Keeping children entertained in the school holidays without spending lots of money is a lot easier with a little forward planning. Mixing things up a little, giving the wow factor to what you already have and creating tempting invitations to play can bring lots of fun to your holiday without costing a fortune.

Try these ten ideas for fabulous frugal fun to get your holiday off to a playful start.

Make things look tempting: taking five minutes the night before to arrange some materials is time well spent and can set the tone for the whole day. Try using muffin tins or dip trays to gather small, interesting items.

Double up for maximum fun: making crafts that transform into toys gives you lots of extra play factor. Try peg dolls, lollypop puppets or junk model animals.

Enlist help: adding a favourite teddy to a play set-up can be all you need to get children to dive in and start playing with something they’ve not used for a while. Try sitting teddy on one of their trains, set up a teddy bears picnic or pop ted on the sofa reading some books.

Turn a staycation into a playcation: by setting up a camping role play, with sleeping bags and torches. You could even toast some marshmallows on your campfire.

Keep it simple: often children are happiest with the simplest of things to play with. A bucket of water is always a big hit in our house.

Start as you mean to go on: lay something out on the breakfast table for the children to discover as soon as they wake. How about a holiday scrapbook or garden journal.

Go natural: toys don’t have to  be battery powered. Put out some un-toys:  bowls of shells, pebbles, fir cones or sticks and let the children see where their imagination takes them.

Mix it up: put different materials together and give them a new lease of life. Try marble painting or see our free playdough ebook for a huge list of things to try with dough.

Add a wow factor: Spark the kids interest by adding some real-world wow to the things they already have: put real food in the play kitchen, some of your own jewellery in the dressing up box or a few real coins in the toy shop.

Upcycle: put your recycling box to good use by transforming it into a dinosaur land , ride on train or horse riding stables.

Our archive is packed full of more ideas for things to do in the school holidays – take a look and grab a play idea to share with your children.

happily shared with works for me Wednesday and tot school and  share your Sunday best and  link and learn and the magic onion and  for the kids Friday and  it’s playtime