School Summer holidays - Entertainment ideas!

Its the third day of my DS summer holidays, & already he has uttered the immortal words - I'm bored! I am so sure the person who invented the summer holiday didnt have children! Why else would they give them 6 flaming weeks off - if not to drive their parents bonkers! DS is nearly 5, & finished his pre-school now, so I have got to try to entertain him for 6 weeks before school in September. We live very rurally so have to travel to most things, & the nearest big town or city is miles away. So we need to find things we can do locally.

Lots of us in this position I guess, so lets post up some ideas to entertain the kids this summer. We've got swimming, the park, soft play area, treasure hunts etc lined up, any more ideas?

picnics? Inviting friends to play.
Garden activities - treasure hunts, skittles, races, anything with water!
Gardening

Im not in this position yet, as Daughter is in a private day nursery until Aug 13th and then she has 3 weeks of holidays (1 week with Grand Parents, 1 week with me and Hubby and then 1 week with just Hubby as I have to return to work )
We will have this next year though!

All of the above, especially the water one. My kids used to have so much fun playing with water. And picnics don't need to be taken on long walks they can just be in the garden. I used to make 'picnic tea' which was just a blanket in the garden with finger food & friends, they loved this.

Or baking, very messy but it can take a long while especially if you make something like biscuits & have shapes to cut the biscuits out with.

Horrendous isnt it? At school, they are the focal point all the time, with endless stimulation. Then suddenly - swoosh - that rug is pulled from under them, & its all gone!

Some good ideas here, love the camping one! Must get a tent! I need to find some activities he can do on his own too, & ones that will keep him amused on his own for more than a couple of minutes! Much as I'd like to, I just cant play all day long with him, jobs have to be done. He's not that interested in painting or crafty stuff, & I'm not wild about him spending lots of time on his DS, so keep the ideas coming...! All very welcome. x

fill a huge box with blown up balloons. Wrap it in paper. put it somewhere for them to find and open. Lots of fun throwing.bursting.jumping on etc etc etc.

One of my Daughter's favourite stories used to be the "Bear Hunt"...we would pack a picnic and go for a walk, pretending to look for a bear and then have the picnic before finding the bear and running!
Building dens is always a good one too!

is he old enough to ride a bike yet? (im a bit rubbish at this kind of this he might be way too young lol) you could take him on a bike ride? or if he's using stabilisers you could spend a couple of days trying to get him off them maybe? xx

My 12 year old enjoys designing things so he just gets all the cardboard boxes and designs everything from buildings, airplanes and cars. He also is into origamy (making objects from paper). It also entertains my little ones (4 and 3) cutting things for him and painting things to add to the designs. Maybe they'll come out with a masterpiece one of these days and make us rich

You may also want to contact your local council as many days they do free activities for kids at local gyms or leisure centres.

Local libraries often have kids activities on during the hols as do national trust properties and the like.

Its the end of our 1st day and the girls have had a major falling out ( age 6 and 10) and I am already on the vino !!!!