Many thanks to everyone who's taken the time to send us their ideas for keeping the children entertained for the summer.

Out and About - Outdoors

"The secret to surviving the summer is variety. It is easy to rely on doing the same things, going to the same park, visiting the same people or sitting the kids in front of the TV. Kids get bored of routine so every now and again they need to do something a little different. Here are a few ideas:

• instead of taking the car, try using the bus or local train;
• instead of going to the local park, visit parks that you have not been to before. Take a picnic and make a day of it!
• become a member to your local zoo so that you can come and go as you please;
• visit National Trust or botanical gardens - children love to run around and explore;
• take up camping, kids love it, it's affordable, you can decide to go at the last minute and you can also fit lots of short holidays into one summer rather than the standard two week break;
• make a note of phone numbers of parents from School or Nursery that you don't know that well. It's always nice to get to know more people and on those rainy days you can phone around and you're almost guaranteed to find some one else who does not know what to do with their kids that day.

With three children I have found that the secret is to plan ahead and say 'tomorrow we will' rather than 'what shall we do today'."

"When travelling distances put small items e.g. crayons, colouring books, small cars and rattles in a small box at the back of the car. Older children can then help the youngsters."

"My idea for keeping the children entertained is to take my son to the park when the weather is nice, with a picnic and a bucket of spade! He soon meets lots of new friends and usually so do I. I spend about five hours in the sun, and he thoroughly enjoys himself."

"Look out for local summer games clubs - maybe at your local sports centre, tennis club or football club"

"This summer try a trip to Conkers near Ashby in Leicestershire. This is a fantastic park with lots of educational and fun things both inside and out (including an assault course for teenagers and adults which my five and three year old love!)."

"Ash House End Farm in Middleton Tamworth is a fantastic place to spend a day with young children."

"Get together with friends and take a picnic to the park or a local beauty spot. It's much more fun if there are a few of you and you can take a ball for a kick around afterwards. For younger children you could make it a teddy bear's picnic."

"We love to travel down to the coast in the holidays but the getting there bores the kids, so I make two goodie bags and pin them to the backs of the car seats, then every so often I let the kids have a dip in the bags. You only have to use cheap bits and pieces and the difference it makes is unbelievable."

"For a great day out and excellent value for money go to Drusillas Zoo in Alfriston, East Sussex. It is relatively inexpensive and you can easily spend the day there as there is so much to do, including a water and sand area, bouncy castle, 1000 types of different animals, train rides and an adventure playground for ages."

"We go to the beach/woods with a picnic on a fine day spend all day having fun and collecting interesting objects. These range from stones, shells, bits of wood, seaweed, sand - you get the idea! The following few days we spend making pictures and models with the items we have found and playing memory games. One trip to the beach keeps the kids going for a few days all without me spending a penny!"

"My recommendation for the kids over the summer is to get an English Heritage membership card for the family. It gains you free entry to there hundreds of sites from castles to forts. You also get free entry to the events so your child can act like a Roman soldier or go on a teddy bears picnic. Some places also have children's activity sheets and great gift shops where you can get fun and educational gifts for great prices. They are sited all over the country and you get half price admission into CADW properties of Wales, the Historic Scotland sites and Isle of Man sites Manx sites. This becomes free entry on your second year."

Out and About - under cover!

"Fun City, Skinner Street, Stockton-on-Tees, 01642-607931 - Fun City is an indoor activity centre open year round and during the summer holidays from 10.00am - 7.00pm. Entry is £2.60 per child. Mother and toddler sessions are early afternoon and include free refreshments.

The play area consists of a large climbing frame structure having two levels, one for toddlers and one for under 16's. There are ball pools, a trampoline and enclosed chutes. For older children the difficulty increases as does the fear factor, with the slide an almost sheer drop,landing in a ball pool. My 4 year old son holds no fear and enjoyed the vertical wall to climb up (this is about 6 foot) and the swinging ropes was a great favourite too!

Fun City has a cafe for parents,and the toilets and baby changing facilities are on a par with most super markets.

As with many other parents I spoke too this is a value for money experience, and I like other parents, had to bribe my son Ryan to leave!"

Alan

"If it's raining why not try your local museum as most of them are now free, including those in the heart of London."

"Look up 'drama classes/music classes' in your local paper / listings magazine. They are organised for much younger children than you may realise - really a form of structured play - and once they get the bug they will want to keep on going. Although many run through school terms times they often also run summer workshops"

"Lots of my local council owned museums and libraries run children's activity days during the summer holidays, these are all free and the children usually have stories and make things. Lots of shopping centres organise free entertainment for children too. The Skopos Mill Village in Batley (West Yorkshire) had magicians and entertainers every week last year."

"Our library has arranged a summer reading challenge - the children receive a card and each time they take out a book they complete the card to say whether or not they liked it and are given stickers to decorate the card with. If they complete 6 books during the break they are awarded a special medal during assembly when they return to school - the stickers and medal prove to be a good incentive to get them to continue to read during the break."

"My tip for the long school holidays is to find the nearest sports centre and find out what activities they are offering. The ones local to me in Lancashire are offering a variety of activities such as bouncy castles, face painting and magic shows aimed at under 5's and tennis, swimming, horse riding etc aimed at ages up to 16. I have booked my son and daughter on 1 weeks tennis camp, 1 week of variety water activities (canooing, snorkelling etc) and 4 days of Road Safety Bike riding. It has cost £28 each in total which I personally think is great value for money!"

"Make one of the traditions for the summer holiday a visit to a grandparent or relative who would enjoy a few days of entertaining the child. My daughters both enjoyed a week with their grandmother in Somerset when she devoted the entire week to doing things with whichever one was staying with her. My elder daughter thinks it will be an excellent tradition for her boys as they get older."

If you'd like to share you own ideas please email the site at contributions@forparentsbyparents.com