Holiday activities on the internet

Summer holidays are a time of year met with excitement, anticipation and dread by parents and children alike.

With weeks off school, there is a great deal of time to fill, unless the idea of a house full of bored kids is one that fills you with joy.

While children are generally discouraged from spending too much time at the computer, your PC can be used to find all manner of things for them to do during the school holidays.

We are not talking about playing the latest console games or using social networking sites to while away the hours, rather sites which provide interesting, entertaining and educational activities that can be enjoyed at home. We’ll also provide links to sites that can be helpful in finding out what is going on the local area to help keep the kids amused.

Why don’t you...
No school holiday would be complete without a day out here and there. A great way to find out about fun days out nearby is to turn to the ever-useful Directgov website. Pay a visit to http://tinyurl.com/2ge4ex where you can find links to holiday schemes and camps by entering your postcode. There is also handy information about childcare, should you need to work or if you just feel like a break.

A trip to a gallery, museum or other exhibition can be a fun, educational and cheap diversion. The 24 Hour Museum provides details of more than 3,000 events, and the City Guide section is a great way to find out what is going on in your nearest city.

The site’s Trails are quite unique and suggest museums that offer exhibits based on a particular subject. Some of these can be followed online, thanks to a raft of well-written articles, but it is better to follow them on foot and this can easily fill up a day or more.

To find something to do quickly, it is well worth paying a visit to Days Out. Click your area of the country on the map, indicate the type of attraction you’re looking for, and the site will furnish you with a personalised list. The National Trust has put together a great Out&About guide to family events around the country – and it is also worth looking at the main site for even more information.

The Where You Live section of the BBC website is a great resource for finding out about events and activities close to home. With a strong focus on nature, there are links to numerous day trips and activities which kids are sure to love.

Sports fans will enjoy the Junior Football section where they can find out about local matches as well as receiving tips from top players. Head to the Norfolk Kids area to find a host of fun projects such as designing puppets and putting on a show, to fun science experiments that can be carried out at home.

Get outside
One of the latest crazes is Geocaching, a kind of treasure hunt where people equipped with GPS units track down markers in the countryside. Locations are usually of special interest to participants, or are hard to get to.

At each location, a cache can be found – typically a small waterproof container containing a logbook and ‘treasure’, usually trinkets of little monetary worth. Participants can record the contents of the cache, add an object of their own choosing or leave an entry in the log book.

Because of the nature of the sport, Geocaching is really a teenage activity or something for families to participate in together.