During the various holiday periods throughout the year and weekends, as parents its unsurprising that you want to make the most of that extra time you have to spend with the kids. The trouble is you may find yourself stuck for ideas as to what you should do, particularly if you have a tight budget. However, the truth is that great days out with the family do not have to be expensive, as you will find in the following article.
Organise a Teddy Bear Picnic
Although this will not really suit older children, if you have young children you could organise a teddy bear picnic at the local city or national park. You could invite a few of their friends and encourage them to bring their own teddy bears along. As most national and city parks are free to enter, the only cost to you directly will be the food for the picnic, but if you all have a share in bringing some of the food along, you will save some money. Remember to really let your hair down and pretend with the children that the bears are really alive and love playing games and singing.
Spend an Adventurous Day Out
If you want to get out and about in the countryside with your children but don’t want to pay some tour company lots of money for the privilege, you don’t have to. Instead, get the family bike and head out in the car to one of the many bike trails and get some exercise while seeing nature more up close. To add a bit of drama and friendly competition into the day’s proceedings you could hold mini races between you, your partner and children as a family. Obviously you don’t want your children to think that winning is everything, but by introducing the competitive element you help to ensure that your children will enjoy the exercise better.
Nature Walks and Rambles
There are very places in the UK where you are not very far away from some stunning and scenic countryside. With this in mind, a great way to enjoy a cheap day out with your children would be to head out on a nature walk. Be sure to take lots of photos and give your children notebooks to enable them to list all the plants, animals and insects as you walk. You can also encourage them to collect interesting mementos from their day out such as pine cones, feathers, stones and other things that they could use to fill a scrapbook or use in craft projects at home.
To put a different spin on this type of cheap day out you could draft up a bingo card to give to your children that instead of numbers features pictures of the different things they are likely to see on the walk. Not only will this prevent boredom from settling in as they keep their eyes peeled for things to mark off on their card, it will stop their legs from feeling so tired.
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