Half Term Bargains

Best Half-Term Activities

Blink and half-term is upon us again, and for those with children and grandchildren trying to find some way to keep them amused throughout the break can sometimes seem like a major headache when trying to plan your finances. While having little ones will always seem like a constant spending activity we have compiled some our favourite free or lost cost days-out to keep your little monsters amused over the next two weeks!

A History Walk Round London
While the idea of trying to get children to walk round London for a prolonged time may seem like quite a big ask, say the words treasure hunt and you’ll have no problems at all.
For those that don’t live in Central London, throughout the half-term C2C is offering a train travel deal for children; if you travel on a weekday in off-peak times children aged 5-15 can get a return rail ticket for £2 per child when travelling with an adult (up to 2 children per fare paying adult) and children aged 4 and under travel for free.
For a simple sight-seeing day, print off a simple map from the internet and highlight keys points (Tower of London, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, etc.), pack up some pens and wrap up warm. Then get your little ones to walk round London trying to find places on their maps, it’s a great way to get them engaged with our wonderful capital city, engages their sense of direction and will tire them out!

Nature Trails
Throughout the year your local Essex Wildlife Trust centre hosts a wide variety of different events for children and families, from bug hunts to bat watching, these local centres are great to inspire children, plus their staff are incredibly knowledgeable about all things wildlife.
This Easter a host of centres (Abberton Reservoir, Thurrock Thameside, Hanningfield Reservoir, Bedford’s Park, Belfair’s Woods and Ingrebourne Valley) will be hosting Easter Egg Hunts for small and big kids alike. So why not head down to your local centre and support the Essex Wildlife Trust, it’s a great way to get the kids involved in their local centres will provide and a lesson in nature. Prices range from £5-8 per child and booking may not be necessary.

The Science Museum
The Science Museum will always be a firm favourite with children with over seven floors of educational and amazing exhibitions. The museum now features the amazing Apollo 10 command module and flight simulator, Pattern Pod introduces under-eights to the importance of patterns in contemporary science and Launch Pad is a popular hands-on gallery where children can explore basic scientific principles.
The museum is free to enter for all ages and combine this with the great offers C2C have on rail journeys this half-term it’s a great reason to pack up a picnic and enjoy some educational fun.
Arts and Crafts
With the weather being rather unpredictable at the moment, sometimes it feels like it is better to simply stay indoors and keep dry and warm than to venture out. However, with children involved cabin fever can soon set in, so why not gather up some used items and turn the day into a DIY crafting session? Here are a few of our favourite Easter themed crafts which are perfect for kids:
• Egg plant pots – simply pick up some plastic egg cups or round up your old chipped egg cups, get the children to fill with a little soil and then add in their favourite plant clippings from the garden. These, with a little TLC, can often last over the Easter Weekend and make great table decorations.
• Easter Sock Bunnies – all you will need are some old socks, felt, large pom pom, moveable eyes, ribbon, rice and a rubber band.
Step one: Fill your sock with about a cup of rice, depending on the size of your sock.
Step two: Tie clear rubber bands twice to create a head, one on the neck and one on top of the head.
Step three: Cut a contrasting piece of felt to create a “belly” for the bunny, glue onto sock using tacky glue or hot glue.
Step four: glue eyes, teeth (small square pieces of felt), pom pom on the back for a cute bunny tail and a bow round it’s neck.
• Cakes and biscuits – with many people enjoying Easter dinner why not get the kids involved in baking an Easter cake or biscuits for everyone to tuck into after dinner, a great way to teach them cooking skills!

Whatever you and your family do this Easter, we hope you all have a wonderful time and that your homes are filled with peaceful and fulfilled children!