are faced with fresh problems and additional expenses. For a start the children need childcare which can be quite costly. Even if one of the parents was to take time off to look after the children, it could mean a loss of wages. In addition there is the extra cost of entertainment for the children to keep them occupied.

It is possible to minimize the financial impact of the school holidays by forward planning and budgeting.

Household BudgetKnowing how much the family can or want to spend is the first step to enjoying the holidays and the parents being stress-free.

Plan the Holiday Activities

Doing things on the spur of the moment can be costly. The same things can sometimes be done cheaper if paid for in advance or in a group. Entrance tickets to places such as amusement parks, zoological gardens or the theatre can be purchased cheaply in advance and in groups of ten tickets or more. A planned outing involving other families can be a fun day out and much cheaper than a spur of the moment outing for just three or four people.

There are also many activities that cost little or no money, like picnics in the park and days at the beach. With a bit of imagination parents can provide the same or even a better level of entertainment for the family than costly outings.

Replace DVDs for Movies

A trip to the movies can be quite expensive when taking into account the price of tickets, snacks and travel costs. Hiring a couple of DVDs and providing home-made pop corn or other snacks will keep the children occupied for hours at a fraction of the cost. The children will enjoy it even more if they are allowed too invite a few friends over to share in the fun.

If desired the movie session could be the precursor to a quiz contest. Parents can organize a quiz for the children based around the movies that they watch.

Picnics in the Park

Taking the family and a group of their friends to the park for the day and providing a picnic and pre-planned activities such as a game of cricket will be a great day out for the children and cheap day out for the parents.

However, the day can be made more interesting and educational. Take a camera and photograph wild flowers in season. While at the park the children can make a game of how many different varieties they can find and when they get home research the names and other details of the flowers. The children can even put together a journal of "What we learned at our day in the park."

This activity can be extended to other things such as varieties of leaves, insects or birds. There are websites and books, based on geographic areas, that can help with the research.

Beach Parties

A day spent at the beach can provide hours of fun for the children and it need not be an expensive exercise for the parents. While swimming and making sand castles the children can also be encouraged to collect sea shells.

Depending on the ages of the children the shells can be used in different ways. Older children and identify the shells and name them. There are various shell identification websites that can help.

Younger children can make letters or pictures by pasting the shells on to paper.

Inclement weather, however, brings its own challenges. This is where parents have to be most creative and plan indoor activities that are imaginative, stimulating and fun.

Pre-planning, budgeting and thinking outside the box for entertainment activities for children during long school holidays will serve the dual purpose of keeping the children occupied as well as reduce the financial outlay for the parents.

The copyright of the article Cheap Holiday Fun for Children During Summer in Kids Holiday Activities is owned by Pauline Mascarenhas. Permission to republish Cheap Holiday Fun for Children During Summer in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.