The summer holidays are upon us, as are the immense tasks of navigating long trips, airports and keeping children amused for what feels like 400 days with no school. Video games can be a godsend for parents at this time, but there is a delicate balance to be struck: for kids, you want something entertaining enough to keep them out of your hair for a while, but not so addictive that you lose them completely for weeks on end. For adults, you need something you can play in the brief snatches of time when you're not making someone a snack. These are the best video games to keep everyone happy during the summer holidays, for every kind of scenario and gamer. Being stuck in the car or a hotel room can be enough to drive anyone crazy, let alone bored kids.

With the long school summer holiday well under way, you may need a bit of help keeping the kids entertained. From walkie-talkies and cameras to tablets, robot toys and fitness trackers, here are some of the best kid-aimed tech to keep the little (and not-so-little) ones occupied. Lots of tech toys are fads but my longtime favourite has stood the test of time as a modern update to remote control fun. Sphero is a ball you control using a smartphone or tablet, and has hidden depths, with games and educational elements also available. The mini Sphero ball is a lot of fun to drive around and small enough that overexuberant indoor excursions won't result in broken furniture and scuffed-up paintwork.

This week sees thousands of children throughout the country wake up and realise with stark horror that the summer holidays are over and school beckons. Most adults can remember the sudden system shock of these mornings; the alarm going off unreasonably early, the shivering cold of the bathroom, the family gathered in stony silence around the table, munching forlornly on soggy toast. Games such as Resident Evil or Silent Hill have conjured few horrors that compare with entering a new classroom and meeting an unfamiliar teacher who may or may not prove to be an authoritarian sociopath. This sense of fear and loathing was perhaps why, when my dad used to get home from work and find me watching Grange Hill, he would always tut and say'haven't you had enough of school?'. But of course, for several generations of kids in the UK, Grange Hill was our way of confronting and processing the horrors of secondary education.

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