So the summer holidays are fast approaching and I have to say that I am actually quite looking forward to them this year! I am looking forward to having the chance to teach, enjoy and spend quality time with the kids – but with that comes the kind of planning that is rarely seen outside of the military barracks – otherwise how the hell will we survive. So last night I sat down with Adam and we went through all the different things we thought would be fun to do/try out with the kids over the summer. Will we get through them all? Ha, don’t be soft, we’ll probably get through a few BUT we will have so many options and each week I will be able to sit down and make a plan for the following week that will fit in around my busy work schedule and the kids, allowing me to really make the most of the holidays. Just to note as well, I’m not suggesting that they should have 24/7 entertainment – quite the opposite as I really think that boredom is good for kids, but we will have to do some stuff otherwise I will require more than wine to see me through…. So, without further a-do, here is the epic list of ways to entertain the kids and summer holiday activities!
- Bake a cake
- Think inside the box with a giant box and some pens to decorate inside (mess prevention!)
- Have a day at work with a parent (for possible)
- Learn about a climate and the animals that live there (we’re doing arctic on one day)
- Bake brownies
- Pick some flowers to dry and press, then laminate
- Make your own candles
- Bake something we’ve never baked before
- Have a picnic in the garden
- Have a picnic at Wharram Percy (medieval village)
- Visit Dalby Forest and go on a nature trail
- Take a bike ride in Dalby Forest
- Visit the Railway Museum
- Visit Sewerby Hall and Gardens
- Take a trip to the beach and have fish and chips
- Have a day out with friends at Hunmanby Gap
- Learn an Olympic sport
- Visit Flamingo Land Zoo
- Watch a friendly football match
- Visit Chester Zoo
- Go stream dipping and see if you can spot fish
- Go for a walk and play pooh sticks over the bridge.
- Visit the Dinosaur Museum in Hull
- Visit Drayton Manor
- Visit Hesketh Farm
- Make splatter art with egg shells
- Chalk painting in the street
- Paint the playhouse
- Empty, clean and re-fill the pond
- Visit Playdales play park
- Visit York Maze
- Visit the Royal Armouries
- Visit Tropical world and Roundhay park
- Take a picnic to Roundhay park
- Make tye dye clothes
- Make jam
- Create a farmyard with your animal figures outside
- Make a wooden farm or zoo using craft supplies
- Have a garden tea party with your dolls
- Go strawberry picking
- Create a scrapbook each
- Go on a treasure hunt at the beach with metal detectors
- Go rock pooling
- Download printable fun worksheets and do them (take them to school at the beginning of term!)
- Create a holiday shoebox to save everything you’ve done
- Collect shells at the beach
- Have a movie night
- Go to the cinema
- Sleep out in the garden in a tent
- Go camping in a field
- Stay up late and sleep in the living room on a blanket bed
- Make popcorn and watch a film
- Visit the local pottery barn & make something
- Visit Goathland
- Feed the ducks in Pickering
- Visit Mother Shipton’s Cave
- Visit Knaresborough for a day
- Visit Brimham Rocks
- Visit Alton Towers
- Visit the SeaLife Centre
- Visit Peasholm Park
- Play football at the park
- Paint a wall picture outside
- Cover the kitchen floor with paper and design a mini world for cars/trains
- Visit a castle
- Take a day trip
- Visit Whitby
- Go to a country show
- Do some dog training with the puppy
- Make our own lemonade
- Make our own sausage rolls
- Visit Honeysuckle Farm in Hornsea
- Visit The Deep
- Do a car boot and sell some things
- Visit a local museum
- Visit a local art gallery
- Learn to knit with Maw Maw
- Buy some cheap trainers and design our own with fabric pens
- Fill up the paddling pool and spend the day splashing
- Create your own water pillow
- Make a puppet show and perform for Daddy after work
- Have a cultural food night and try something new
- Have a national themed day, learn words from that language & trivia about that country.
- Make some flavoured liqueur for Christmas hampers
- Practice letters on a letter hunt in the garden
- Make a fairy garden
- Make a milk bottle igloo
- Visit a birds of prey centre
- Visit Grandma & Pops
- Go puddle splashing
- Visit the local swimming pool
- Take a day trip to London and visit the British Museum
- Take a day trip to London and visit the Natural History Museum
- Visit Sheffield Tropical park
- Visit Yorkshire Wildlife Park
- Make stick wands & play wizards
- Make a lava pit in the living room
- Make pizzas and watch a movie
- Go on a moon walk at night
- Go on a bird hunt and see how many different birds you can find
- Create some ice art
- Visit York’s Chocolate museum and make our own chocolate
- Make Roald Dahl meals and tell stories all day
- Read a book collection (ours will be Harry Potter)
- Make firework art with paint and straws
- Make some flower bombs and plant them
- Dress up and have a pirate themed day
- Make a mud kitchen out of an old palate
- Create a new recipe
- Make a play dough kitchen
- Make play dough
- Play giant snakes and ladders in the garden
- Take part in a sponsored run, walk or bike ride
- Go on a bike ride with family
- Set off early and go walking on a planned Moor route
- Visit Thornton le Dale for a chocolate milkshake and to feed the ducks
- Spend a day being a photographer and camera man/woman
- Go to Creepy Crawlies or a soft play area
- Visit Clifford’s tower in York
- Visit the Jorvik Centre
- Learn about a historical event (we will be talking about several things)
- Make our own pasta for dinner
- Buy some hair chalks and dye your hair for the day.
- Learn 1-10 times tables
- Have a jelly baff
- Tidy up the front garden
- Visit the new Water Park at Scarborough
- Visit Bolton Abbey
- Visit the Festival of Archaeology between 16th – 31st July
- Check out the new Tree top nets in Lightwater Valley
- Set up a summer blog
- Go Geocatching
- Have a BBQ party
- Visit a trampolining centre
- Learn about a different religion for one day each week, visit a place of worship on each day.
- Go to a local crafting session put on through the holidays (literally all over)
- Have an olympics party
- Learn all about an animal
- Learn and write a poem
- Visit an outdoor theatre
- Enter into a family dog show
- Buy some body paints and go crazy in your swimwear!
- Go to a family disco
- Visit Legoland Manchester for the day
- Visit Cadbury World for the day
- Learn how to make bread
- Visit the local library for a reading session
- Make a flower crown
- Sort through toys/clothes and donate to a local charity shop or women’s shelter
- Sew a teddy bear’s outfit
- Visit a family-friendly festival
- Do an interview with family and friends on a topic of your choice
- Check the relevant curriculum and get a head start using teacher’s online resources
- Make our own cheese
- Make a collage from magazines
- Make some footprint art
- Make something with paper mache
- Make some handprint art
- Give in and go on a Pokemon hunt!!
- Go horse riding
- Go rollerblading
- Go bowling
- Go on a ferry to Amsterdam (not half as expensive as you may think!)
- Make a den in the forest using sticks, leaves and mud
- Visit a circus
- Make a worm house
- Have a movie day and watch films all day
- Have a day learning about Kings & Queens of England
- Learn and paint world flags
- Get some kinetic sand and play with sand on a wet day
- Attach chalk to your bikes and create some artwork!
- Make some animal footprint casts in the local forest
- Write a story
- Make a butterfly farm
- Learn how to juggle or do a circus skill
- Make an ant farm
- Make your own bubble bath or soap
- Make some mocktails and cocktails together
- Do some face painting together (let them do yours!)
- Learn about Vikings and dress up as them
- Design a cartoon character on the iPad (search apps – there are plenty, some paid, some free)
- Make a flicker book (cartoon flicker characters)
- Learn about Romans and dress up as them
- Plant some flowers in the garden – or do some simply gardening
- Make a dream catcher
- Learn how to play chopsticks on the piano
- Make a sun catcher
- Hire a bouncy castle and invite friends over
- Make a go kart
- Make ice cream or your own lollies!
- Play crazy golf
- Go indoor rock climbing
- Go zorbing
- Play foot golf
- Blindfold taste selections – guess what you’re eating (nothing too nasty)
- Have a Lego day – download some stuff to build and go crazy
- Get up REALLY early and visit a fish market (pick your dinner and cook it!)
Enjoy the summer holidays. I really struggle with this, especially as a self employed work from home mum – finding that balance is SO hard – but if you try to look at the holidays as a positive thing, something that lasts for a super short time you can step back from work with planning and enjoy it. I promise you can have a really good time learning, playing AND do it all on a budget.
H x
Amazing! Just what I needed to read. I’m about to start maternity leave for the second time and have been having a mild panic about how to keep my two year-old entertained over the next twelve months. Thanks for this.
Wowwww! What a list! So many fun things here, the makings of a brilliant summer!
Was just wondering what to do over the summer holidays, then stumbled across your list – some great ideas there! 🙂 Already done a few like the York Chocolate Story, for example. You’ll love it there if you haven’t already been.
Here’s to a fun filled summer! 🙂
I’ve been to the cafe but not to the actual museum! Love it!
So many good things to do – might have to steal a few of the ideas x
Thanks Hannah xx
I keep meaning to start making a scrapbook, it’s such a great way to remember what you’ve done and be creative! Such a great and very long list! Hope you have lots of fun ticking things off!
I’m featuring one on the blog tomorrow with a discount code Kira – look out for it 🙂
It’s definitely good to have options! You’re going to have an amazing summer even if you only get through a handful of these ideas 🙂
Haha I went with as many options as possible!
Wow that’s an impressive list, should keep us busy til Christmas haha x
Haha let me know if you do it all 😉
Such a fab bucket list! I really want to do a road trip this summer
WOWZA – this is an epic list. I hope you get to do it all. I’d love to get up early and visit a fish market but summer holidays are for lies in in our house 😀 😀
What an amazing collection of ideas! I know I will definitely be doing a lot of these over the summer! Thank you for taking the time to write them all x
So many great ideas here! I hope you get lots of nice weather to be able to spend as much time outside as possible!
Thanks lovely x
Oh wow! Great ideas. It’s going to be a lot of fun checking these things off the list. This is a great mix of at-home activities and trips.
Thanks Liz – I will be interested to see how many we do!
Wow that is one hell of a bucket list, good luck beginning to tackle that, I’ll be impresed if you get through it all x
I don’t think we’ll even come close, but hey, we will have plenty of options haha!
This is SUCH an amazing list! I am going to be pinning it right now, for days when we just can’t think of anything to do!
Thank you!
Thanks Sarah, that is so kind of you!!
Such a great summer bucket list. Ive done a few of these already and can’t wait to have an awesome summer
Thank you 🙂
What a lovely list of activities filled to the bring, so many I want to do myself. Hope the weather continues being good and I can enjoy some of these
Thanks Anosa, I hope so!!
Wow what an extensive and creative list to have on hand during the summer holidays!
Thanks Sam 🙂
I am quite impressed that you managed to come up with so many summer activities. I think that the dinosaur museum sounds like a lot of fun.
Haha so was I to be honest! I hope we can enjoy most of them!
Wow! That is a long list. I hope you and your family enjoy ticking it off this summer. Great ideas!
Thanks, you too!
I am looking forward to seeing how many of these you manage to make your way through because that is some list x
Thanks Rachel, I think we’ll probably get a good 50 done but no more haha!
Love theese ideas, perfect if you don’t have any plans for the summer! Thank you for sharing x
Thanks Cecilia 🙂
Great list of ideas which are going to be helpful for us to do this summer. We are going to a sea life centre this weekend so something to tick off the list.
Ahhh love it there!
Now this would sure keep you & the kids busy lol which is good. I think Summer holidays are a great time to spend as a family and to get things done, explore and there’s more things to do activity wise. I sometimes feel sorry for the kids around my way cos they don’t do much come the summer holiday but kick footballs at everybody’s cars 😥 mine included lol! xo
Oh no! That is awful, I hate to think of kids being badly behaved because they are so bored and have nothing to do. What happened to entertaining yourself in a safe, respectful manner… in your garden or a local center!!
Wow! Fab list. This will be great for those days when you are really struggling to know what to do.
Ahhh thanks doll xx