11 Plus Exams Forum

Any ideas of activities or days out this holiday suitable for a 12 year boy and not costing the earth as everything i suggest is boring. All he seems to want to do is play ps3 thanks

How about ten pin bowling for just 1p each? We always do this in the holidays. As long as you book online & start play between 9 & 9.30 its just 1p each. Each lane takes 6 people so although there are only 4 of us we book for 6 so the kids can have 2 games each. You usually get given vouchers for food/drink as well. Just make sure that if its booked & you change your mind you cancel it or else you get charged full price to your card. https://www.hollywoodbowl.co.uk/news.php?id=103

Some cinemas do cheap deals. Our local is an Odeon & they have Kids Club for £2.50 each child & an adult goes for free. A lot of the films are ok for 12 yr olds (I have an 11 yr old who goes every week)

Something a bit different which we've tried is geocaching. In effect a high tech treasure hunt. You need a gps for this but lots of phones have them or a car sat nav can work. Go to http://www.geocaching.com/ put in your postcode & hundreds of caches will come up with coordinates. You have to try to find them (some are very difficult puzzles which we leave well alone) then sign a little log book in the cache, take a little something out of the box & put something back in, then log it online. It can become quite addictive especially if you start placing some yourself. My two love it & its particularly good when on holiday as it can take you off the beaten track to places we would never have found on our own.

geocaching - we had a go during the summer, mine loved it. We didn't use gps, just read the clues and set off treasure hunting. Mind you it was in areas we knew well. It's amazing to think all these things are hidden around the countryside.
Also swimming is free in most places now for children, so far my boys have been all 4 days and it hasn't cost a penny!

wonderwoman wrote:geocaching - we had a go during the summer, mine loved it. We didn't use gps, just read the clues and set off treasure hunting. Mind you it was in areas we knew well. It's amazing to think all these things are hidden around the countryside.

Just been out with DC's this morning and found 4 all within an easy walk of the house. Now DC2 wants to set one of our own up - should keep him quiet for a couple of hours

My son is being just like that! Today we dragged him to London but for less expensive things try:
Bike riding in a local park
Swimming at a pool-oftern they have speical times with big inflatable floats desingned for older children.
Visit the library-they always have good events on in holidays.
Get him to invite friend round-keep him busy.
Book out a tennis court-£5 for two hours at our local one.
Hope this helps!

wonderwoman wrote:Also swimming is free in most places now for children, so far my boys have been all 4 days and it hasn't cost a penny!

We were so looking forward to swimming being free for the under 16s. Unfortunately our local council decided to offer the free swimming to over-60s only. GRRRRR!
It means that even if we pretend our skinny 4-year-old is only 2, therefore free, that a swim session for two adults, a 12 year-old and 15 year-old, the cost is £18. Yes, £18!
We therefore don't go very often which makes me sad. What's really galling is that most of our elderly neighbours hate swimming and would never, ever go, so who the free swimming is benefitting, I really don't know.
Sorry, rant over.

Why, it's benefitting the council of course, because now they don't have to pay out anywhere near as much as if they gave the grant to the children - who WOULD use it

We don't have it for our kids (or OAP's) either

We have it for kids which is great, but I was very disgruntled that I still had to pay 2.80 for the mother and toddler session as I'm not free!! Protestations that the M and T group was precisely what should be benefitting from the initiative and that I could hardly sent her by herself fell on deaf ears.

The geocache thing sounds great, thanks.

Last week as the weather was awful I looked into ten pin bowling at our two nearest venues and for two adults and two children to have two games each would have been £28 at one venue and £37.40 at the other! That's without the petrol to get to both and a drink when there 'cos you can't take your own!

Don't get me started on swimming ..................

I thought we wanted our children to get fit and healthy - the cheapest thing to do indoors seems to be to hire a video!!!

Actually one of the local football clubs runs community courses - if your child likes football they are brilliant - DS's both on one this week for four days 10.00 a.m. - 3.00 p.m. £37 each child. They are fully supervised, do skills in the morning and tournament in the afternoon and the children love it - you see the same children going back time after time. My DS's always want to do it and they spend the day running around outside too.

Sorry rant over

rosered100 wrote:Something a bit different which we've tried is geocaching. In effect a high tech treasure hunt. You need a gps for this but lots of phones have them or a car sat nav can work. Go to http://www.geocaching.com/ put in your postcode & hundreds of caches will come up with coordinates. You have to try to find them (some are very difficult puzzles which we leave well alone) then sign a little log book in the cache, take a little something out of the box & put something back in, then log it online. It can become quite addictive especially if you start placing some yourself. My two love it & its particularly good when on holiday as it can take you off the beaten track to places we would never have found on our own.

We tried Geocaching for the first time today and the children loved it! I was amazed at how many caches are hidden within walking distance of our home. A real hit and its free!