Looking for some cheap and fun ways to keep your kids entertained and mentally stimulated during the school holidays? Look no further! Here are 27 ideas that will engage your children and promote learning:
- Create an obstacle course in your garden using toys, balls, hoops and cushions. This is a great way to keep your little one active, while learning spatial awareness and problem solving — building their confidence with every challenge. If you don’t have a garden, you can head down to one of Oldham’s great parks and green spaces.
- Create a treasure hunt with clues to solve. Depending on your child’s age, you can tweak the difficulty of the map or clues. Questions can build their learning, and puzzles or riddles will test your youngster’s problem-solving ability. If you have more than one child, this is perfect for boosting communication skills and encouraging good teamwork.
- Make paper boats, then race them in your bathtub or go together to try it in a nearby stream. Remember to be extra careful when near water: even the smallest puddle of water can be dangerous, so don’t leave your little one alone — even for a minute.
- Sensory play is fantastic for smaller children and youngsters with additional needs (SEND). Oldham Library’s sensory room is full of exciting sensory technology, including a musical touch wall, an LED interactive bubble tube and an interactive infinity tunnel! A 30-minute session costs £3.50 — you can book one here.
- Bake or cook together. This is an excellent way of building communication skills, learn about numbers and develop practical skills, like mixing and pouring without spillage. It’s also a great way to learn about nutrition together.
- Visit an art gallery like Gallery Oldham. Most art galleries are free to enter, and their excellent exhibitions give you a great opportunity to feed your children’s hungry minds. Talking about the art, images and colours is a brilliant way to build little ones’ communication. You can even check out the exhibitions online beforehand and see if your children can do a hunt to find the real-life exhibits.
- Have a board game tournament. This is good for bonding as a family but also a great way to build cognitive function, patience and taking turns. Older kids, can improve their general knowledge through trivia-style games, learning about geography, history, and science by listening and answering questions.
- Visit a local farm or take a walk around the countryside and see what animals you can find. It’s fun to learn about animals as you see and talk about them. Smaller children can learn their names and the noises they make, while you can make a bingo card at home for older children to mark off any animals they spot. Introduce broader wildlife and animals if you need to, like birds, foxes or dogs. You may not spot everything, but you can have a lot of fun while on the lookout. Lancaster Park and Animal Farm is a family-run children’s petting farm in Chadderton: find out about events and prices here.
- Create a family recipe book full of your favourite meals and treats. Draw pictures of your favourite foods and remember the ingredients. This can be a really good task for fussy eaters, and it’s a great way to learn about nutrition.
- Plant seedlings together and learn about plant life cycles to help your child learn about biology. You can do this in your garden and learn how sun and water help your seedlings grow into strong plants, fruits, and vegetables. If you don’t have a lot of outdoor space, you can grow them in a small yoghurt pot. You can even make some cress egg heads.
- Make homemade play dough. Playing with playdough is great for little ones’ hand-eye coordination and gross motor skills. They can learn about the colours and names of shapes as they create them using their hands. For older children, playing with playdough encourages creativity and social skills, as it’s a chance to be really inventive together. Can they use the dough to build a colourful castle or a pirate ship? Even if smaller children put it in their mouths, you can make sure it’s safe by making your own play dough.
- Go on a walk in nature with your child and collect different items, such as leaves or rocks. Talk about the different colours, shapes, and textures. Use the things you collect to make a memory book or as materials for craft activities.
- Have a family photo shoot where everyone gets dressed up and poses for pictures. Let your child try on your clothes and dress up like their parents, or create costumes out of things around the house. Can you find something fluffy for a fox’s tail, or turn a shirt into a doctor’s coat?
- Go on a picnic. You don’t have to go far and it can be as expensive as taking a cold lunch out into the garden or a local park. Younger ones can bring their teddies while older children can bring balls, play rounders or skipping ropes. Find a picnic spot near you
- Teach your kids basic coding principles, using resources like ScratchJr or Hopster Coding Safari. The world has never been more digital, and introducing these skills in a fun way could lead to great learning and employment opportunities later in life.
- Make paper aeroplanes and host a competition to see which flies the furthest. Use recycled paper from junk mail or newspapers, and watch this video for tips on how to make a high-flying plane.
- Create a family storybook, where everyone contributes a page. Use it for your memories or go on a walk and make up some stories. Write them down when you get home and draw pictures. It’s fantastic for sparking imagination and improving recall.
- Set up a science experiment station in your garden and explore different concepts. Encourage your child to predict what will happen and talk about the results. You can do this using early years experiments or try out some experiments with older children.
- Go on a walk or bike ride and explore a new area. Oldham has some of the best parks and outdoor spaces in the North West and, best of all, they’re free to visit. Find somewhere new to explore using the interactive map of Oldham’s parks and green spaces.
- Create an art gallery with your children’s drawings, paintings, and other masterpieces. Have fun creating them together, then display them proudly around your house. Stick them on windows if you’re struggling for wall space.
- Make amazing artwork with your child using different materials, like paper, paint, and markers. Encourage them to create a piece of art based on their favourite subject, such as animals or outer space. This is a great activity for children with additional needs (SEND).
- Build a fort and have a family sleepover in it. Do it in your garden or even in your front room. If it’s outdoors, be sure to sleep out with them and take lots of blankets to stay warm.
- Make your own musical instruments using household items and have a jam session. Put some rice in bottles to make maracas or make an elastic band guitar using a tissue box.
- Create some DIY sensory play. Fill containers with different materials, such as rice, sand, or water. Encourage your child to touch and explore the different textures. For older children, hide familiar objects in the containers and see if they can guess what they are from feeling alone.
- Have a dance party and teach each other some new moves. Have a dance-off with a prize: this can be as simple as a drawing or a tissue box guitar.
- Join your local library. Being a member of Oldham Libraries allows you to foster a love of books in your children from a very young age, unlocking thousands of stories you can enjoy together and giving them the tools to learn about the world. Best of all: it’s FREE! Join your local library today.
- Create your own sports day. Have an egg and spoon race, three-legged race, and see who can throw the furthest. Make a trophy to take with you as a crafting activity and see who can win it. This is a great way of making physical activity fun and it doesn’t have to cost a penny. If you don’t have a garden, you can hold your sports day in your local park or green space.
There are so many cheap and entertaining ways to keep your kids engaged and learning during school holidays. Don’t be afraid to get creative, and most importantly, enjoy the time with your kids!