Simple school holiday ideas that won't cost you an arm!

Sometimes it’s hard to know how to fill the days, but you don’t need to have big, expensive, days out to keep young minds busy over school holidays. Here are just a few ideas of things you can do either at home or out and about locally.

At home

Make a den

You can use anything and everything for these. If you’ve got a washing line, peg a sheet onto the line and use anything you’ve got close by to pull out the sides and make it into a secret den, or use a standing clothes dryer and hang a sheet over that. The best den we’ve made inside is from turning the sofas back to back and setting up a mini den in the gap between them. We put quilts, pillows and toys in there, then got the laptop out to watch a film and some snacks too (of course!)

Get chalking

Have a drawing competition, or chalk up hop scotch on the floor. I recently found a great idea about making ice chalk. Here’s a link to how to do it: https://www.thebestideasforkids.com/chalk-ice/

Treasure hunt

Take it in turns and switch round who draws the map and who finds. I found a pirate outfit in the fancy dress box and got some plastic ‘jewels’ and coins to hide. Draw up a map and then, depending on how helpful you feel, give clues for where to find things. Are you too hot or too cold in finding the treasure. Maybe it’s just me but I’ve been known to forget where I’ve actually hidden the treasure.

Make salt dough

I have memories of doing this when I was little. I think my parents still have some of our ‘creations’. Not many ingredients needed and there are loads of recipes around. Here’s one I found: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/how-make-salt-dough-recipe

There’s also recipes on here for making slime, paper cache, bath bombs and moon sand.

Make a nail & beauty salon

This is something that can end up taking on a life of its own. You can keep it smaller with a simple set up - a few nail polishes, a little corner to lie down for a ‘massage’, or you can go all out and create a waiting room (we’ve got an old laptop and an old toy box got turned upside down to make a temporary desk), create tickets, have an appointment diary, create different rooms for different treatments, make a sign for your salon and on and on. It can also be a good excuse to lie down for a few minutes whilst you get ‘pampered’.

Plant some seeds

You don’t even need a garden to do this. If you ever remember ‘cress heads’ then that’s something to recreate. You could do anything. Get something that’s quick to grow and easy to look after.

Disco

Put on your favourite tunes and have a dance! We’ve got a mini disco ball that looks pretty cool in the dark. You could throw in a few glo sticks too.

Make play foam

Who knew that you could use the water from chick peas to make play foam. Save the liquid and whizz it up in a food processor for a few minutes. It’ll feel like it’s never going to turn but just as you’re about to give up, the foam will appear! Add some food colouring to make it even more inviting. Be quick though because the foam starts to turn back into liquid after a little while. Chuck in some whisks, toy characters, have a theme, or just enjoy messing with the foam.

Bake your hearts out

It doesn’t have to be anything too complicated. You could make simple biscuits, fairy cakes, scones. Here’s a good website full of ideas: https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/collections/baking_with_children

Out and about

Go to the library

Our local libraries have a summer reading challenge on - check out your local library to see what’s available. There’s often a number of activities on and lots of it is absolutely free.

Visit the park

Take a trip to the park and maybe try out a new one that you haven’t yet been to. We usually stick to the same parks but I recently came across one, not that far away, that I didn’t even know existed. This app is quite good for finding local parks https://www.playgroundbuddy.com

Go on a bike ride

There’s usually lots of good cycle ways in most places. If you go to your local council website you should find details.

Go for a picnic

It doesn’t need to be anything extravagant, make your butties at home, get a few snacks (this is a recurring theme), maybe take a blanket with you and head off to a local park or an adventure a bit further afield, depending on how much energy you have.

Visit a museum

There are so many exhibitions on over the summer and the majority of them are completely free. Take a look at what’s going on in your local area and make a day of it. Getting the tram or bus into town to visit a museum is another adventure on its own.

Charity shop trip

See what treasures you can find at the charity shop for a set amount of money.

Collect treasures

Take a little bag with you and hunt for ‘treasures’ in the woods. We’ve found mini pine cones before, colourful leaves, stones, conkers - anything that looks interesting. You could always turn them into ‘art’ when you get back home.

Go to the beach

Depending on how far away you are from the seaside, this is one of my favourite things to do. I love being by water and you can spend hours building sandcastles, searching for shells and sea glass, digging, writing your name in the sand, drawing sand pictures with a stick, paddling! If it’s windy enough you could take a kite with you.

Rock painting

Hunt for rocks outside, paint them and if you’re not feeling too attached to your design, leave them behind for somebody else to find. There are lots of different pens you can buy online at a reasonable price.

Play pooh sticks

An old one, but still good. Find a stream or river with a bridge across. Get yourself some champion looking sticks and stand at the side of the bridge the water is flowing away from. Drop your stick, run to the other side of the bridge and see whose stick comes through first to win the stick race!

Cloud spotting

Another good chance to lie down for a rest whilst still keeping young minds entertained. See what you can spot in the clouds - any dragons, cats, faces, hearts?

Have extra suggestions? Share your ideas in the comments.