The school vacation days can be quite overwhelming for parents, can’t they? Weeks and weeks ahead, with no clue how to keep children of varying ages occupied and happily so. Sometimes, parents don’t get the chance to be out of work with their kids, so it’s up to summer camps and sitters to keep them occupied. The good news though, is that if you’re a parent that is fortunate enough to stay at home and take care of the kids, there is plenty that you can do to keep the kids occupied, happy and fulfilled in the many sunny weeks ahead of you all until you get to the new school year all over again.

What you need is a breakdown of things that you can do to give your kids the summer vacation that they will always remember. With the tips below, you can keep everyone in the family happy without busting your bank account to do it.

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Staying At Home

If you aren’t going to be getting out too much – whether that’s due to the weather or to funds – you need some ideas of what you can do around the home. You can do something nice with the garden to make it an appropriate and fun place to play, and you can use these ideas below for doing things inside.

• Movie day – everyone grabs a duvet and takes turns choosing a film. You can also have someone nominate a snack, whether that’s flavoured homemade popcorn or rice crispy cereal snacks.
• Cooking lessons – children don’t just learn at school, they learn with their hands at home as well. Have a few days teaching the kids to make their own recipes and give them total control over what they cook. It’s exciting, messy and they learn something new.
• Build a den – get as many boxes and materials as possible with the kids and start a den-building competition. You could all be judges and choose to rate each den out of ten, before making one big super den!

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Going Out

You may decide to get out of the house as much as possible during the summer break, which means you are all soaking up the sun and getting a good amount of exercise.

• Going away – book a vacation away with the kids for a few days if funds allow. You can sort this much earlier in the year so that the cost is spread and doesn’t take you everything that you have in the bank to make it happen.
• Treasure Hunt – organise a treasure hunt in the back yard or the neighbourhood. You can rope in their friends, too, and organise a prize for those who solve the puzzle.
• Camp out – just because your kids haven’t gone to summer camp, doesn’t mean you can’t have a summer camp in your own backyard. Pitch a tent, get a fire going and cook up some tasty s’mores. Where the weather doesn’t help, you can always migrate back inside!

Make this summer the most memorable yet!