Please help me to entertain my kids for free!

[SpinnetySpin]

The summer holidays so far this year have been rubbish. Our finances are squeezed in ever direction with everything creeping up in price, and we have now reached the point where there is nothing left over for going places or doing things.
My DC are 9 and 11 and I can’t think what to do with them that doesn’t cost anything. We have done the usual parks, free castle grounds, movie nights and even device days, but the eldest is getting to an age where she doesn’t really enjoy those things.
We don’t have a garden so those outside sorts of things are out too.
Anyone got any inspiring ideas?

Thanks!

Mine are younger so I’ve probably useless

• geocaching?
• friend over to chill
• cook recipes from around the world
• Arts/crafts but more adult focused
• learning dances

Rough geographical area would help

Walks, beach, painting, drawing, baking, colouring, crafting, reading, make family videos, parks, some towns have free outdoor cinemas in the summer or big games like connect 4 in city centres. Bubbles.

How far from beach?

Friends over.

Join all local fb groups and see what on. Lots do free summer things for kids.

See if anywhere local needs help. Farms? Berry picking? Care homes.

Tent in the garden

South Wales

My friend's children are a bit younger but she has organised a few free activities through the local library.
Might be worth checking out.

Check your local paper to see what's going on, try meetup.com for activities.

She says in the posts they don’t have a garden

Have their friends over? That's the easy answer for us.

Everything is more fun with a friend at that age.

Library? Museums, ours have lots of free stuff for kids going on and are free to get in. Yours might not be though.Bike ride and a picnic. Have their friends round. Look on your local whats on page.

Baking cakes/bread
Planning, shopping, prepping a meal of their choice.
Making pizza
Sorry, all food related!

Libraries often have activities going on. There is the summer reading challenge.

Make a den

Tik Tok dances - they don't need to upload a video.
Just dance on you tube

Have a clear out of old clothes/ toys etc together and put them on vinted/eBay - that’s an activity in itself- and then give the kids the money for a treat/ take them to the movies or something

Baking. Tweens bloody love baking. There are some fun insta accounts like Practical Peculiarities who do creepy gothic bakes (for example) that are fun to make

Are you all outdoorsy? Wild swimming, wild camping etc are all free. If you have a car and can afford a little extra petrol, you could have a great adventure

Gallery Challenge. Get the kids to take pictures on your phones/devices over a week or so- arty ones, in the park, local cemetery, local landmarks etc that you’re all sick of visiting - and then get them printed using one of the cheap photo box services (often lots of offers online) and turn them into a gallery wall. A cheap way to do this without having to buy lots of frames is to peg them onto twine using small clips. Every few months set a new photo challenge to refresh it- make it seasonal or something.

Wild camping is illegal in England and Wales I think.

Is there a treasure trail nearby? https://www.treasuretrails.co.uk/
If there are a few, get someone else to buy another and swap!

Also 9 and 11 is a great age to start watching Gilmore Girls. An annual binge of that takes me a good few weeks of really concentrated viewing 😂

And visit your local charity shop for board games. You can get some really good ones for a few quid- and they are 100% back in fashion. Actually - as is chess. All the kids are playing it. If yours aren’t, it’s a good time to teach them.

They're old enough to amuse themselves really at those ages.

If they tell you they're bored, tell them it's an opportunity for them to develop their life skills - they can choose from, cooking, cleaning, laundry etc - and let them. They could also develop language skills, typing skills,coding skills if preferred or sewing. It's how children their age would have spent much of their time in earlier eras.

I won’t tell if you won’t.

She could send them up a chimney.

Get them helping round the house if they are bored.

Learn first aid

https://www.sja.org.uk/get-advice/first-aid-lesson-plans/

mine are the same age. These are ‘free’ things we do together.

Cook together? Teach them how to make a meal, scrambled eggs, pancakes.

bake cookies or cakes.

garden is free entertainment

library reading challenge

general library visits

bike rides

crafting - lots of YouTube channels teaching things like origami / painting etc.

We still expect them to play together, sexes matter here too, my daughter likes me doing her make up, her doing mine, painting nails, face paint

movie night

camping in the garden

smores on a fire

kite flying

if you’re near the coast you could go crabbing / beach day

picnic

puzzles - we can borrow them from the local library

Learn origami from YouTube
lego building competition
board game day
zombie 1,2,3 marathon (the kids musical films)

@Fullyflavoured They could. I think they would call it climbing these days and charge for it though or 'victorian orphan experience', also chargeable.

Jump on a random bus see where it takes you?

Family day bus pass, can you stretch to that with food from home and perhaps an ice cream out?