Celebrate Father's Day without breaking the bank

With Father's Day nearly here, we take a look at some of the ways your kids can celebrate their dad without spending an arm and a leg! From crafts to poems, from cooking to granting wishes, you don't need to spend a penny to show dad how much you all care.

Father's Day doesn't need to be all about expensive gifts, or big days out, in fact your kids can spoil dad rotten just by doing a few simple things...

Father's Day craft

Provide your kids with plenty of craft materials such as old magazines, card, paper, pens, stickers, strips of fabric, glitter, glue - anything with which they can make and decorate their own Father's Day card. It's a far more personal way to let dad know how much he means to your kids, and it's much more fun too!

And the craft doesn't need to end with the card...

• You can buy plain white mugs, teeshirts, or baseball caps on which the kids could paint Father's Day messages
• Get the kids crafting their own gifts from household items such as beads, old boxes, jars, etc. Or you could provide craft kits which the kids could assemble for dad
• Encourage your kids to make a scrapbook for dad full of his favourites things, photos, old ticket stubs from past days out, anything which dad can enjoy and treasure forever. You could even try making dad a memory box instead which the kids can decorate, and continually add things to over time

Get cooking!

Get your mini-Jamie Olivers cooking up a storm for Father's Day by picking dad's favourite recipe and preparing him a delicious and healthy home cooked meal. Involve the kids in each step of the meal, from shopping for ingredients, to preparing, cooking, and serving the meal. They can even set the table up and decorate it with place mats, and napkins.

Cooking is the way to a dad's heart after all!

Entertain him

Most kids enjoy taking to the stage, so get your kids to work on a little performance for their dad to celebrate Father's Day. It could be making up a song, a poem, a play, or a talent show - anything to let dad put his feet up and enjoy watching his little ones in action.

Wishes for dad

Get dad to draw up a list of wishes for the kids - such as "I wish for you to share more with your brother and sister," or "I wish for you to tidy up your toys when you have finished with them." Put each wish in a special wish box and get dad to pick them out and pick a child for the wish to go to. Each child must keep dad's wish and try to make it come true over the next year.

Enter your dad in our Kodak Father of the Year Competition!

Kodak is teaming up with My Child to celebrate fathers across the country with the Kodak Challenge Father of the Year competition. By getting your kids to nominate their dad, they’ll be in with a chance of winning the fantastic star prize of an all expenses paid trip to the Children’s Miracle Network Golf Classic in Orlando, Florida plus one of 10 Kodak Zi6 Pocket Video Cameras up for grabs too!

Click here to enter!