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Free Kids activities for school holidays?

58 replies

Ramona75 · 28/06/2023 06:38

Does anyone have any ideas on what Free activities that I can do with the kids over the Summer holidays?

I have a few days out planned but like most holidays, it hammers it down quite a lot, so what do I do with 3 under 9s in the house that will keep them entertained with either NEW craft & activities ideas that they have not done before, that will not require £50 trip to Wilkos for materials

I was thinking about creating a fun holiday calendar (with my limited knowledge of excel) for them and filling it with as many activities as possible to give them things to look forward too!

All ideas welcome! If I get enough ideas, I could make a kids’ calendar with indoor ideas for each day of the holidays and let you all have it too. Obviously you would not do all of them but at least there would be options available.

Help! 😊

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Ramona75 · 30/06/2023 07:24

Cornishmumofone · 29/06/2023 20:17

Junior parkrun is free and aimed at 4-14 year olds.

I've seen a few of these locally on a Sunday. If I can get get the kids up before 8am on a weekend, I think we might give it a try.

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elliejjtiny · 30/06/2023 09:34

You cut the end off the plastic bottle and put a sock over the cut off end. Dip the sock end of the bottle in bubble mixture and blow into the neck of the bottle. Loads of foamy bubbles should come out.

Laney79 · 30/06/2023 20:54

I don't know if your kids might be a bit old but my 3.5yr old has spent a good couple of hours today on his "experiments" - some plastic jugs with a few drops of food colouring and water in them, a turkey baster and a variety of old bottles and jars! Spent ages just mixing up his experiments and potions!!

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Ramona75 · 30/06/2023 22:20

Laney79 · 30/06/2023 20:54

I don't know if your kids might be a bit old but my 3.5yr old has spent a good couple of hours today on his "experiments" - some plastic jugs with a few drops of food colouring and water in them, a turkey baster and a variety of old bottles and jars! Spent ages just mixing up his experiments and potions!!

Food colouring could be fun. We could put different amounts of the water in cups then use them as drums as different amounts of water make different sounds 👍

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Ramona75 · 04/07/2023 06:22

Thank you all for your ideas, here is a quick summary of all of them so far, that I collated from your comments, as well as a few that I found also. I'll create another summary if anymore get added this week.

BIRD FEEDERS - Make bird feeders using pots or recycling bottles.

CARDBOARD CASTLE - Collect loads of cardboard and 1 day can be filled with creating a cardboard castle. You just need some very strong tape, string for a drawbridge and some scissors

CHORES BINGO - Gain points for doing household chores. Make the chores funny like 'put away the washing walking like a chicken' if they need extra motivation.

CINEMA DAY - Have fun crafting tickets and movie posters, have a choice of 3 films, microwave popcorn other snacks etc put blankets up at the windows etc.

DRAWING CHALLENGE - Get your kids to draw your family members or pets and get a cheap frame from Ikea and showcase their talents in the hallway

DENS - Make a den inside the house with chairs and blankets. The perfect place to spend the days with friends and having lunch

PIZZA/BAKING - Make a pizza or general food preparation for a meal. Create a shopping list if necessary and go shopping for ingredients

PARCOUR - Build a parcour with chairs and pillows (don't touch the floor/only use feet - no hands for balance)

TREASURE HUNT - Treasure hunts in the home where one clue leads to another then the prize at the end

THEME DAY - Make decorations for a disco at home. Have a theme based on a country e.g. Italian, Mexican. Design the flags, make that cuisine to eat, learn a bit about the country or a few phrases to say

TALENT SHOW - Have a talent show. Each child practises their skill to show e.g. gymnastics, football, write a play. This could be an end of week thing they practise towards.

LIBRARY - Free activities at local libraries like reading challenges, Lego groups, coding clubs etc

GEOCACHING - Found a website about this, looks like it could be fun doing this massive treasure hunt - Both are cheap / free. You can explore new places and as an extra bonus the children get lots of exercise.

HOLIDAY CLUBS - Churches often have free/cheap holiday clubs eg 10-12 for a week. Some might do sports ones too.

WILDLIFE TRUST - The local Wildlife Trusts to do free kids sessions, they're all focused around local parks and wildlife spots. They are doing bug hunting, den building, making bug hotels etc.

SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS - These can be good fun. Lots of ideas here but there are lots of other sites

MINATURE GARDEN - Create a miniature garden in a box or foil tray. Use soil and grass seed and put a few flower seeds in there and see what you can come up with!

GARDEN CAMPING - If you own a tent, put it on the back garden on a nice summers night and make S'mores and memories with the little ones.

SOCK BUBBLES - You cut the end off the plastic bottle and put a sock over the cut off end. Dip the sock end of the bottle in bubble mixture and blow into the neck of the bottle. Loads of foamy bubbles should come out.

JUNIOR PARK RUN - Junior park runs are free and aimed at 4-14 year olds.

MAKEOVERS - They could give you a makeover. They can make face masks out of porridge oats and water and put it on you with cucumber for your eyes. Then a foot spa with bubble bath and water in a basin. They could do your nails.

FROZEN T-SHIRT CHALLENGE - You could do a frozen t-shirt challenge. You get an old t-shirt, soak it in water, roll it up tight and fold it etc. Then freeze it overnight. The game is to be the first one, or by X amount time, to be wearing the shirt!

MARBLE RUN - Make a marble run from loo rolls and a cardboard box or two.

ROCK PAINTING - Make a rock snake or ladybird or other creature for the garden or leaving them in woodlands for others to find.

QUIZZES - A great resource here for kids quizzes. Quite a few different ones including loads of Disney ones!

Before you continue to YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/@QuizTimeUK

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PleaseYourselfandEatTheCrusts · 05/07/2023 14:13

Write to a celebrity or Royal family member....They should get a reply from Buckingham Palace.

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PleaseYourselfandEatTheCrusts · 17/08/2023 13:54

Don't want to lose this thread from my watched list. Smile

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