Summer holidays, you either love them or hate them. I am never sure about which camp I am in. I love spending time with the children but do worry about the cost of summer activities. I relish not having to get up each morning and giving up the school routine, but I don’t like hearing the words “I’m Bored” That is why I came up with the bored jar (about four years ago).
Over the years we have come up with hundreds of different ideas for low cost and no cost summer activities and this year we decided to put a shout out to some of our blogging friends for their ideas for summer activities.
Over 150 Low cost and no cost summer activities
So don’t worry we have it covered, we have things to see and do, places to go, ideas for things to make and also loads of ideas of things to cook. Whether you have a tot or a teen or something in between there will be something for everyone. You can always print these lists off and add them to your bored jar, but make sure you also add a list of age appropriate chores so that the kids never know what they might get!
Summer Activities
Go
- Teddy Bears Picnic – Dear Bear and Beany
- Go on a Scavenger Hunt with Free Printable – Mum in the Mad House
- Go for a walk collecting sticks etc for nature crafts – Mummy Alarm
- Go to the Beach – Mum in the Mad House
- Go for a walk along your local river or canal and feed the birds – My Mummy’s World
- Take a dog for a walk – Mum in the Mad House
- Eat your meals in the garden and call it a picnic – Meet the Wildes
- Go foraging for blackberries (If in season) – Le Coin de Mel
- Go to a pick your own farm – Babies and Beauty
- Go on a Gruffalo Hunt – The Mum Diaries
- Go on a rainbow nature hunt – Little Hearts Big Love
- Go for a scooter ride – Mum in the Mad House
- Science at the Splash Park– From Engineer to SAHM
- Nature Walk an d then make brackets – Simple as That
- Go on a family picnic – Mum in the Mad House
Make
- DIY LEGO Fidget Spinners – Mum in the Mad House
- Mondrian Inspired Jar Luminaries – Mum in the Mad House
- Polymer Clay Monsters – Mum in the Mad House
- DIY Dreamcatcher Tutorial – Mum in the Mad House
- Make Button Bracelets – Mum in the Mad House
- How to make simple paper roses – Mum in the Mad House
- Try building boats and see if they can float in the stream. Paper or little rafts with sticks – Susan K Mann
- Craft Stick Harmonica – Mum in the Mad House
- Washi Decorated Toilet Roll Bracelets or Cuffs – Mum in the Mad House
- Make a journey stick – Growing Family
- Make a Toilet Roll Microphone for the SING Movie – Mum in the Mad House
- DIY Craft Foam Stamps – Mum in the Mad House
- Create and tick things off your Family Wild List – LarabeeUK
- How to make a Pompom sheep – Mum in the Mad House
- Cake case daffodils – Mum in the Mad House
- How to make picture tile coasters – Mum in the Mad House
- DIY Vanilla Peppermint Lip Scrub – Mum in the Mad House
- Make craft stick fairy doors – Mum in the Mad House
- Toadstool Fairy House – Mum in the Mad House
- Make Paper Bird Kites – Scandi Mummy
- DIY Toy Parachute – Mum in the Mad House
- Make a lolly stick bird feeder – We made this life
- DIY Phone Amplifier and Stand – Mum in the Mad House
- Tin Can Lanterns – Rainy Day Mum
- DIY Daffodil Clay Pots or Candle Holders – Mum in the Mad House
- Floating chalk prints – Mum in the Mad House
- Plastic Bottle Wind Spiral Mobile – Mum in the Mad House
- LEGO Sun Prints – Little bins for little hands
- DIY Garden lantern from a plastic bottle – Mum in the Mad House
- Maths and Art Collide = Parabolic curves – Mum in the Mad House
- DIY Superhero Masks – Crafting with Tweens – Mum in the Mad House
- Faux stained glass art for kids – Mum in the Mad House
- Make your own Blow Art Paper Plate Lion – Mum in the Mad House
- Spray Bottle Art – Adventures in a Box
- Scrap fabric paper dolls – Mum in the Mad House
- Yarn wrapped sticks – Mum in the Mad House
- How to make DIY Tie Dye Gift Wrap – Mum in the Mad House
- Printing Flowers with Celery Stalks – Mum in the Mad House
- How to Make a Craft Stick Wall Hanging – Mum in the Mad House
- Nail Varnish Marbled Coasters – Mum in the Mad House
- Rainbow rainmaker or rainstick – Cardboard tube craft
- Watermelon Ship Summer Craft – Adventures in a Box
- How to make God’s Eyes/Ojo de Dios – Mum in the Mad House
- Paper beads from wrapping paper – Mum in the Mad House
- Marshmallow Catapult – Mum in the Mad House
- DIY Coloured Sand in a Bottle – Mother Natured
- Monster Big Nosed Bookmarks – Mum in the Mad House
- Craft Stick Process Art – Mum in the Mad House
- Weave a flower – Mum in the Mad House
- Make a Smash book (scrapbook) for kids – a step by step guide
- Flower Keyrings – Thimble and Twig
- DIY Puffy Paint – Mum in the Mad House
- Cup Weaving Tutorial – Mum in the Mad House
- Minion Stones – Mum in the Mad House
- Cardboard Tube Village – Mum in the Mad House
- Bleeding Tissue Paper Canvas Art – Mum in the Mad House
- Melted Crayon Art – Mum in the Mad House
- Monster Pencil Toppers – Red Ted Art
- Love Books Free Colouring Bookmarks – Mum in the Mad House
- Glue resist Art – Mum in the Mad House
- The BFG’s Frobscottle Recipe – Mum in the Mad House
- Make a Rainbow Windsock – Mum in the Mad House
Play and Do
- Create and tick things off your Family Wild List – LarabeeUK
- Simple Stop Motion for Kids – Mum in the Mad House
- Colour and Clean Car Wash – No Time for Flashcards
- 110 Summer acts of kindness for kids
- Shoebox table football/foosball table – Mum in the Mad House
- Have a dolls clothes washing day – Our Daily Craft
- Read a book – Mum in the Mad House
- Tye Dye old clothes with fabric dye – Gee Gardener
- Cook on stick Damper Bread – Mum in the Mad House
- Have fun making Mud Pies – 92Three30
- Balloon Hovercraft – Mum in the Mad House
- Shell Sorting – No Time for Flashcards
- Pool noodle and shaving foam summer steam activity – Little bins for little hands
- DIY Marble Maze – Mum in the Mad House
- Ocean Sensory Bin – Frogs and Fairies
- Listen to an Audio Book – Mum in the Mad House
- Toy surfboard or windsurf board – Mum in the Mad House
- Erupting Car Wash – Views from a Step Stool
- Pixar’s Inside Out stress balls – Mum in the Mad House
- DIY Toy Waterslide – Preschool Steam
- Supersoaker sponge water play – Natural Beach Living
- Make a bubble snake maker – Mum in the Mad House
- Homemade Water Wall – Little bins for little hands
- Three Ingredient Wildflower Goop – Crafts on Sea
- Outdoor Olympics – The Wise Owl Factory
- Under the Sea Frozen Play – Natural Beach Living
- How to Make Rainbow Milk – Mum in the Mad House
- Do some Gardening – Mum in the Mad House
- Play football with Friends
- Play garden games – Mum in the Mad House
- Sunflower Colouring Page – Mum in the Mad House
Cook and Bake
- Yoghurt and Berry Crunch
- Kids Dessert Buffet
- A Minions Milkshake
- Vegetable & Salsa Verde Scone Pizza
- Fab home made ice lollies and popsicles for kids
- Veggie Taco Bowls
- Peanut butter and chocolate bites
- Dinosaur footprint shortbread
- Spiced Butternut Soup
- Tomato and courgette bruschetta
- Classic kedgeree with green asparagus
- Vegetable stuffed omelette
- Baked Chicken Parmesan or Parmo
- White Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Homemade Pizza Recipe
- Chicken Tikka Masala
- The perfect Victoria Sponge
- How to make Fat Rascals
- Hairy Hot Dogs or Scary Spaghetti
- Quinoa apple cake
- Chicken Fajita Wraps
- Madeira Cake
- Easy Edible Pokeballs
- Dinosaur footprint loaded flapjacks
- Raspberry Muffins
- Lemonade Scones
- Tea flavoured Shortbread Recipe
- A is for Apple muffins
- B is for Banana and chocolate chip muffins
- C is for Carrot cake
- D is for Dough – Pizza recipe
- E is for Eggy bread or french toast
- F is for Flour and M&M cookies
- G is for Grape and yoghurt bites
- H is for grilled halloumi and honey mustard salad
- I is for Italian – spaghetti bolognese
- J is for Jam tarts
- K is for Kiwi smoothie
- L is for Lemon Madeira cake
- M is for Mushroom Mini Pizza Bites
- N is for Nuts, Pistachio ice cream
- O is for Olive damper bread on a stick
- P is for Peppers – Chicken fajitas
- Q is for Quinoa – Apple cinnamon cake
- R is for Rice – Nasi Goreng
- S is for Spaghetti – Hairy Hotdogs
- T is for Tomato – Tomato and courgette bruschetta
- U is for Udon Noodles – Lamb Stirfry
- V is for Vegetarian – Basil and tomato baked eggs
- X is for Xmas – Gingerbread Trees
- Y is for Yogurt – Mini yoghurt and fruit bites
- Z is for Zest – Fat Rascals
What are your favorite frugal summer activities to do with the kids? I would love to know, please leave me a comment and let me know.
Hi, these are aimed more towards children 7+ but they might still be useful – free music activities and print-out challenges to keep children busy and encourage lots of fun through music: http://musicmethod.london/music-activities/parent-blog-free-music-activities-for-the-summer-holidays/
I think one of my favourites above is the 100 acts of kindness for children! Thanks for sharing. Chloe (from Music Method)
I’m a comper and there’s always loads of fab competitions around the 6 weeks holidays. a lot of them are creative and this is where the kids come in! They love to help me make videos or pictures for entries. There’s also a lot of competitions aimed directly at children such as writing short stories or drawing a picture. This encourages my kids to get more crafty than they usually would and there’s always the chance they might win a prize! We’ve been lucky enough to win days out with some of our competition entries!
What a great post. So many great things to do over the summer. Will be saving this list xx
This is am amazing and exhaustive list, we love our bored jar for the holidays. Making it each year is an activity in itself the kids enjoy. Mich x
Wow. No excuses for a dull summer with these great tips. We are lucky to have lots of great free days out but the weather is spoiling them a bit. We must try some of these tomorrow thanks
Love these ideas, we’ve just been discussing doing the summer reading challenge and my son blurted out ‘it’s FREE!’ so I think my lectures about making your money stretch further are working 😉
Wow that’s us lot sorted!!
Thank you for sharing so many fab blogs too. We are only a few days into the summer holiday and struggling a little because the weather has been so wet x
What a wonderful post, I will be using quite a few of those fantastic suggestions… Thank you!..
Wow, what a great collection of fab ideas Jen!
I knew this would be the place to come for holiday activity ideas!! Now to fill a jar because it’s too difficult to choose! We are making the most of our NT membership this year, and will pop into the museum too. Also, our science centre, The Think Tank, gives free access to it’s activity garden after 3pm and it’s great fun.
That is such a great idea – a jar full with fun activities. I will definitely try it. Thank you xxx
Great tips! Thank you!!