School holidays can become really costly really fast if you haven’t planned ahead and found some ideas for entertaining the kids that don’t cost an arm and a leg.
Keeping the tribe entertained doesn’t have to be expensive. Here are five awesome and fun ideas for free holiday activities for kids that will keep them busy. And won’t break the bank. Winning…
1. Rock drops
If you haven’t heard of rock dropping – you must be living under a rock! No just kidding, it’s totally something I only heard about a few months back myself. This activity is actually the activity that keeps on giving. First – go and find some nice smooth rocks. You can take the kids out looking for the perfect rocks, or you can just go to Spotlight and grab a bag of rocks if you want to skip this step.
Then prepare the rocks for painting by cleaning them up and let the kids go nuts with painting and designing their rocks. If you need some inspiration – have a look here.
Then jump onto Facebook and search for your state and the word ‘Rocks’, so if you live in NSW, search for NSW Rocks. Join the group and take some photos of your rocks. Tell the rock hunters where you’re dropping them. And someone will be down there in a flash to collect your rocks! Keep an eye on the same page for other people’s rock drops so your kids can go hunting for new rocks too. For more info, click here. Now thats a unique & free holiday activity for kids!
2. Outdoors scavenger hunt
Want to get the kids outdoors? You might want to go somewhere on a little day trip like a beach or a national park but you know there’s going to be complaints about walking or being bored after five minutes. That’s where scavenger hunts are a total genius hack. If the kids think it’s a game, they’re in. You can have them searching for leaves, twigs, flowers, shells…. whatever! If you’re really organised, bring a container for them to collect their treasures in and when you get home, you can make a collage by sticking their treasures to some paper and making a visual display of their day. For loads of scavenger hunt templates, click here.
3. Find an epic playground
Parks aren’t just parks anymore – there are some real doozy’s that you absolutely have to experience with the kids.
There’s quite a few of them around – we went to visit a new one near us in western Sydney at Bungarribee Park and we could have spent the whole day there. In fact… plan to do that. Pack the sunscreen, hats, a picnic blanket, band-aids in case there is a stack – even swimmers and a towel for some of these parks that include water play! We made the mistake of going for what we had hoped was a short visit, but there was so much to do, see and explore it took some major bribery to get the kids to leave this super park. If you’re not sure where to find one of these gems – have a look at this article here.
If you’re looking for a free holdout activity for kids don’t just discount parks – they’re a whole lot more than they used to be!
4. Scoot, skate and ride
Depending on their age and their riding experience, there are so many options for the kids to get out and put the pedal to the metal. One of the things I am loving right now is the mini traffic school parks popping up everywhere. They’ve got speed humps, road signs, traffic lights and more to keep the kids entertained. All you need to do is bring the equipment and the safety gear and let them go! If you’re not lucky enough to live near one of these fab parks, do what we do – find a local netball or basketball court. You can make it fun yourself by bringing a few little obstacle type things and setting up your own course. Here’s a bike friendly park we found you earlier.
5. Search for free activities
Loads of museums, local businesses, local clubs, local libraries and even your local council are fantastic at putting on free holiday activities for kids. There are festivals, craft events, pop up events, brick building, kids bingo, free outdoor cinema screenings – you’ll be amazed at what you can find that’s happening during the holidays for free! A quick search on the internet and you’ll find dozens of options, but it’s also a great idea to follow these event organisers on Facebook or sign up for their newsletter so that they can tell you when they’ve got free family activities and save you the headache of searching for it.
This is a guest post from our Blogger of the Week, Amanda. Amanda is a blogger at Entertain My Tribe, where she shares family-friendly things to see and do across Australia. She’s an expert in free holiday activities for kids! Check out her blog here, or visit her Facebook and Instagram for more information.
