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Karen Long, engagement development worker: "School holidays can be a really fun time for you and your children. Sometimes planning activities can be rather difficult. For working parents it can be a really challenging time, but thinking ahead you can find different ways to keep your child entertained."

Plan early and involve the whole family

First parent: "Usually what I do with the kids at the beginning of the holidays [is] I get them to pick two activities per week."

Karen Long: "Make sure you make decisions as a family, as a whole family. Bring the children in and ask them what they want to do and make the decision together."

Young girl: "I like playing in the garden and I like gardening."

Second parent: "We take them to parks, we play in the garden. We're very lucky we've got a house with a garden, so it's easy enough to just open the back door and just run about."

Karen Long: "You can have picnics - get the children involved in making the sandwiches and putting healthy things in there."

Third parent: "We had very good weather last week, so we went to the park and had a picnic. It's fun for the parents and it's definitely fun the kids."

Think about what free activities are available in your area - talk to your local Family Information Services (FIS) as some activities may be free or low cost

Karen Long: "Fun doesn't have to be expensive. Sometimes you can find free admission for children and adults. Look out for vouchers in papers, internet and on cereal boxes even."

Day trips don't have to be too expensive if you plan ahead

Fourth parent: "The benefits of bringing them to the beach are that they get lots of exercise, they burn off lots of energy and it's free."

Young boy: "I like to play with my sister at the beach."

Karen Long: "If you do decide to go out for the day, don't forget to involve children in the preparation."

Young boy: "I like to make a squiggly pattern and a straight pattern."

Young girl: "I like building sandcastles and I like looking in the rock pools."

Fourth parent: "Sometimes we look in rock pools and build sandcastles - the traditional kind of things. But other times we can play rounders or just come for a picnic or just get some fresh air."

Young boy: "I'm happy when I go to the beach."

School holidays are long so try to avoid doing everything in the first few weeks

Fourth parent: "If the weather's not so good there's lots of other things you can do at home. Here we're playing with corn flour, which is very cheap and really good fun. It's very tactile - one minute it's hard and you can make a ball out of it and next minute it's very gloopy."

Fifth parent: "There's arts and crafts and painting and gluing and all the messy stuff."

[Children making noise while playing indoors]

Karen Long: "During the holidays childcare can sometimes be a problem. But there are lots of places like schools and children's centres that offer play schemes.

"Remember, even though it's good to have lots of structured activities during the holidays - they don't always need that. It's okay to do things at home, let them entertain themselves from time to time.

"School holidays can be real fun and it gives you and your child a chance to really get to know each other and to do things you wouldn't normally have to do."

Useful tips:

• plan each weeks activities ahead
• look out for discount activities before the holidays start
• look in the library or online for ideas

More on Cross & Stitch

• Family leisure and recreation (parents section)