School Holiday Boredom Busters (on a budget)!

School holidays sneak up quickly and the juggling act of managing work, finding ways to keep the kids entertained and not breaking the budget can be tricky!

We’re advocates for making space for some quiet time at home during the holidays, providing opportunity to rest and recharge. With extra-curricular activities, catch ups with friends or family travel, the school holidays can become very busy.

There are lots of ideas to keep kids occupied, that don’t involve a screen. However, it’s also not a bad thing for kids to experience boredom sometimes. It teaches them to be resourceful, self-directed and often unleashes creativity. So, even if there is a bit of moping around and complaining about being bored, it may inspire some great ideas and new activities.

It can be helpful to have a few ideas ready to suggest and materials prepared for those moments when boredom strikes. So, here’s a list of our current favourite activities that have proven to be great boredom busters with our kids.

Arts & Crafts

There are endless possibilities for arts and crafts. Sometimes just giving your child some inspiration to get started is all that is needed. We like to gather up various items and store them together in a large box or tub that is easily accessible. Save some old cereal boxes or cartons, cardboard, scrap paper or magazines. Add in things like paints, coloured pencils, glue, scissors or string. Then,  encourage your child to be creative. Perhaps they could make a town out of the boxes, or a spaceship or some funny masks, or anything they can come up with!

Build a Cubby House or Fort

This makes a great indoor and outdoor activity. We generally opt for a cubby under the dining table with some sheets, blankets and pillows. It’s quick, easy and doesn’t involve too much packing away later. Our kids love having a picnic in their cubby, or sometimes use it as a quiet place to read, draw or listen to music. If you have extra space at home, or a spare room, give your kids the freedom to design and build a cubby that they can leave for a few days. This will provide days of entertainment and could be a fun place for them to ‘camp’ overnight. 

Have a Play Date

What better way to entertain children, than with other children? Arranging time for your child to hang out with friends in the holidays maintains their social connections and gives them experience socialising in different settings. The novelty of having a friend over brings excitement back to their existing toys, sparks imagination and sets the stage for entirely new games to be created. Spending time with friends also provides a nice way to learn about other families and different cultures.  

Make an Obstacle Course

Make your backyard or living room into a fun adventure zone. Design a short course with activities and challenges that use different motor skills. For example, balancing a small ball on a spoon, throwing a ball into a container, doing some star jumps, balancing on one leg or threading beads onto some string.  A great way to design the course is to write all the tasks on pieces of scrap paper, put them in a container and it can be a lucky dip! Your child may like to time themselves and try to beat their record or change the order of activities around and add some extra challenges. This is an excellent opportunity to be creative, strengthen their motor skills and burn off some energy.  This is also an activity with great appeal to children with varied age groups.

Do a Home Science Experiment

There are so many items in household cupboards that can be used to do easy at-home science experiments. Don’t be alarmed about the potential mess; most can be done outsides and are quite easy to clean up! The usual ideas include experimenting with (baking powder, vinegar and some food colouring) or learning about states of matter through mixing cornflour and water. In our house, this is called ‘gloop’. Gloop also makes a fantastic sensory experience for younger children who may not yet be interested in the underlying science! Another easy activiy we love is pouring milk into a shallow container or bowl and adding drops of different food colouring. Dip a cotton bud in and watch what happens. Now, first dip the cotton bud in dishwashing liquid and then dip it into the food colouring. What happens? These experiments are quick and easy but make fantastic conversation and learning opportunities for your children (and even yourself)!

Create a story book

This is a personal favourite of ours, as it provides a quiet activity that can fill time across several days, or even weeks of the school holidays. Your child may wish to create a story that is mostly text, an illustrated story or even a comic strip. Give them easy access to old magazines, pictures, birthday cards or similar, that they could use to accompany their story. Another idea is seeing what story they can create as a collage, just by using images they cut out.  When the pages are ready, help your child make their book. Encouraging your child to write a blurb, publishing details or ‘about the author’ adds a nice touch. To bind the book, you can staple the pages together or use a hole punch and secure the pages with some string.  Your child will love having a finished copy of their book to share with family and friends.

These can also make excellent activities for parents, carers and other family members or friends to get involved with. When choosing activities to do with your child, do your best to put away work, screens and general life-admin demands to be fully present (even if it’s only ten minutes) to ensure the quality time you spend together is enjoyable for you both!