21 Cheap or Free Activities to Keep the Kids Entertained

Keeping the kids entertained over an extended period of time is not always the easiest. With school holidays parents are pretty much ready for the chaos heading their way, but in a time where Coronavirus is running wilder than the kids, entire countries are shutting up shop and school classes cancelled, parents are anxiously wondering 'how do I keep them occupied?'

It's no doubt a tough time ahead, and the life of a parent is about to get tougher (and crazier), but here are some free or cheap ideas to keep the kids from killing one another and sending you into a parental meltdown.

1) Afternoon Tea

Get the kids involved in the kitchen. To keep it simple, they can help to make the sandwiches for lunch and serve them up on pretty plates, or you may wish to go further. Go the full hog with cake baking and dressing up to dine like royalty for your Afternoon Tea. Who doesn't like to play make-believe?

2) Build a Fort

Relax the control and let your kids really use their imagination. Building a fort is a fantastic way to encourage their creativity and keep them occupied. Bring out the bedsheets and move the furniture. What's the story behind the fort? Could the floor be lava?

3) Scrap Booking

Daily we are inundated with magazines and flyers through our doors, and it's time to make use of them. Gather these up with any old magazines lying around the house and pop some paper in a binder, and there you have your scrapbook. Add some glue (or sellotape at a push) and kids can have some quiet time making their very own scrapbook. For older ones, they may want to write a story alongside the pictures.

4) Exploring with a Camera

A lot of kids have their own camera phone, but if not, let them borrow yours. Have a list of things around the house that they've to take photos of and look at the world through your kid's eyes. It may be small, but kids love a little challenge, especially if you sound excited.

5) Make Moon Sand

Making moon sand is easy peasy, and you most likely have all the ingredients in the house! Add one cup of baby oil to eight cups of flour and mix, viola, moon sand ready for hours of play. What's even better is moon sand is easy to clean once you are done. Perfect!

6) Create your own Cartoon

Screen time is a parents biggest battle (and greatest Godsend) at times. You may not want your precious little cherubs eyes glued to the TV for too long, so why not encourage them to create their very own cartoon? Get the paper and colouring kit out and let their imagination go wild. Who is their cartoon of? Do they have any superpowers?

7) Paper Planes

A golden oldie, but paper planes never really go out of fashion, do they? They may already know how to make them, or you may need to rehone some of your old paper plane making skills, but this can maybe give your kids enough of a distraction for you to have a cuppa. Challenge them to see who can get it furthest.

8) Indoor Hopscotch

Time to burn some energy. These little minds need somewhere to put all this pent up energy so let them release it in a positive way. Most people have masking tape, string or even coloured tape around the house. Look it out and design some indoor hopscotch. Unleash the little jumping jacks.

9) Karaoke Competition

If you have sympathetic neighbours, organise a karaoke competition. No need for an expensive machine. Grab a hairbrush and get Youtube open. Millions of songs to choose with loads having a karaoke version. You can have your very own X-Factor in your front room - particularly if you dress the part.

10) Treasure Map

Everyone loves a bit of a pirate's life. Another opportunity to look out the paper and colouring kit and get the kiddos to draw their own treasure map. Whether it's of the house, the street or further afield, this can give you a chance to get some chores done. X marks the spot.

11) Make some Play Dough

Mix 8 tablespoons of flour with two tablespoons of table salt in a bowl. In another bowl add 60ml of warm water, some food colouring and one tablespoon of vegetable oil. Mix both bowls together and stir with a spoon. Sprinkle a little flour on a worktop and knead the dough and there you have it, one batch of play dough. Repeat with different food colourings for more colours. Simples.

12) Spa Day

We all need some self-care and time under lockdown is no different. Arrange a spa day right there in your front room. Treat the tootsies with a spa basin (some bubbles and water) and add a little polish to the fingernails (if your brave, let your kid do yours). Wash your little one's hair and do some wet braids to create some natural waves. Some excellent relaxing bonding time.

13) Scavenger Hunt

The little monsters love to be running riot so send them on a scavenger hunt. Something beginning with 'B'. A red sock. A picture of Daddy. You get it...let them bring it!

14) Balloon Tennis

You may have some balloons leftover in a drawer from a birthday party. This is a perfect opportunity for some balloon tennis. Blow up the balloons, and their hands are the racket. You're at Wimbledon, can you hear the crowd roar? Just be sure to move any breakables out the way.

15) Car Tracks

Like most homes, you'll probably have some toy cars kicking about. Time to reinvent the track. Use some masking tape, string or coloured tape to set outlines of a track on your floor. Any cardboard laying around can be used to make ramps, and there you have it, an entirely new race track with some daredevils stunts that Evel Knievel would be proud of.

16) Make a Photo Album

You may have loads of pictures of the family lying around or in your phone just waiting to be sorted. Now is the perfect time to sit with your kids and go through them. Usually, they love hearing stories, especially if they were too young to remember them. This kills two birds with one stone - kids are occupied while you get one of those 'I'll do it one-day' tasks out the way.

17) Board Games

It's not long after Christmas, so there is a chance that a few of their board games are still intact. Let them choose their favourite and settle down for some good old fashion family time with board games. Just have your referee whistle to hand.

18) Junk Modelling

With households doing so much more recycling, we all typically have a bin full of plastic bottles, tubs and loo rolls. Gather up a bunch and get some junk modelling done. From rockets to robots, encourage their little minds to build an awesome little model.

19) Make Some Bubbles

Who doesn't like playing with bubbles? Pour 50ml of washing up liquid into a bowl and gradually add 300ml water, stirring slowing as you add to avoid bubbles forming. The wand can be made from a variety of things such as unbent paperclips to pipe cleaners. There you have it, bubbles. It may be best to put some towels down while doing this at home to avoid spillage and slippy floors.

20) 20 Questions

More for the older kids, but you can never beat a game of 20 questions. Think of anything; person, mineral etc. and you can only answer 'yes' or 'no' to the questions as they try and guess what it is. They only have 20 questions to solve the puzzle, or it's game over!

21) Yoga

Sometimes, you may want to wind down after an exhausting day with the kids, and a perfect way to do this is to get them involved. There are lots of kid-friendly yoga videos available through youtube that you can all chill out to. Great for their little bodies and everyone's mental health.

Without a doubt, your kids are the most important people in the world to you, but it doesn't mean that you can't find them exhausting. The life of a parent is not easy and, at times like this, it can test the best of us emotionally and physically. Hopefully, a few of these things will entertain both you and your child(ren) and create some amazing, positive family moments that everyone will remember.

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Love Ash x