How I entertain my grandchildren on the cheap

Yahoo

3 days ago

For families with young children in their midst, July is a month of two halves: pre and post school break-up. The first half is an unholy mix of sports days, sun cream, final year shows, class day trips, school fairs, lost hats, battered school shoes temporarily mended with superglue, and half a dozen bottles for myriad raffles. Parents are battling with the associated demands of those events and requests alongside the usual day job. Then a 30-degree heatwave arrives where no one sleeps for five days and it really feels like it's some sort of ill-conceived cosmic joke.
But it gets worse. Because attending school at least means they're not at home. Children at home require adult supervision, feeding and entertainment, which can't always be performed by a parent – the disconnect between the length of state school holidays (12 weeks) and annual leave (32 days) is well-documented. Enter the reasonably fit and half-willing grandparent.
According to a recent survey commissioned by MyVoucherCodes, 53 per cent of grandparents are set to perform some sort of childcare this summer and a quarter of grandparents are worried about the cost – with an average price of food and fun rising from £15.80 per day last year to £21 in 2025.
But that's not the half of it. For example, a ticket to Whipsnade Zoo costs £31.75 for a senior entry, with every child costing £23.65 thereafter. One-day tickets to Warwick Castle start at £26 per person and even a ramble around the National Trust's various properties will cost upwards of £20 for adults and £12 for children – precisely why buying a year's membership always seems irritatingly sensible at the gate. And that's before you factor in drinks, food, the dreaded gift shop and standard ice cream.
However, money doesn't always need to enter the equation. Simple pleasures can still reign supreme. One Telegraph staffer, who himself remembers being taken as a boy to Heathrow to watch the planes land and take off ('A great day out'), recently recounted that, while he'd been at work, his father took his young son to watch the buses for two hours and he's 'never seen either of them happier.'
'My son's favourite thing to do is watch transport,' he explains. 'We are lucky to live in Finsbury Park, which has an extremely busy train station with a bus station on both sides. Given what a popular hobby watching trains is, there are surprisingly few good vantage points – a canny council could install a viewing area above a busy line – so I often find myself paying the same-station exit charge to do it. On a fine morning, we can go up to the platform and watch trains going past, waving at the drivers and hoping for either a wave or, ideally, a toot of the horn.'
Low cost, wholesome and rather charming. But are there similar options out there for older children and those with different interests?
As grandparents look into the summer holiday abyss and wonder how on earth they're expected to curate a memory-making experience in these coming weeks, we're asking readers to suggest activities for grandchildren that entertain, enthuse and crucially, don't empty the bank account.
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Solve the daily Crossword