School holidays... beating the bordom

Ok guys this is where i need you to put your thinking caps on as i am about out of ideas.

The problem: What to do with the kids over the 6 weeks holidays that cost no money what so ever and doesn't involve any types of travel other than walking.Something unusaul would help too as the things i have planned we do anyway whether its the holidays or not

what i have so far:
Going to the park..
Going to the museum
Going for a walk along side the cananal
Dress up Pirate day for my youngests birthday(5th august just incase your in the area and fancy popping in. can not afford a party of any kind so have decided to do it this way)
And usual Arts and crafts stuff


i really can not think of anything else to do and they are already complaining about the fact that they are going to be bored stupid over the holidays. *sigh* i know i don't need to do something special every day..

Suggest summer school...

that'll shut them up...

i would but they know there are non around

Teach them to clean chimneys? There don't seem to be enough sweeps about these days. Bloomin' rights for children and employment laws....

How are they going to go off and meet the Waterbabies if they're not allowed to go cleaning chimneys?

how about playing outside with friends? I used to do that most summers... climbing dirt hills, playing football, exploring burnt-out cars (no I'm NOT suggesting that one, I remember my mum not liking it very much), playing in the woods or at playgrounds, swimming in lakes, making up our own games...

also our town used to have a summer programme for kids, which was quite cool. There was stuff on every week, usually for free. Check out the libraries, we used to go there to listen to kids' authors reading from their books.

Juggling is a good one, too, if they don't already know that... 3 balls kept me happy (/very annoyed) for weeks!

Give them some of your poi and tell them to go nuts with them.

Birgit i wish there were more things in this damn town that they could do that doesn't cost money. They have play scheems that cost £1 per child per session !!! with two sessions a day, ie morning then after dinner. I do try and and get my oldest to play out side with his mates but 9 times out of ten it all ends in hasstle from the narrow minded bully's that live in the area, infact last holiday my oldest got pushed off his skate board and had it pinched. my youngest isn't old enough to play outside onhis own yet. I know what you mean though, it did seem as though school holidays were easier when i was a kid our parents obviousley felt that we were safer back then as i remember not coming back till tea time on occasions. In the area where i live 13 year olds threaten other children with knives for fun and for phones. Thanks for recomending looking down the library they may have some more info that i have not got, and i had forgotten about that place.

Cantus they would get stuck in the bars of the gas fire but agreed they should meet the water babies I that book. oh and film.

Joe that would be a bad idea they would kill each other. although they do practice alot especialy CJ

I'm trying to think of thingsi used to do when i was little but can't remember much other than going camping with the family... which i hated

When my mum was a childminder she had the same problem- often us kids would end up playing together, but sometimes she'd entertain us.

I remember one of the best things we did was make our own bread. We made ours into hedgehog shapes using currants for eyes and using scissors to cut the dough into spikes before putting it in the oven. I found this recipe which might be ok

Also, making your own pizza, or just making a pizza base.

I also noticed Sam is quite a cool looking dude how about getting him to make some jewellery out of some leather or a shoe lace and some nuts, washers, etc. It might look crap but it might look ok its worth a go!

here's how to make your own canned food stilts! which could be fun, and then spend a while learning to walk on them, or have races!

When i was younger i liked playing croquet outside with my folks, we had a cheap plastic set but it was fun

me and my brothers used to have fun with these too!

why not get the kids to make their own little boats too and then race them down a river if you have them nearby?

i hope these ideads help froggy!!

Are there any steep hills with grassy slopes nearby? Cardboard boxes sliding down hills is some of the best fun EVER (until evil councils ban it and put a $110 fine on the activity! But until they did that I had many years of hill sliding fun!)

maybe a scavenger hunt? you could write a list of things the little tackers need to find, go on a walk and find them!

painting rocks - one large one, or a whole bunch of small ones - make themg o outside and find an unusual rock - that reminds them of something...

Ok, trying to avoid sounding like a geek here, BUT...

I'm supposed to run lower school science club this year and the budget is VERY small, so if your kids are interested in that kind of stuff I can probably email you loads of crazy little prject type things that can be done on a shoestring from my file (extracting visible DNA using kitchen ingredients is a good one, kitchen crystal growing, tissue paper (old newspaper may work) hot air balloons 2 meters high)

PM me if you think they'd like this kinda stuff, if not, will keep thinking...

go up to enzors pool its nice up there in the summer take fishing nets and see if you catch anything

also camp in the back garden, you may hate it but you have 2 boys and they would love it,

you could always search the internet for things to do in nuneaton as it has a lot of history there and isnt as boring as you think

and find out if the town center is going to have any street entertainers this year, its a shame the carnival has already been and gone.

council house will have info of whats in the area during the holidays theres sometimes nature walks and stuff up at enzors they even do bat watching some nights in the summer its dead weird.

also i think the old fossil farm is still up by enzors pool i loved that when a kid we went up with school and found fossils and drew the houses in bermuder village and theres the griff hollows woods up new hilltop area. and beyond the woods is the white house that years ago burnt down and is meant to be haunted we went there as kids all the time and kids love the fact of something strange lol

im jus remembering what i used to do in nuneaton as a kid

Penny Hikes.

Take a penny, go on a walk, and ever corner toss the corner as to which way you turn

learn sleight of hand coin magic it tends to blow a lot of time, and in the end you can screw with peoples heads

Ping me.

see this is why i posted it on here its great to get some fresh ideas from people. You guys rock

jo_rhymes Thank you there are some fantastic ideas there especialy the jewellery idea. we have loads of 'junk' that would be good for that and both i think would love it. Sam is also at the satge where he's breaking out of the mould and wants to look individual so we could do some customising of clothes.... hehe we could have a PIMP MY CLOTHES day

Rouge Dragon thats a great idea and there is one quite good one not too far away.(not the one i tried running down for those who have heard) and if i get the banana box's when i go shopping they can decorate them first and i would never of thought about penny hikes

Ade Ooooooooooooh a pirate one would be just the thing

polythene that sounds wicked PM on the way

dani_babyboo cheers i have never been to enzors don't even know where it is (goes off to find out) and yeah the carnivals already been and gone, although did take them. and it s getting worse every year

polarity considder your self pinged lol was going to invite you down anyway... Morgan is missing you as are we all. And i had strict instructions to invite you down for morgans birthday.

which the invite is open to all. great excuse to dress like a pirate

I'd better start working out, so I can carry my rucksack in this stupid heat

get a donkey... or a camel

we do have quite an old side to the town and in the museum there are loads of things for the kids to do, like dress up, piece the bits of broken pot together etc and the learn all about George Eliot too as she came from just down the road and is a huge part of the museum dedicated to her work

all george eliots books are based on nuneaton but your boys are to young to accept the areas yet,

enzors pool is if you go up hilltop and down the black path from the park, over the bridge that goes over the bedworth bypass near the eliot hospital bermuda village will be on your left, carry on right and it will bring you to an entrance of enzors pool over a hill, you have boys they can climb lol. theres other ways too

also theres another lake called the new pool easeir to get to i used to swim in it although it had jus been dug when i swam there as a kid. if you nstead go left down bermuda village you can walk through the village past the club the the end and theres a lake down there also the houses there are beautiful my mum grew up there in number 57 i love it there
havent been in years though. really should go. im coming up for a weekend in august to pick my eldest up if you havent gone by then il take you over there if you want to the newpool and enzors

just let me know

Thanks i am going to see if i can get up there this week while i can blag a lift (even bus fare is more thani can afford) and i'm going to find the local green tracks too.

Can you sign them up to do some voluntary work? OK, they're probably a bit young for that, but some voluntary work can be fun (stuff like conservation, getting outdoors and muddy e.t.c.)

Thats actually part of something i want to get set up in this town asat the moment there are non. although they do help out with the veggies and other gardening

It's possible to make a decorated puppet theatre with cardboard boxes and fabric or wallpaper, and puppets are easy enough to make from socks and stuff or other fabrics. I used to love making puppet shows when I was their age. A good source of fabrics/paper is from curtaining/furnishing/wallpaper shops. They often have old catalogues they will give away.

Also your kids are old enough for card games and board games. The old fashioned stuff! Charity shops often have them really cheaply (also jigsaws) Is there a toy library in your town? Sometimes councils have them for childminders and they might let you join.
I don't know whether online games are possible with your internet connection.. Neopets is a good site.

Fill glasses or bottles with varying amounts of water and add some food colouring. It takes a while to figure out various music scales and play tunes on them by tapping with teaspoons. Meanwhile the coloured water looks really pretty. If you have a tape recorder you can record the tunes and play them back. That about trebles the time involved in playing things.

Rag mats are good to make.. cut strips of old fabric, plait them into long long strips then sew them in spirals. You can make bath mats and floor mats, and it takes ages. Again, the colours make it fun and you can really use them.
Hugs to you
Gabe

Maybe you can get the school to send some extra homework

love you lady you always manage to make me smile

great idea about the puppet show, Morgan loves things like that and is totaly addicted to pirates and dino's. they are easy to make

get em a bag of clay, its reeeeeeeeeally cheap like $2 oz for a huuuuuuge bags worth, best of all if you dont like what you made you can mash it up and start again.

How about when I come over we do a bit of geocaching (1, 2)

Adventures, they're the ticket. Some of our resident spectaculars have already forked ovre some ideas I'm going to play with mine own self, and I say trinkets.
What do you think of an expidition to hide some natty little things in odd spots around your urban wilderness for someone yet unknown to come across and be pleased?