Break the boredom and get creative with you children this summer! Not everything you do with your children has to be expensive or require you to leave the comfort of your own home; in fact, there are hundreds of ideas to educate your children and keep them busy. Rather than bore you with a list of them all, we have selected a variety of cheap activities that we think are the best to keep you and your kids busy this summer.
- Child’s Garden Space
Why not segregate a small portion of your garden so your child can have their own personal area where they can grow all sorts? Simple plants such as herbs, strawberries, snap peas are all brilliant starters. Herbs and snap peas are fast growing, whilst strawberries require a bit more attention, they can nurture them and watch as the leaves develop into flowers, and then into beautiful, juicy, red strawberries!
- Grow Vegetables/herbs without soil
If your garden is too small for any plants, or there is no access to soil where plants can properly grow, worry not! Some vegetables can actually grow without soil; all you need is: glass/plastic bottle, water and a minimum 6-inch cutting of the plant you wish to grow.
The best herbs you grow are: Basil, Oregano, Peppermint, Sage and many others!
The best vegetables you can grow are: Lettuce, Spinach, Tomatoes, Cucumber and Celery
- Fairy Garden
These are so easy to make and can be a great way for your child to engage their imagination and let them create their own world for fairies. Most garden centres now stock miniature items as they are in high demand which can be ideal for your child’s fairy world, whether that’s miniature houses, animals or plants!
- Garden Games
A lot of children have become preoccupied with material objects being the only way to have fun, but pre-digital age, imaginations ran wild and some classic ‘playground games’ were created! For instance tig – one person is on who chases the rest and if they touch someone, that person is then on. Others such as hop scotch, hide and seek, tree climbing, stone skimming and rounders are great fun.
- Designing and flying kites
For this, all you need is: a heavy duty plastic bag (a supermarket reusable will do), roll of electrical tape, two lengths of hardwood dowel as long as your bag, light but strong synthetic thread and a piece of wood/cardboard for the winder. Follow the link below for the method: https://livewellforless.sainsburys.co.uk/step-by-step-guide-to-making-a-kite/
- Stone-painted garden creatures
This one is quite simple really, as long as you have some paint of different colours knocking around. Go outside and search for some stones of all sorts of shapes and sizes, smooth and rough, then bring them home and clean them. Next, get a pencil and draw your animal on the stone, before painting away and creating some fantastic creatures! They would go really well in the fairy garden also.
- Wind Chimes
This may be a little trickier, but it is still fairly straightforward. All you need is a plank of wood, or a relatively thick stick to which you drill holes through and thread pieces of string through with beads at the end. You then have a choice of many things to attach to act as your chimes which can be anything from sea shells, to old keys, to stones anything that makes a noise really!
- Backyard Target Practice
Are you tired of being the target yourself and getting soaked? Build a target practice for your children to aim their water guns at instead! Provided you already have the water guns, build a tower of any size with empty plastic cups and get your kids to aim at. Cheap, easy and fun!
- Water Balloon Piñata
A lot less mess, a lot more fun! As a great way to cool the kids down this summer, fill a water balloon with water, find somewhere to hang it and get the kids to beat it down blindfolded. Whilst it may not contain sweets, which we know is a big fun factor for kids, it is a great way of getting them to cool down, provided their aim is good!
10. Blackberry picking
As one of my all time favourite activities, blackberry picking was both fun and a great way to pass time. Grab a few containers and find your local blackberry bushes (they usually grow everywhere), then with your collection you can do allsorts with them, bake cakes, make jam, in fact you can even eat them as you go – although you may want to take some water to give them a rinse before consuming!
