Looking for cheap or free activities to keep the kids entertained this summer holiday? Look no further! We've got a roundup of twenty fun ideas to keep the kids entertained!
Here are twenty ideas for activities to do with kids during the school holidays:
Visit a local park and have a picnic (Weather dependent!), play games, and go for a walk in your local area. Go on a nature walk, looking for plants, animals, and other natural wonders. Have the kids looks for particular things, such as squirrels, flowers and benches and have them make a tally of how many they find. Alternatively, seek out a local playground or play areas that you might not have been to before and give it a try; kids do love to try out different play equipment, and it's nice to go and explore other areas locally you may not have been to before.
Have a movie day at home and watch family-friendly films together. Alternatively, look to see if any of the local cinemas are offering special movie showings or discounted tickets; you will often find early bird/morning tickets for a special price. If you have Sky TV, make sure you check your Sky Vip app to see if there is a free movie available to download; as I write this, you can grab a free download of the movie 'Bumblebee" plus you'll also find a voucher for a free pack of Cadbury's chocolate from Tesco as well, for the movie munchies!
Visit a local library and participate in storytelling events and activities. Alternatively, check your local council website auto find out if there is a toy library locally where you can borrow toys and games instead of books! It saves having to spend a fortune buying new toys!
Go around the world with the kids.. for free.. well, kind of; use a webcam app such as Earthcam to explore lots of exciting and interesting places around the world from the comfort of your living room! Watch people milling around Times Square, enjoy watching tigers roam around Dublin Zoo or maybe watch people jumping off cliffs into the sea in Jamaica; there are huge amounts of things to see, and it's all free! Fun to do on rainy days!
Have a scavenger hunt around the neighbourhood or local park. Maybe team up with other kids and parents and make it a fun group activity. Maybe take a packed lunch with you and your bikes so the kids can enjoy a bike ride after the hunt, which can be lots of fun!
Heading to the beach on a sunny day? Beach days are the best, and one of the most popular summer activities for great family days out! Have the kids collect shells or stones for arts and crafts at home; maybe look at fossil hunting; I know my kid finds' dinosaur eggs' every time we head to a beach! Look out for rock pools and see what they can find, and try and identify what's there. Needless to say that if the kids are old enough to go in the water, make sure they take a ball or Frisbee to play with (with adult supervision, of course!), and buckets and spades are much cheaper from a store like Poundland, rather than buying them at the beach.If possible, take food with you to make sure you don't get caught out with inflated beach food prices. Take your own drinks, too; if you don't have ice packs, freeze some bottles of water and use them as ice packs to keep your food cold and then once defrosted, you'll have cold water to drink! If you have a thermos flask, then you can put ice pops in them and can take them with you; they stay frozen for many hours, which means you don't spend a fortune at the ice cream van! Going to the amusement arcade? If so, give each child their own bag with money in it, and that can be their amusement arcade allowance. Even £1 of 2p's looks like a lot, so they'll think they've won the lottery, and they then know that once it's gone, they won't get any more; it works like a dream!
Have a DIY day at home, making crafts and projects with the kids. What kid doesn't like mucking about with sellotape, cardboard boxes and pens? It keeps them busy for hours!
Have a cooking day at home, making simple and inexpensive meals and snacks with the kids. Let the kids help with the mixing, rolling and decorating etc; they will love saying that they helped make it! Making cookies and cakes is always a winner; most supermarkets have their own brand of budget cake mixes, which really keeps the price down.
Do the kids like to read magazines and comics? If so, consider a 60-day free trial of Readly, which is an app that's a great way to read magazines, comics and newspapers from around the world at no cost. There are loads of things for kids, including comics and puzzle books, and you can set up a separate login for different people around the house, so everyone has their own access to the app and can select what they want to read, all at the same time! It saves an absolute fortune on buying magazines; I always seem to get stung for a kid's magazine when we go to the supermarket, and they can be £5+ each! Readly allows you to access many of the same current magazines you'll find on the newsagent's shelf at no cost, and their back copies, plus allows you to download them to your device, so if you want to download them to read on the plane or by the pool you can without using any cellular data or needing wifi; its a godsend! Don't forget to cancel the trial before the 60 days free ends, or you'll have to pay £8.99 a month for 6 months and then £9.99 a month afterwards, but you might want to keep it being magazines are so expensive these days, and £9.99 is pretty reasonable for unlimited use of the magazines, and all the back copies!
Take a look online on your county's tourism website for local activities. Most counties have one; I live in Hampshire, and Visit Hampshire is the perfect place to find out what's going on locally and the costs involved; it can be really useful for information and ideas! There is often information on free things to do in your area for the whole family to enjoy and spend some quality time together during the summer months.
Sign up with Kids Pass, this is a subscription service which gives you discounts on lots of activities, cinema tickets and restaurants. It's normally £3.99 a month, or £39.99 for the year; however, you can get a months trial membership for £1, so you'll be able to make use of all the offers for just £1; just remember to cancel the subscription if you don't want to keep on paying. I usually set up the trial every summer holiday, and out does save a great deal of money; even just a trip to the aquarium we go to in Portsmouth saves us 25% on the normal entry fee, so it's £1 well spent!
Take advantage of the National Lottery free £25 voucher that can be put towards a day out with the family. So long as you've bought any National Lottery product since January 1st, you can claim the deal. If you haven't, you can still buy a scratch card and take part; even a 25p online scratch card allows you to claim the offer. I've mentioned more about this on the blog HERE
Have a photography day, taking pictures of each other, pets, and nature. Make a photo board of the results. It's also fun to take a picture of everything that's been fun to visit or do during the holidays, and then print off the photos and pop them in scrapbook as a reminder, for the kids, and also for yourself as it may give you some ideas of what to do next time you need something to keep the kids busy! Photo printing sites such as FreePrints let you print 100 free photos and get them delivered; you just pay the delivery fee!
Visit local museums or perhaps an art gallery that offers free admission for kids. If you are in the London area, head to the popular free museums such as the Natural History Museum or Science Museum, as these are free to enter and great places to have an educational visit with the kids, but even though you can get free tickets to enter, you may need to book in advance as they can get very busy, especially as they are such a great place to visit, with free entry during a cost of living crisis!
If you shop at Aldi and spend over £30, you can claim a free sports session for your child at one of fifty different sports activities throughout the UK. You get one free voucher per £30+ spend, and each voucher will give you one free session for one child, but you can claim more vouchers for each separate £30+ transaction. Just ask the cashier for a voucher code. There's more on this promotion, which runs inshore until 31/07/23 on the Aldi website. The sessions need to be booked by 30/08/23.
Have a play day at home, using costumes, props, and imagination. Invite their friends round for a dress-up party, and let them enjoy themselves while the parents have a few minutes of rest!
Have a drawing day at home, using pencils, crayons, or other art supplies. If you have a dry wipe board, make use of this to save using up so much paper, which isn't cheap these days!
Have a puzzle day, solving jigsaw puzzles, crosswords, and other brain teasers. You might be able to borrow different puzzles from friends or relatives, or as per idea number 3, you might be able to borrow some from a toy library. If you do want to buy some new ones, make sure you check out the charity shops for bargains or Facebook Marketplace as many people have a clear out in the February half term, and so lots of items are added to Marketplace, so you might grab a bargain, or try Olio, as often people give their old games away via this free service.
Have a trivia day at home, testing each other's general knowledge. There are loads of age-related general knowledge questions and answer sheets online; just give them a Google!
National Rail offer loads of discounted 2 For 1 deals or discounts on entry to attractions across the UK, when you travel by train to get there. Normally a full-priced adult ticket will need to have been purchased to get the free child tickets. You can also get discounts at restaurants as well, so these savings can soon add up! Also, check out the Kellogg's free adult entry ticket offer for attraction tickets that can be found on some cereal boxes. It's one free adult per entry voucher, and must be accompanied by a separate adult or child paying the full “On The Day” price, so always check about before taking advantage of the offer, as you can find cheaper deals sometimes!
Don't forget to check out our kids eating out guide, where you can get a kid's meal for free or just £1 this summer holiday!