text: Entertaining the children during summer holidays on a budget - Closer Online
  Entertain the kids on a budget during the summer holidays!
  Summer family days out needn't cost a fortune. Here's our guide to some of the fun and quirky things you can get up to on a budget during the summer holidays...
  If you like many of us didn't manage to get your hands on tickets to the Olympics, soak up the atmosphere at one of the various BT London live sites. These include Hyde Park, Victoria Park and Trafalgar Square, where all the sports and live music is broadcast via massive screens. For further info visit www.btlondonlive.com.
  Are you a culture vulture or keen for your children to keep up their educational learnings whilst on holiday? There are plenty of free museums and to visit such as The Science Museum, The Natural History Museum, Bradford's National Media Museum, Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum and Glasgow's people palace. For more visit www.visitlondon.com/kids and www.museums.co.uk.
  Kid's week has been running since 1998 and is an organisation that helps keep children entertained during the summer holidays. During the month of August, children go free to a massive range of participating theatre shows, when accompanied by a paying adult. There are further free events and workshops on offer- just check out www.kidsweek.co.uk!
  Fancy learning tennis for free? TFF offer 50 weeks of free tennis lessons to children and young people across the UK. They work with schools and local authorities to promote the benefits of playing tennis, and their website offers access to information on free tennis courts, tennis equipment and coaching across the country. Visit www.tennisforfree.com for further information.
  Does your child fancy themselves as the next Beckham? Tesco runs free taster sessions lead by their skills team coaches during the summer holidays. These are introductory lessons to the programmes they run for children of all ages, as part of their mission to promote healthy lifestyle awareness. Find out more at www.tescoskills.thefa.com.
  Have you brought up a nature lover? There are an abundance of farms and wildlife trails and sanctuaries which are free to visit. These include London's Dean City Farm and Hackney City Farm, Leicestershire's National Forest Cycle Centre, Kent's Oare Gunpowder Works country park and the Redwings Horse Sanctuary in Norfolk and Essex.
  Festivals and shows are a wonderful way of enjoying your city. Check out the following free festivals in your area: Manchester's Caribbean festival, London's Notting Hill carnival, Eastbourne's International Airshow, Faversham's Hop festival, Edinburgh's international book festival, Wales's Big Cheese festival and Cardiff's Summer Festival. INSIDE
  If it's raining going to the cinema is a good option.
  Vue Cinemas have children's films showing on Saturdays and Sundays and every day in the school holidays for just £1.50 per child (one adult per child goes free, 3D films are £2.75). Odeon Kids shows films on Saturdays and Saturdays and many also run them in the school holidays from £2.50 (one adult per child goes free again). Meanwhile, Cineworld runs Movies For Juniors at many of its cinemas on Saturday and Sunday mornings (it hasn't extended this to school holidays), where adults and children pay £1 apiece.
  FOR THE YOUNGER ONES
  Junk Modelling: Get hold of old cereal/egg boxes etc and make something. All you need is glue, paint and a vivid imagination.
  Photo Shoot: Get the kids to dress up and model for a photo shoot. They can use dressing up stuff, their own clothes or even mum and dads clothes!
  Indoor hunt: Devise an indoor treasure hunt. You can be as elaborate as you like either hiding rhyming clues around the house leading to one another and the eventual prize or a simple treasure hunt idea is to mark wooden pegs with different coloured dots and peg around the house. Each coloured dot equals a different number of points and the child with the most points wins a prize (or everyone who gets over a certain number wins a prize).
  Make instruments: Make your own instruments. Tissue boxes and elastic bands make good guitars, paper plates with milk bottle tops make tambourines and dried rice or pasta in bottles or tins make good maracas and shakers. You can even bang pan lids with wooden spoons for drums. Then shake, rattle and roll to some upbeat music!