I like to think I’m good at finding things or thinking about things to do with H, especially now she’s older and more aware of everything, and wanting to do something All The Time. Occasionally we’ll relax in front of the tv or read a book – and occasionally we’ll do crafty things together.

However, there’s only so many times I can do the same things and I need inspiration. Step in ‘Frugal & Fun – Enjoying School Holidays – The Thrifty Way’ – a book by Cass Bailey, Jen Walshaw and Becky Goddard-Hill who make up the Frugal and Fun website (as well as their own blogs).

The book is geared very much towards the summer of 2012 – the World Cup, the Jubilee, the Olympics – and loads of crafts and ideas you can do with your children. Having said that, the crafts and ideas aren’t exclusive to this time of year – you can make medals at any time – it just fits in with now. There’s also lots of tips for organising your life which is good – I could do with a bit of that for my own things.

I really like the homemade craft box – it’s like a step on from the Treasure Box a lot of us made when our little ones were babies, with plenty of craft items in it. I suspect this is something I need to get organised with – as I have several boxes with crafty things rather than one big one! Two other fantastic ideas are the Wish-book (where everyone writes down something they want to do and make a nice book out of it), and the Boredom Jar which I know we’ll need in a year or so from now, where you write things on pieces of card and pick them out on a day when you’re bored for a nice activity to do.

There’s some excellent ideas, and especially when a lot of us have less money to spend, it’s a fun book which will give you plenty of ideas, and best of all it doesn’t break the bank at only £2.99 from the Amazon Kindle store is aimed at 3-10 year olds and is 150 pages!