Here we are. The first day of the summer holidays. Are you full of joy at six weeks of freedom from the school run? Or dread at six weeks of finding things to keep the kids occupied? For me, it is definitely a little from column A and a little from column B.

So using our collective PlayPennies parents know-how, here's a selection of fabulous options and ideas that you can use to intersperse between the special treats you might have lined up.

Odeon Cinemas are offering 40% off the price of their tickets from 20 March to 31 March 2011. Whether you choose to buy your tickets online or want to get them directly from the front door, this 40% discount will be utterly and completely valid.

• Click here to pick your movie at Odeon

The cost of movie tickets is, let’s face it, pretty darn high, so this deal is utterly brilliant. You can use the promotional code below to get your 40% off your Odeon theatre tickets for a fabulous movie this weekend.

• Discount: 40%
• Promotional code: March40
• Expiry: 31 March 2011

If you are not keen on booking your tickets online, you can print out a voucher to take with you. Now on to the fine print…

The ticket discount excludes movies on Fridays and Saturdays (sigh) and it is not to be used in conjunction with other special offers like Orange Wednesday, or with tickets paid for with Odeon points.

You can also only use the voucher to get a discount off one admission ticket only. This means that if you are (and correct me if I am wrong here) printing it out you could all get a discount, but if you book online only one ticket is discounted. Still, 40% off Odeon tickets, even if it is just one, is not to be sneezed at.

This printable Odeon voucher will give you 40% off  Odeon cinema tickets.

• Click HERE to print off Odeon vouchers

Usually you can only use these vouchers once, but not this time! You can print off as many vouchers as you like and use them between Friday 3 September and 14 October 2010.

Yup, you could go to the movies every single day between Friday and the 14 October and get 40% every single time if you wanted to!

There are a couple of exclusions, but really they're no big deal (well I don't think so anyway) - you can't use a voucher to go and see the advanced screenings of Despicable Me on 9 and 10 October, you can't use them in conjuction with Orange Wednesdays, Premiere Cub Film Fan Tuesdays or family tickets...but everything else is fair game!

If your child has a birthday coming up and they want to take a little gaggle of friends to the movies, this is an ace way to save some cash and win parental brownie points at the same time.

My teenagers want to go and see The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and I must confess so do I, and whilst it's fun taking them to see movies you actually want to see too it's not as cheap as it used to be when it was one adult ticket and two kids - so hurrah for vouchers like this!

I've seen a couple of movies over the last couple of weeks so here's a very quick 'Film Night' review for you: Inception - very weird, too long and not as good as The Matrix. The A-Team - AWESOME, very funny, see it!

Fancy a Father's Day trip to the movies?  Fancy a third OFF a Father's Day trip to the movies?!

• Discount: 1/3
• Minimum Spend: £0.00
• Promotional Code: No Code (voucher download)
• Expiry: 1 July 2010

Click HERE to get 1/3 off your ticket

Do you remember, back in the day, when going to the cinema to see the latest blockbuster involved queueing for hours round the block and on the odd occasion having to wait for the next showing because there were no more seats left?  Me too!

I love going to the movies but I don't love that it costs me the best part of £10 a ticket! Throw in the obligatory popcorn, coke and three scoops of Ben and Jerry's and I can kiss goodbye to £50 in a matter of minutes.

So I'm quite excited by this little deal - all y ou have to do is print off the voucher from the Odeon website, take it along to the box office on any day between now and the 1 July and get 1/3 off your ticket.

Now, you can only use one voucher per ticket, so to get 1/3 off of each ticket you'll need a voucher for everyone and each queue up and pay separately.

If you were hoping for a Father's Day trip to see Shrek Happily Ever After then I'm sorry to disappoint you - you can't use these vouchers to see it, all other movies are fine.

Thanks to tellerijj over at HUKD!