Mumbler Summer Survival Tips

The Summer holidays are looming and I’m sure many of you are panicking at the prospect of 6 weeks of entertainment and juggling childcare.

While some children will be happy with a paddling pool and an ice lolly in the garden (like my youngest), others need constant entertainment and activities (otherwise they will be glued to a screen, like my eldest).  We’ve put together some handy tips on how to survive the long 6 weeks….

 

Preparation

I’ve had many summer holiday days never really knowing what to do, and then not actually doing anything with them at all – usually resulting in siblings bickering, me losing my temper and feeling like we wasted a day. So, try and be prepared before the holidays start – I get a calendar with a section for each of us and start pencilling in ideas in advance. Do some research on things to do in the area, how much they cost etc.  Have a look on the Mumbler ‘school holiday ideas section here and find out what’s going on when, then anything you fancy, pop it on your calendar.

If you are working and need childcare, or if you just need a day to yourself with the kids fully entertained, check the Holiday Clubs & Camps page here, there are some excellent ones this year. My son asked to go to golf camp and to football camp for a day each, my daughter asked to go to flex dance camp for a week, so I have planned days when they are both in camp and I can work/catch up on household stuff and days when just one is in so I can do something with just the other one.

Family Brainstorm – Get the kids together and talk about what everyone would like to do over summer, write down some ideas and make a list.  You can categorise them into expensive days out, low-cost activities, and free stuff like a trip to the park, or meeting up with friends. They can even choose to have a day at home, with a theme or activity.

A great way to utilise this list is to put all the ideas into a jar (have a jar for each category), then each day a child can pick one out, and that is your activity for that day. It doesn’t always work and sometimes the kids don’t want to do what they pick out, or the weather might not be appropriate, but sometimes it’s just a fun way of getting them involved in deciding what’s going to happen that day.

Budgeting

We all know entertaining kids can be expensive, so don’t spend everything you have in the first week – try and spread the budget evenly over the 6 weeks. Any activities that require a big spend can be spaced evenly throughout the 6 weeks, then fill the gaps with free days out, and other low-cost activities. Depending on how many kids you have will determine how much you spend – a trip to the cinema for a family of 4 is now around £30 – so for us that would be one of the main ‘spending’ events. See below for our top tips

Try New Things – Most kids have their favourite things they like to do, but they love to try new things too, so each week why not try and squeeze in something you’ve never done before or go somewhere you’ve never been.  It doesnt have to cost anything – How about following that little footpath you see on your way to school and find out where it goes or find a new park or beach to go to. We found many new green spaces and tracks during lockdown just by wandering about in our local area and following footpaths that we’d never been down. The kids still talk about the exploring we did during that time, and the new little places we found to visit.  Google maps is also a great resource for seeing what’s in your local area.

Having a Bad Day? Get Some Exercise and Fresh Air. I find that if my kids are being particularly annoying and grouchy, the best thing to do is to just get them outside.  Put some drinks and snacks in a bag and go for a walk, take the scooters, or get on the bikes. Even if it is just around the block, or up and down your street, I can guarantee everyone will be in a better mood when you get back home.  This works especially well for grumpy teenagers, sometimes they just need to talk, and walking and talking is a better for them than staying indoors. I have often bribe mine with ‘if we walk all the way around there we will pass MacDonalds on the way back in and you can have a MacFlurry!’.

Friends. If your kids are school age, they will more than likely miss their friends over the Summer, so make sure you get the relevant phone numbers from the other Mums before they break off, then arrange to meet up at the park, or invite their friends over to play and have a picnic.  Class Whatsapp groups are very popular now, so find out if your class has one and join the group, then it’s much easier to arrange a get together for the kids. I try to arrange a few ‘swaps’ – I have one child’s friend for the day, them their parents have my child at theirs later in the holiday.

 

Staying at Home & Free Activities

There are plenty of ways to keep the kids entertained at home, or in the local area –

1. Water. On a hot day, children love to play with water in the garden. If you don’t have a paddling pool, just fill up some bowls and cups (plastic ones!) and let them mess around.  My kids just like throwing water at each other anyway, so it keeps them busy for a good while.  You can even take some paint brushes outside and let them ‘paint’ the walls with water.
2. Toys. I have found that kids don’t play with their toys if they are just ‘there’. My experience is that if you try and tidy their toys away, they will suddenly find them interesting again and want to play.  Or if you move them to a different location in the house, they somehow see them in a new light.  Try moving toys around the house or put them in the garden if it’s a nice day, it might just encourage them to play with them again.
3. Baking. Ingredients for baking buns and cakes are relatively low cost, and children love to make things they can eat. There are plenty of simple recipes online for things to bake (and it also saves you the bother of thinking what to serve for pudding after tea.)
4. Crafts. Children love to be creative, and Mumbler has a full article on crafts to do at home, as well as lots of other ideas (it’s called Rainy Days Ideas, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be raining!)
5. Gardening. For the price of a few packets of seeds, you can grow your own fruit and veg for the summer. You don’t need a big space, I did this in pots outside the back door last year, but watering and checking the plants, harvesting and using it gives us something to do almost daily.
6. Scavenger Hunt. You can do this at home, or outside. At home, write a list, or for very young children create a picture list of things they need to find; it can be things like ‘something red’, ‘something with wheels’, ‘soft toy’, ‘socks’ etc, and the kids must find all the items within a set time.  If you wanted to go for a walk, you could look for certain house numbers, or find a house with a name instead of a number.  Look for insects and bugs, types, or colours of flowers – you can just make it up with what you know.
7. Local Parks. Quite a few parks in Hull have free access to paddling pools, West Park, East Park, Pickering Park and Bude Park all have paddling pools that are usually open during the summer holidays. We have a long list of the parks in the Hull and East Riding area here. If your kids are bored of your nearest park, try one a bit further away and give them a change.
8. Geocaching. This is a great way to get out and go exploring, just download the app and find out what’s hiding in your area. There is a whole community of ‘Geocachers’ out there hiding little boxes and containers, and some have toys in (that you can swap with one of your own toys) and notes that you can sign to prove you found it, some can be quite tricky to locate!

For more low-cost ideas, there is a full article here ‘Free things to do in Hull & East Yorks’, and there are LOADS more Days Out ideas here.

Remembering the Summer

It does seem like a long time stretching ahead of us but I usually find I blink and its September and we’re panicking about buying uniform that I forgot to get and hunting for the packed lunch boxes again. So gather the memories while you go along –

Make a Summer Scrap Book.  We started doing this a few years ago, and it’s a fun way to remember the days out you’ve had, or even the days at home.  Save little mementos from things you’ve done or take photos and print them.  Then at the end of each week create scrapbook pages as a memory.  You can use all sorts of scrap paper, stickers, and felt tip pens to draw or write messages; decorate the page with little notes and reminders of what you did, and make sure you record the date too.  It’s a lovely way to talk with the kids about what you’ve been doing, and what they enjoyed, or didn’t enjoy.  And it will be nice to look back on in future years.

 

Wishing you all a happy and enjoyable Summer!