I am a father of 12 children, this fun activity will keep kids busy for hours and it’s free

A clever dad has revealed how to keep your kids entertained without paying a dime: by making your own instruments.

Ben Sullivan, 49, and his wife Zoe, 45, have one of Scotland’s largest families with 12 children.

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The frugal couple are parents to Elisabeth, 19, Olivia, 17, Noah, 14, Evangeline, 12, Tobias, 11, Agnes, 7, Joseph, 5, Florence, 2, and two sets of twins – Charlotte and Isabelle, 16, and Leah and Erin, 8.

They have their own YouTube channel and yesterday’s episode showed how easy it is to make music on the beach.

The large group live in a six-bedroom house in Burghead, Moray, where they spent their day out with buckets and spades.

Father Ben first said to the children, “I want you to find little stones, as small as you can find them.”

He then explained how they took empty toilet rolls and closed one end so they could add pebbles and sand.

Then they sealed the other side and put rubber bands around it, so it could be either a guitar or a shaker.

He said, “First we’re going to take one of the circles we’ve already cut out and place it over the end of the toilet rolls.

“Then you can put an elastic band around it or I have a lot of tape with me.

“The next step is to put some rocks in the middle to make a shaker and maybe a little bit of sand.

“You close the other end and you have a little homemade musical instrument for the beach that the whole family will enjoy.”

Mum Zoe previously revealed which B&M bargains to bag for your kids now that they’re back to school.

First she got a 98p water bottle, which she said was very useful as her children drop and break them so often that she has to buy new ones.

She also found lunch boxes for £1 and a pack of three multi-compartment snack boxes for £2.97.

There were also colour changing cups and glitter water bottles for sale, which Zoe said were cheaper than normal.