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50 Cheap School Holiday Activities →

1- Go camping in the garden or backyard, or even just in the living room. If you already have a tent, this doesn’t cost a thing. Serve up some hotdogs and tell stories until you fall asleep. 2- Have a movie day if you don’t want to head outside. This is perfect for a rainy day. Rent a few kids movies and stock up on popcorn. 3- Plant vegetables with the kids. You don’t even need a garden for this. Most of the fun comes from finding containers to recycle as pots, painting them, and planting the seeds. Choose something that grows fast and start on the first day of holidays, so the kids can see them grow each day. 4- Take a day at the beach. The only expense is the fuel and snacks while you’re out in the sun. 5- Visit the Sydney Observatory. They have a whole range of free activities for kids, including Lego Space Police. If you want to spend a little (up to around $45), you can enjoy the 3D Space Theatre or take a night visit. 6- Visit a farm. Many farmers will be happy to give a short tour to a group of kids, and they might be able to pet some of the animals. 7- Go to a local museum or art gallery to have fun while learning about local culture. 8- Head out to a local park and have a BBQ picnic. Let the little guys help pack the food to get them excited about the trip. 9- Make salt dough ornaments (the instructions are here on the site). 10- Let them dig for fossils – bury a bunch of cheap dinosaur toys in the yard or garden and give everyone a plastic spade for digging. You can even buy some inexpensive “replica” dinosaur bones online or at a museum. 11- Write a story with your kids. Get them interested in writing and literature. 12- Have a masquerade party at your house, and let the kids make their own masks out of paper plates, elastic bands, and paint, feathers, and glitter. 13- Write a play with your kids that they can act out. You can let them make all the costumes and sets for the play. 14- Take a trip to Kangaroo Valley, which is where wombats are known to come out at sundown. 15- During Christmas holiday, you can make cards with the kids to send out to relatives. 16- Make a collage – you can pick up items at the beach or a local park, stuff like shells, leaves, or driftwood, and then bring it home and glue it all to a piece of cardboard. 17- Head out to a national park and do a bushwalk. Depending on the park you go to, the entry fee could range up to $11. 18- Get a small face painting kit and spend the day painting the kids’ faces. Then, let them try it out on each other. 19- Build a sandcastle. If you live near the beach, there are plenty of activities to do during a day trip. 20- Make fresh juice. Get out the juicer and let your kids choose what kinds of crazy cocktails they want to drink. You’ll be surprised at what they come up with! 21- Use macaroni or costume store beads to make necklaces, bracelets, and more. This is great with girls, but boys actually have a good time too. 22- Plan a treasure hunt. Hide clues around the house or garden and give your kids a treasure map to start out with. 23- Grab a pair of binoculars and go birdwatching, then make a list of all the birds and look up information about them on the internet later. 24- Go for a bike ride! Simple, yet surprisingly fun. 25- Find a variety of leaves and do leaf rubbings: Place the leaf under a sheet of paper, and rub a pencil across the paper to make an imprint of the leaf’s shape. 26- Go see the Aboriginal rock drawings at Bundeena. It’s free! 27- Invite some playmates over. Sometimes, all you need to do is bring a friend over and set them loose. 28- Take a trip to the Australian National Maritime Museum. In fact, check online for all the local museums around your area. 29- Have a fashion show. Let the kids wear some of your blouses and dresses and have them parade down the runway. Take pictures to send to relatives. 30- Head over to the Art Gallery of NSW. They have periodic free performances, along with 2 hour art courses that the kids will love for $25. 31- Play a detective game. Either set up a mystery, or just give the kids magnifying glasses and “police notebooks” (regular notebooks) to hunt for clues. 32- Set up an afternoon tea party in the garden. 33- Have food colouring experiments: Set up jars of water with different colours and dip in vegetables, flowers, or anything else you can think of. 34- A simple game of hide and seek is always fun. Play at night in the dark to make it extra thrilling. 35- Take a trip to see the grandparents. This is a treat for the kids as well as the grandparents. 36- Take a tour around your city. Even after years of living there, you’ll be surprised at all the new and culturally significant places you didn’t know about. 37- Head over to a nearby botanical garden with a picnic lunch and a few books. Let the kids run around and play while you relax. 38- Get up early in the morning and go to a local farmer’s market or fair. The kids might grumble at first, but they’ll end up having a great time. 39- Go fishing for the afternoon and catch dinner. 40- Make your own kites and then head outside to play with them. 41- If you’re feeling creative, try a paper mache project. It makes a mess, but it’s a whole lot of fun. 42- Look up a few simple science experiments online and then do them with your kids. Who says holidays can’t be educational?? 43- Do a theme day: Choose a colour, and everything that day has to go along with that colour. For example, if you choose red then you wear red clothes, eat food coloured red, make paintings or crafts with red paint, etc. 44- Make a scrap book. 45- Go out to Olympic Park for an afternoon of rollerblading or biking. 46- Spend an afternoon at the zoo. All you pay is the admission. 47- Go to the bowling alley for a couple hours of fun. Bowling is inexpensive, and most of the time there will be an air hockey table if the kids get bored. 48- Have a cooking day, where you bake a bunch of different desserts. This is always a hit because you get to eat them later! 49- Put on a dance party. Find or make some costumes to make it even more fun. 50- Find a local theatre that puts on live shows and bring the kids. Many theatres will put on free shows, but make sure it’s family friendly! Read more http://www.stayathomemum.net.au/my-kids/activities/50-cheap-school-holiday-activities/

Tagged: kidsholidaysschoolschool holidaysfun