Family Fun - ideas for the summer holidays

The summer holidays can sometimes seem very long - both to the parents and the children - but there are lots of activities you can do with your kids, and not all of them have to cost money. Here are some of our favourite ideas:

• Go back in time
  Try living for a day without TV, internet, phones, electric lights etc. See if you can borrow a camp stove or barbecue and cook a meal, with the whole family preparing all the ingredients yourselves.
• Camp in the garden
  Put up a tent in your garden and have picnics. If you fancy a beach campsite, just add a paddling pool and sandpit. Tell each other stories by torchlight and sleep together in the tent or under the stars.
• Explore by bus or train
  If your family isn’t used to travelling by public transport, turn even the most mundane trip into an adventure going by bus or train – young children, especially, will love it.
• Visit your local tourist attractions
  Go to your local Tourist Information Office and browse through the leaflets. Sometimes, it’s the attractions on our doorstep that we never discover or get round to visiting. Many museums and art galleries have free entry.
• Organise your own mini Olympics
  Invite friends to take part in a mini-Olympics. Set up an assault course in the garden and have fun with a stopwatch timing how quickly everyone can complete the course. Have skipping, Wellington boot throwing jumping or leap-frogging contests and an egg and spoon race.
• Hold a movie night
  Movie nights are a fun and easy way to spend time together as a family. Take it in turns for each person to choose a movie and choose what to have for snacks – perhaps hotdogs, popcorn or special drinks.
• Make a water slide
  On hot days put up a slide in the garden with a long piece of plastic sheeting at the bottom. Hose down the sheeting with a garden hose and washing up liquid and wait for the fun.
• Grow sunflowers
  Have each member of the family plant a sunflower seed and monitor them to see whose can grow the tallest by the last day of the holidays.
• Go on a scavenger hunt
  Pick somewhere to hold the hunt such as your garden, your street, the park. Make a list of items to find, e.g. shells, feathers, sweet wrappers, and team up adults or older children with little ones. Make sure you’ve got prizes for whoever finds the most items, the prettiest, the biggest, the smallest etc!
• Join in!
  Whenever you can, join in with whatever your kids are playing. If they are dancing to their favourite CD, stop what you’re doing and boogie. If they’re painting, join in and stick your creation to the fridge next to theirs. If they’re always on their bikes, plan a whole-family bike ride for the weekend.

Remember, family fun is for all the family, not just the youngest ones!