Keep the Kids Entertained at Home Over the Holidays

With the winter school holidays around the corner, it’s not always easy or feasible to get the kids outside playing. And it gets expensive taking them places – it definitely can’t be done every day for 4 weeks!

If you’re going to be at home with the kids over the 4-week holidays and really don’t know what to do with them, here are 28 activities to try with them at home with very little expense. That’s more than an activity for every day of the holidays to keep the little ones stimulated and busy.

1. Lego and blocks. Remember how much fun you had playing with lego? It can keep kids busy for hours and hours.
2. Use building blocks to build a mini-zoo, an empire or pretty much whatever the kids want to.
3. Bring outside in. Build an indoor sandpit with oats. They’re clean, dry and smell ok. Put them in a dry container for the next indoor sandpit play time.
4. Drawing roads. For those kids who love toy cars, get a massive piece of card and draw out roads and car parks.
5. Use aluminium foil and markers to paint and draw.
6. Have fun with glurp. Mix together water and cornstartch as well as a bit of food coluring. It’s not fun cleaning up, but the kids will look it.
7. Grab a stack of black paper, give the kids some chalk and see what they can create.
8. Chalk on the floor – its ok, it washes well!
9. Waterplay is great fun in the bathroom, corridor or on the balcony!
10. Bubbles can keep kids entertained for ages.
11. Marble painting – in a small box place marbles and paper and squirt paint onto the paper. Roll the marbles through the paint.
12. Bubble baths and foam play are loads of fun.
13. Be Picasso! Stick huge pieces of plain paper on the walls and get the kids painting. Remember to put newspaper on the floors to catch any dripping paint.
14. Read. Older kids can be kept busy with their favourite books and younger ones will love story-telling time.
15. Grab a load of recycled materials and get crafty!
16. Spend hours creating play dough figurines
17. Use white glue and different sorts of beans to create mosaic art
18. Stick masking tape over paper and get painting. Peel off the tape to see the masterpiece creation
19. Create puppets with paper clips and family photos – put together a fun show
20. Use mini marshmallows and toothpicks to build structures. Blu-tac also works well
21. Introduce the kids to surreal art and get them creating their own works of art with magazine cut outs
22. Spy training – set up long pieces of string around the house and see who can make it to the other side without touching the string, like laser beams.
23. Hide foam letters and play hide and seek
24. Create a massive spider web game with masking tape and crushed paper.
25. Blow up balloons and hit them with pool noodles. Try to keep those balloons flying!
26. Get the biggest piece of cardboard you can and get the kids painting
27. Nerf guns and balloons equals hours of fun
28. Use paddle pop sticks together with cupcake holders to create a really pretty flower garden.