School holiday are here! And I like it. Mind you, there is always an ajdustment period at my place, when the children are settling into a new routine and getting used to being around each other more. Three days it usually takes for us all to adjust.
This school holidays, I’m looking forward to lazy mornings, no school lunches and the flexibility to do things with the children when I want. The trick to fun school holidays is to keep the kids busy with enough down-time so Mum isn’t worn out.
To help you get the most out of this school hoidays, I’ve put together this MASSIVE list of 100 school holiday ideas. I’ve broken the list down into categories to help you find ideas that will suit you and your kids. If you want to plan the weeks out, The Organised Housewife has a free School Holiday Planner Printable . Have fun!
100 School Holiday Activity Ideas
-
Home: Inside
-
At Home: Outside
-
At Home: Arty and Crafty
-
Out and About
-
Adventurous
-
At Night
-
When It’s Raining
-
Quiet Time
At Home: Inside
1. Make an ant farm.
2. Bake cupcakes.
3. Make a cubby house under the table.
4. Invite friends over to play.
5. Make homemade pizza.
6. Dance to music.
7. Have a theme day. This may be butterflies, pirates, princesses, fairies, dinosaurs or a particular colour.
8. Make an inside obstacle course with cushions, pillows, boxes, chairs and blankets.
9. Ice biscuits.
10. Play dress ups and do a play.
11. Make a themed play space: in a large rectangle bucket or tray create your own play scene. For example: use a smaller container (like an empty margarine container) filled with water, and in the rectangle bucket place rocks, small twigs, bark or sticks from trees for an outdoor scene. I love this one from Picklebums.
12. Go on a colour hunt in your house. Collect objects of a certain colour and take a picture of your finds to make a collage. Also an idea by Picklebums.
13. Buy a note book and get the child/ren to write a school holiday diary (or draw pictures every day for young children).
14. Reorganise the children’s room (with their help).
15. Make fruit Kebabs.
16. Write a letter to someone.
At Home: Outside
17. Hang a sheet from a tree to make an outside cubby house.
18. Fly (cut to length) crepe streamers in the wind.
19. Eat outside.
20. Do general gardening or plant a vegetable or herb garden.
21. Make an outside obstacle course. Click here for ideas.
22. Play Backyard games.
23. Blow bubbles. Frills in the Hills has a great recipe for homemade bubble mixture.
24. Do an outside treasure hunt.
25. Create an outdoor play garden. Create a small space of dirt and fill with pots, small rake, bucket, spoons, utensils and solid plastic toys like animal figurines. I like this one from The Imagination Tree.
26. Make a flower head wreath.
At Home: Arty and Crafty
27. Make fairy wings.
28. Make a Zorro mask out of a strip of black material with two eye cut outs.
29. Create a family artwork on a large canvas.
30. Make recycled paper.
31. Collect flowers and press them inside book between baking paper.
32. Colour-in. You can print a variety of colouring in sheets online.
33. Face painting.
35. Make a robot out of cardboard boxes.
36. Make a treasure map out of brown paper.
37. Make a musical tree. See here for details.
38. Be crafty at home: knit, paper craft, play dough, cooking or painting.
39. Make up a travel drawing box.
40. Paint toe nails. (Boys like this too!)
41. Make boats out of milk bottle lids, a straw (for the mast), paper (for the sail) and blue-tack to stick the sail on to the boat.
42. Make a leaf collage picture.
43. Glue cut out pictures from a magazine or junk mail to a piece of paper.
44. Make a photo book: take photos of your favourite things and collate them into a book.
45. Make sock puppets by gluing wool on the top of an old sock and using a permanent marker to draw eyes, nose and a mouth.
46. Do a self-portrait. Stick a large piece of butchers to the wall (or lay on the floor) and trace around your body.
47. Make a long paper-clip chain.
Out and About
48. Visit a museum
49. Go Geocaching.
50. Go window shopping and have a special morning tea.
51. Go see a movie.
52. Eat a big ice-cream.
53. Visit a library.
54. Fly a kite.
55. Have a picnic outside.
56. Visit a park or playground.
57. Look out for butterflies and birds for a day.
58. Go fruit picking.
59. Plan a day trip:
-
animal farm
-
new town
-
historical village
-
market
-
environmental centre
-
hiking
-
bush walking
-
drive up a mountain
-
visit the beach
-
the country
-
theme park
60. Visit someone lonely.
61. Collect shells on the beach.
62. Go ten tin bowling.
63. Visit a planetarium.
64. Feed ducks at a pond.
65. Go fishing.
66. Look for organised school holiday opportunities at art schools, museums, shopping centres, national parks, libraries and councils.
67. Go swimming. (If Winter, look for a heated pool).
68. Visit and share something of your own childhood with your child/ren. This may be a home you lived in as a child, where you honeymooned or favourite place.
69. Look for free activities at a shopping centre.
70. Go for a walk.
71. Visit Dad or Mum at work.
Adventurous
72. Go Bike-riding
73. Catch a train.
74. Go Ice-skating or roller-skating.
75. Catch a bus.
76. Go on a bush walk or hike.
77. Go on a nature hunt.
78. Make a cubbyhouse from items from a second hand shop.
79. Catch a ferry.
80. Allow your kids to learn a new skill. Look for workshops in horse-riding, pottery, art, rock climbing and drama.
81. Have a quest. This may be photographing butterflies for a day, hunting for cool letterboxes, looking for street signs for the names of the people in your family or tasting 3 different types of cookies and cream ice-cream.
At Night
82. Look at the stars.
83. Walk on the beach at dusk
84. Go on a nature walk down your street with a torch.
85. Have a movie night. You can make your own popcorn cups by making a cone shape with a piece of paper and taping it together.
86. Toast marshmallows in the oven before threading them on to sticks (parent would do this).
87. Eat at a family restaurant.
When It’s Raining (also see At Home: Inside)
88. Go to an indoor play centre.
89. Play with umbrellas in the rain.
90. Collect rain in a bucket.
91. Play inside games like hide and seek or duck, duck goose.
92. Photograph the raindrops on the window and include them in a photo book.
93. Go for a drive in the car.
94. Visit a friend’s house (or invite a friend over to play at your place).
Quiet Time
95. Play board/card games like Monopoly, Dictionary, Pictionary, Snap, Taboo, Hungry Hippo, Scategories, The Old Maid.
96. Watch a DVD at home.
97. Stay in your PJs all day.
98. Make a “city” with cars, toys and boxes for buildings.
99. Lie on the grass and watch the clouds.
100. Have “rest” time where everyone plays quiet games like reading or puzzles on their own bed.
If you have more ideas to add, leave them in the comments below.
School Holiday Activities by State
School Holiday Activities in NSW
School Holiday Activities in QLD
School Holiday Activities in VIC
School Holiday Activities in SA
School Holiday Activities in NT
School Holiday Activities in WA
School Holiday Activities in TAS
Be A Fun Mum School Holiday Activities
15 Adventurous Things To Do With Kids
Family Holiday Links
Entertaining Kids When Travelling
Printable Holiday Packing Lists
beafunmum
beafunmum
beafunmum
{ 39 comments… read them below or add one }
As soon as I saw your message yesterday about this list, I was knew I’d be reading it while I eat my rice bubbles! The list is awesome – we will checking of quite a few of these I’m sure!!! Meegan
Great! Hope the list is helpful, a and enjoy your rice bubbles.
If anyone says “I’m Bored” they have a serious problem!” Awesome list.
Shall knock over a few once the novelty of our new sand villiage “Rileys World” has run out.
Exactly, there’s enough ideas here to last months LOL. I want to visit Riley’s world too. Sounds fun hehe
Awesome list Kelly, we’ve still got 2 more weeks of school here in SA, so I’ve got plenty of time to get organised.
Thanks Stacey! Hope you enjoy the School Hols! x
What a great list. Thank you as I am sure to need it.
Great! Hope it helps!
Thanks for such a great list Kelly, it will come in very handy for sure.
No worries Nellbe. Enjoy the hols.
My girls made up their own game today – taking turns towing each other around in a cardboard box on the driveway. only needs a cardboard box (big enough for kid to sit in and a skipping rope (or other rope). 1 child stands a few feet in front of the box and wraps skipping rope around their waist, so that both handles are at the back. 2nd child sits in the box, and holds both handles. First child starts pulling forwards and hopefully they move a decent amount before the box hits an obstruction (rock, crack in pavement) and the box tips. Misses 5 and 8 liked it so much, the took the box to their Dad’s house to play it again (even though the bottom of the box looked decidedly worse for wear)!
That brought a smile to my face Steph. Just gorgeous!
Brilliant!
Happy school holidays Julie.
Fun & helpful ideas. Fantastic post =).
Your site really is a wonder! I loved your iphone camera tips and this is a great list of things to do in the holidays. Hope you’re having a lovely weekend..Rachaelxx
Thank you Rachael! Such a lovely thing to say! I’m so glad you’re enjoying the blog. Makes me glad. x
You well and truly have it covered. Thank you Kelly for sharing such a fabulous list.
You’re welcome!
Genius as always Kel. How about climb a tree and scare the bajingies out of Mum by how high you can get, then make her climb up and get you because you are too scared to climb down… Or was that just my brothers and I as kids? We grew up on acreage and climbing trees was always a favourite!
BAHAHA! That sounds like a very familiar scenario. Climbing trees is a heap of fun. I’m still known to do it. True story!
What a fab list, it’s great to gather ideas from others particularly with 4 kids and the summer break just weeks away! Other things i do include, beauty salon and the boys love having their sister glitter them up. Shaving foam or cornflour make good messy play or kitchen fun and clean up very easily.
Oooo yes! Shaving cream is awesome isn’t it? Thanks Helen.
Thanks Kel – my two boys are driving me crazy already with the “I’m bored” “Can we do something?” “What are we doing today”. I’ve pulled out the old Power Ranger DVDs and that keeps them occupied after breakfast for an hour so I can get all the essentials done but today, when that is done, we are going to sit down with your list and make a plan.
Thanks heaps!
Hope you’re feeling inspired Leisa! And I hope you enjoy some of the activities and they steer of the boredom xx
What a great list! Thanks – will link this via facebook. And yes, every holiday there is the settle in period – we find if we do something a bit different – big days out or the weekend away.. they get used to each other without the explosions.
Thanks Michelle!
hey guys, im from bangladesh and spending a long winter vacation. in bd, these are impossible for a mum and child to do. we live in apartments, no gardens, children are not allowed to go outdoor, and are given no money. the’re beaten or scolded if they just mess up in the house.
hey:) i’m 12 and surprisingly am not a mother. i read through your blog and i will be doing most of those things myself as i still enjoy doing all this kind of stuff. thanks a ton for making my holiday just that much more fun. xx Lucy
I think i’ll print this page out a then cut out the ideas
And put them in different boxes, e.g. Rainy days and then
I’ve always got great ideas on hand.
Thankyou so much for creating this list
What a wonderful idea Hannah! Love it!
Here are a few more that we have done these holidays:
1. Wash the car with water balloons
2. Shoot down bubbles with water pistols
3. Draw targets with chalk and throw wet balls at them to score points
4. Use chalk to draw a car track on the cement to play on (the wash it off afterwards with a hose)
5. Turn the couches into a fort for playing knights and princesses (mummy gets to sit on the couch and come up with various missions such as saving all the teddies from the nasty dragon)
6. Paint and colour a landscape scene then stick on coloured in pictures of diggers etc
7. Write and illustrate a silly story together. We wrote “Grandma’s super special spy paints” about how our Grandma was no ordinary Grandma, but instead wrote invisible messages in her paintings. Grandma loved it too!
Precisely how much time did it take u to publish “100 School Holiday Activity Ideas”?
It includes quite a bit of beneficial knowledge.
With thanks ,Nila
“100 School Holiday Activity Ideas” was indeed a great
blog. In case it possessed alot more pix this would
likely be possibly even better. Regards -Paul
Its such as you learn my thoughts! You seem to grasp so much approximately this, like you
wrote the book in it or something. I feel that you can do
with some p.c. to force the message house a bit, however instead of that, that is wonderful blog.
A great read. I will certainly be back.
Thanks for some other informative web site. Where else could I get that type of information written in such
an ideal method? I have a project that I am simply now operating on, and I’ve been at the glance out for such information.
I know this if off topic but I’m looking into starting my own blog and was curious what all is needed to get set up? I’m assuming having
a blog like yours would cost a pretty penny? I’m not very web smart so I’m not
100% positive. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks
Pretty! This has been an extremely wonderful post.
Many thanks for supplying these details.
{ 13 trackbacks }