Cheap Skate School Holidays; free and cheap things to do on the school holidays

Amazingly first term is over and the school holidays are already here. I never have loads of cash to spend on the holidays but still want to keep the kids busy and exploring not just watching t.v. or playing on the iPad.

- Cooking is a great way to keep the kids busy. Lets face it you spend half your time feeding them why not make an activity of it and included them. So many skills are developed when cooking, reading, following directions, measuring, counting, sharing and more. Try to keep calm and embrace the mess it can always be cleaned up. Some of my favorite recipes to use with the kids are pizza, apple pancakes and muesli cookies.

- Traveling on public transport, for most kids I know traveling on a train, tram or bus is really exciting. Kids get that often its about the journey not the destination that matters. Pack your own food to save money.

 

- Messy play, even older kids like the chance to get messy. Let the kids play in the mud, give them flour and water to make damper, give the shaving cream and corn flour to play with. Try and not be too precious mess is good and with a bit of forward planing not too hard to clean up.

- Go to the public library, this is great in so many ways. You can spend the afternoon picking books, cd's and DVD which will help entertain at home, you can spend hours reading the books there. Also lots of libraries run free or very cheap activities for kids in the holidays.

Fairy clothes made from felt.

- Make clothes for toys, this can be sewing if your a sewer and the children are older or be creative and wrap fabric, ribbon or paper around toys for decoration.  Check out my post Teddy Bear PJ's.

- Go to the park, avoid the play centers the are pricey so as long as the weather isn't freezing or scorching hot, these holidays should be right. Go to the park. Pack snacks and stay for ages. The kids rush around having fun, making friends which you might to if your brave a smile at someone. 

- Paint! You can paint pictures, paint boxes, use water and paint outside or try home made puff paint.

- Explore the neighborhood. Walk the streets and see what you can find and chat about the parks you find, the post boxes, the bus stops, different shops you find. its amazing what you don't notice when you are driving. Let the kids set the pace. In teacher talk the extension of this could be to draw a map of where you walked.

- Draw! Don't just plop the kids down with the pencils sit and draw with them. They love to see what you draw but remember to keep it light and breezy don't stress if the copy you that is how they get ideas and don't draw way beyond their ability its off putting. If you have had enough of drawing at the table make some chalk and draw on the pavement,  driveway or brick wall with home made chalk.

- Slow down, life is really busy. Kids are rushing off to school, activities being taken along to vist family and friends. If your lucky enough to not to have to work the whole time your kids are on school holidays try and slow down. Let them veg out in pj's, let them pull out all their toys and take over the lounge as the come up with a new game. The years rush by and before we know it they will be grown up and gone from under out feet and then we will regret not making the most of time together.