How to Find Things to do in the School Holidays
Inexpensive Summer Activities for Under Tens
The thought of providing six weeks of entertainment can be daunting. Read on to find out how to make this your best summer holiday ever.
Planning Holiday Activities
To get the best out of the school holidays, it’s a great idea to plan ahead. Some of the events you’ll read about here may need to be pre-booked, particularly if they are free or low cost.
Planning ahead doesn’t mean that you’ll follow a rigorous schedule. On the contrary, you can make sure your child doesn’t miss out on any of the activities in your area and have the freedom to plan the rest of your activities around pre-booked events.
Before school closes for the summer, make sure you have the telephone numbers of a few of your child’s favourite friends. You can then suggest a play date during the holiday. Six weeks is a long time for a child to go without seeing his friends and a few visits during through the holidays will keep him in touch with his classmates, ready for when he returns to school.
A Themed Holiday Project for Your Child
Most school age children have one or more favourite activities, such as dinosaurs, ballet, horses or insects. If there’s something your child is passionate about, you can give your main holiday activities a theme.
For example, a child who is keen on dinosaurs could start a memory box of dinosaur related activities from the holiday. He could include a postcard of your local natural history museum where he saw dinosaur bones, a fossil you found together on the beach, a dinosaur collage he did on a rainy day and a photo of himself in the garden with a dinosaur he created from cardboard boxes.
Allow your child to choose the theme, offering guidance if necessary and be open to his suggestions of what he’d like to do during the holiday. It he suggests visiting a museum you’ve been to dozens of times, go along and perhaps suggest a different museum he might like to try also.
Finding Holiday Activities
When planning activities, try to spread your special day trips out through the whole period. One big event per week, such as a trip to the beach or funfair, is perfect.
You can then look around your local area for other events. Even something which only lasts an hour can break up the day and provide a focus to the week. Many churches run holiday clubs, which are open to children of all denominations and those who don’t normally attend church. Check the noticeboards of churches in your town which you don’t attend. There’s no reason why you can’t sign your child up for these clubs.
Local museums and soft play centres are another source of craft and educational events. Your local library may hold a story time during the school holidays and leisure centres and swimming pools often offer holiday activities for children.
Activities to do at Home in the School Holidays
Don’t feel you have to pack every day with a round of activities. Children appreciate some time at home to play with their toys and simply relax. A child who is normally at school will enjoy the chance to play in the house without the usual pressure to get dressed and ready for class.
Buy a selection of sticker books and craft activities. Keep these in reserve for a rainy day and, again, spread the activities across the holiday weeks.
Buy in ingredients to make cookies or cakes and have a baking day. This could be themed, for example, a Chinese day, with fortune cookies, fruit sorbet and chicken noodles. When it’s time to eat, make paper lanterns and float small flowers in a bowl in the middle of the dining table.
Another great activity for a rainy day is to create a cinema at home. Let your child choose their favourite video or dvd and they can help you create the cinema vibe. Close the curtains to shut out the bad weather, cook some popcorn and snuggle up to watch the film. A hand-held torch is fun for the "cinema usher" to show everyone to his or her seat.
Enjoy your holiday, whatever the weather. This is a chance for you and your child to have fun, free of the usual school routine. With a little planning, you can create some great memories for your child and enjoy your activities, whether it’s a rainy or sunny day.
Resources
Wise, Debra Great Big Book of Children’s Games [McGraw-Hill, 2003]
Wilkes, Angela The Children’s Step-by-Step Cook Book [Doring Kindersley, 1999]
