Affordable ways to entertain the kids during the school holidays

With school holidays just around the corner, it’s time to take a break from homeschooling and spend some quality time with your kids. You might have been together 24/7 for what seems like an eternity but we have some affordable ways to entertain the kids during the school holidays. Plus, as it looks as though we will be in lockdown a little longer than Boris planned, all of our ideas are affordable and can be done without venturing far from home. 

Indoor camping 

You may be running out of ideas to entertain the kids, potentially funds too if you’ve been furloughed and we all know that theBritish weather cannot be relied upon, so have you thought about indoor camping? You could go the whole hog and set up a simple bed sheet in the shape of a tent across your living room and get the kids to bring down their bedding or you could set up a sleepover in one of their rooms with pullout beds to reduce the mess. 

Let them eat their tea outside the tent, enjoy hot chocolate and marshmallows in the evening, sing campfire songs as a family and even share spooky ghost stories as the evening rolls in. Whatever approach you go for, this is something the kids will remember for a long time and really doesn’t have to cost a penny. Plus it’s a great way to test out the camping experience without having to invest in expensive camp essentials and hire a plot. 

Get flipping the pancakes 

Pancake day falls perfectly in the school holidays this year so why not make more of a day about it. Get the kids to have a go at flipping their own pancakes and get creative about toppings. You could even have a little competition of who can flip the pancake the most or best-decorated pancake. 

You could even have a pancake for every meal, a pancake stack for breakfast, ham and cheese crepe for lunchtime and chocolate pancakes for tea. With all that excitement and a change from the traditional day to day meals your kids will love it, plus flour, milk and eggs are all affordable store cupboard essentials. 

Scavenger hunt 

Set up an indoor scavenger hunt for your kids and plan a list of items that they need to find around the house. Give them a list and a box to put their findings in and set them off. Plus, it might give you 5 minutes to enjoy your cup of tea in peace before they need some help. 

If you’re clever, you might even add something that went missing in the past week to the list to see if they can find it! 

Movie night

Let them pick a film and a little snack each and get cosy as a family ready for a film. Get the kids bathed and into their pyjamas so they are ready for bed as soon as the film finishes (or they fall asleep) and sit back and enjoy a film as a family. This is something that might not happen that often so a great way to spend quality time together. 

Whether you’re in the living room, piling in the kid’s bedroom with the beds pushed together or even set up in the garden, a movie night is something that we can all achieve at home and really doesn’t cost a lot. If you don’t want to rent a movie, keep an eye out for movies the kids might like that are on TV and simply record in advance. 

All of these activities can be a good family activity that appeals to kids of all ages, what things does your family love doing together indoors over the school holidays?