Surviving the Six-Week Summer Holidays: 5 Simple Tricks That Actually Work

We're not even a week in , and if you've already heard "I'm boooored" more times than you can count — you're in very good company. Six weeks is a long time to fill, and you don't need a Pinterest-perfect summer or a bank-breaking list of days out to get through it happily.

Before I started Fun Printables 4 Kids, I worked as a nursery nurse, and if those years taught me one thing, it's this: children don't need constant entertainment. They need little pockets of the right kind of activity at the right moment. Here are the five things I'd tell any parent, grandparent or childminder heading into the holidays.

A smiling young child sitting at a small table, colouring a bright picture of a sun with chunky crayons; sunlight streams through a window behind them, and a cup holding more crayons sits to their right.

1. Think rhythm, not schedule

You don't need an hour-by-hour plan (and honestly, little ones will fight one anyway). What works is a loose daily rhythm: something active in the morning, something calm after lunch, something creative before tea. When children roughly know what kind of thing comes next, you get far fewer battles — and you get to keep the freedom to change your mind when the sun comes out.

2. Build a boredom box before you need it

Don't wait for the whinge — get ahead of it. Fill a box with a few "only in the holidays" bits: colouring pages, a puzzle, stickers, a little activity book. The magic is in the novelty, so keep it out of everyday reach. When boredom strikes, you're not scrabbling for ideas; you're just opening a box. It feels like a treat to them and a lifeline to you.

3. Laminate once, use all summer

If you follow me, you'll know this is my favourite tip of all: laminate! Print an activity, pop it through a laminator (or use sticky-back plastic), hand it over with a whiteboard pen or a tub of play dough, and it wipes clean and comes back out again tomorrow. One sheet of paper becomes a whole summer's worth of play — brilliant for the budget, and little ones love the "again!" of it.

4. Have a rainy-day plan ready and waiting

It's a British summer — the rain is coming, we just don't know when. The trick is deciding before the downpour what a wet day looks like: den building, an indoor scavenger hunt, baking, a film afternoon. When you've a plan tucked away, a grey sky stops being a disaster and starts being "oh good, it's a hunt day."

5. Keep a little going-out kit in your bag

Café waits, car journeys, big-sibling swimming lessons — so much of summer is little ones waiting around. A small pouch with crayons and a mini activity book turns those moments from meltdown territory into quiet, happy scribbling. Pack it once and it lives in your bag all season.

You don't have to fill every minute

If you take one thing from this post, let it be that a happy summer isn't a full one — it's one with a few good ideas ready at the right moments. The quiet cuppa while they're busy creating? That's not lazy parenting. That's good planning.

And if you'd like a head start, I've put together a Summer Survival Bundle with four of my most-loved summer printables — a big summer activity pack, beach-themed play dough mats, four scavenger hunts (including indoor rainy-day objects!) and a print-and-go mini activity book for those out-and-about moments. Everything comes in A4 and US Letter, and the mats and hunts are made to be laminated and reused all summer long.

However your summer unfolds — sunshine, showers or a bit of both — I hope it's a lovely one. 💛

Lucy x
Fun Printables 4 Kids