The school holidays can be expensive. It doesn’t matter whether it’s half term, the Easter break, or the dreaded six week summer holiday. Those long days stretching out in front of you can be daunting, especially if you don’t want to break the bank with pricey paid activities every day (and who has the money for that?)

On the flip side the holidays are also my favourite time of the year with lots of quality time with the boys, no rushing around to school and clubs, just being together. The key to having a great school holiday? Proper planning! I always plan ahead and make sure I know how to fill our days.

The good news is that finding things to do for free in the school holidays is about to get a whole lot easier. I’ve collated all of our favourite free activities and created a full list of 40 fun and free things to do in the school holidays:

Exploring The Great Outdoors

The school holidays are the perfect time to get outdoors and try something new with your kids. Being outdoors tires kids out and it’s also free which is why these are some of our favourite school holiday activities.

1. Take a nature scavenger hunt. If your kids are anything like mine and you tell them you’re going for a walk, you’re likely to be met with sighs and resistance. Build up the excitement by turning your walk into a scavenger hunt! Grab a piece of paper and write (or draw for younger kids) a list of things to find, then they can tick them off as you walk. Examples include a bird, pink flower, yellow car… tailor it to where you’re walking. Extra bonus points for having a reward for completing the scavenger hunt. Ice lollies work well!

2. Go for a picnic. You have to feed your kids every day anyway: turn it into a free and fun experience by turning lunch into a picnic for free school holiday fun. Younger kids will enjoy helping to make sandwiches or chop veggies, then all you need is to grab a blanket and head to the park!

3. Nature arts and crafts. Do your kids have a collection of ‘special’ rocks, sticks, leaves or pebbles? Yup, me too! Turn these into the materials you need for a natural arts and craft project. Create collages, leaf rubbings, or nature crowns.

4. Play in the park. It’s simple but it’s effective! We have at least one day a week in the park in the summer holidays. Take a football, kite, or any other park toys you might already have. Bonus points if your kids can invite their friends and turn your park visit into an easy to supervise playdate.

5. Make your own obstacle course. Set up an obstacle course in the back garden using whatever you have at hand. Have the kids race through it to see who can finish the fastest! On rainy days we do this indoors and turn it into our own version of ‘the floor is lava’.

6. Water play. You don’t have to buy an expensive paddling pool for your kids to have fun with water. My boys are just as happy to run under the hose, or fill an bowl you have with water (the washing up bowl is good for this) and let them play with it, splash their hands, or wash small toys. When they were toddlers, giving their dinosaurs a bath in the back garden was one of their favourite activities!

7. Stay up late and go stargazing. This one is always a big hit with my boys because it combines an outdoor activity with the chance to stay up late! There are plenty of apps that help identify constellations and planets or you could combine this with a tip that’s coming up later and head to the library to find some age appropriate books about star gazing and the night sky.

8. Take a beach day. We are VERY lucky to live near the beach, which means taking a beach day is one of our favourite summer activities! We always pick a beach that doesn’t have an arcade, fairground, or expensive cafes to save money and pack a picnic instead. (Caister beach is good for this, as is Sea Palling if you’re in Norfolk)

9. Camp in the garden. If you have a tent then put this up in the back garden and camp out. This is something we did a lot in lockdown, turning our garden into a holiday camp and it’s still just as much fun now as it was then!

10. Build dens. Building dens is fun at any age. If you have woodland or a park nearby then you can do this with twigs and branches. If not then the clothes horse and as many towels as you can muster will do just as good a job!

Free Museums And Galleries

Some local museums, galleries, or science centers offer free admission on certain days and some are even free all the time! I’ve put a list here of the free museums and galleries that are local to me as well as some in London that are well worth travelling to, but search for the museums in your own area too if you don’t want to travel.

1. The Sainsbury Centre. The Sainsbury Centre is a modern art gallery based at UEA in Norwich and it always offers free entry. Read our review of the Sainsbury Centre here. We take the boys up there with their sketch books, and then they look around at all the pages before stopping and copying some of their favourites. Find out more here.

2. The South Asia Collection. A hidden Norwich gem, this is a great collection of South Asian furniture, art and textiles houses in an old Victorian building and former rollerskating rink. Entry is free of charge here too. You can find more info here.

3. Redwings Horse Sanctuary. A must-visit trip for horse lovers! Redwings is a horse sanctuary where rescue horses are loved and cared for, and you can spend hours walking around the site looking at, and petting, the horses. You can read our review of our local Redwings here. There are two Redwings sites in Norfolk, and 5 across the UK. You can see all the sites here.

4. The Fitzwilliam Museum. This is a museum in Cambridge and it is large and ornate: just as beautiful as many of the more famous London museums. This is a free museum with artefacts from all over the world, but we especially enjoyed the large and well rounded Egyptology section here: it was by far the boys favourite! Find more information here.

5. University Museum of Zoology. Another museum in Cambridge (because it’s such a big university town, there are loads of free museum options in Cambridge) that’s great for kids of all ages is the museum of zoology. It has amazing examples of animal life and a full whale skeleton. This is our favourite Cambridge museum! More information and opening time here.

6. Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences. We haven’t actually visited this museum yet, but it has an amazing reputation, and is another free museum based in Cambridge.

7. Natural History Museum. Some of the best free museums in the UK are in London. Although i’ll accept that getting to London isn’t cheap/free, we always take the boys to London for a day out of free museum fun in the summer holidays. You can see our London itinerary here. The Natural History Museum is their favourite, with a particular focus on the dinosaurs and the earthquake simulator.

8. National Gallery. We had a great day at the National Gallery – it’s a huge and impressive building packed full of works from some of the world’s best and most well known artists. We packed sketch books and had a full day looking for pieces by our favourite artists and sketching them. I would definitely recommend this!

9. Victoria and Albert Museum. Located close to the Natural History Museum is the V&A. This is a great option for slightly older children as it focuses on applied arts and design. This is one of my favourites (although not necessarily the boys) because of the extensive fashion exhibits.

10. The Young V&A. This used to be known as the museum of childhood and is a great introduction to museums for the youngest visitors.

Summer Indoor Fun

With all the will in the world, not every day of the school holidays is sunny. We live in England, after all! So these are my ideas for fun and free school holiday activities that you can enjoy indoors, come rain or shine.

1. Visit the Library. We’re very lucky in Norwich because the Millennium Library in the city has an incredible and active children’s library. But most towns and cities have a children’s library and this is a great place to read, to choose books, and to get a change of scene. If your child is primary school age turn this into a longer activity by signing them up to the summer reading challenge (more about this here).

2. Have a movie night. Avoid sticking your kids in front of the TV and make watching the box a family experience instead. Choose a movie, make tickets, create a cosy space with pillows and blankets and pop some popcorn. You’re ready for a night at the movies – for free!

3. Make a time capsule. This is perfect for rainy days and for kids of all ages. Collect items that represent the current time and your family. Write notes to the future or gather items from current favorite things. Bury or store the time capsule for the future!

4. Cook or bake together. My kids are sugar monsters so they love the opportunity to bake together. (In fact, we whipped up some Easter nest cakes this morning!) If you don’t want to buy baking ingredients then even cooking the evening meal as a family can be a lot of fun (and a good learning opportunity too!)

5. Put on a puppet show. One of my favourite memories of my kids being tiny is them putting on puppet shows for us. You can extend this activity by making your own puppets -use odd socks (everyone has them), googly eyes, and any other craft supplies that you might have laying around the house.

6. Paint rocks. Rock painting is a huge thing, with networks of people painting, hiding, and then finding rocks across the country. Why not paint some rocks and then extend the activity by heading outside to hide them for others to find? Finding a rock is just as fun as painting them, and this is a fun activity that can last all summer long.

7. Put on a family talent show. My boys would HATE this, but it’s something I used to do with my sisters all the time when we were kids. We would each spend hours working on our acts, then put on performances for our parents and grandparents. It was so much fun!

8. Play board games. Now this one is popular in our house – we all love board games! We each pick one game, and then spend the whole afternoon playing all of them games that we chose.

9. Learn a new skill with YouTube. I’m not a big fan of YouTube and we limit its usage very carefully. But there are some amazing channels aimed at kids that can help them to learn a new skill. We love the drawing lessons from Art For Kids Hub and the fun yoga lessons from Cosmic Kids Yoga.

10. Create a family storybook. My boys love to write and draw and they both have great imaginations. Let the kids write and illustrate, then “publish” it by stapling the pages together or scanning it into a digital format.

Ideas For Working Parents

I work from home and I still have to work in the holidays (I just do it while watching the boys too!) If you’re in the same boat then these free school holiday activities are easy to set up and will keep the kids entertained while you keep one eye on your laptop:

1. Lego building challenges. I love setting them Lego building challenges. If you have an Alexa then you can say ‘give me a Lego building challenge’ and she will set one for you. These range from ‘build a monster’ to ‘make a maze’ and they’ll keep Lego fans occupied for hours!

2. Create a scavenger hunt. Set your kids up with clues or challenges that will see them complete a scavenger hunt around the house. Older kids could be set up with a ‘create your own’ escape room (you can download these online). These are great for kids that like puzzles, and can be made as long or short as you want/need.

3. Make a family newsletter. Have them create their own family newsletter, where they can draw pictures or write stories about their day, their pets, or anything they love. They can “publish” it to share with you later! They can be busy ‘working’ while you’re working.

4. Fancy dress fun. Set up an imagination station. Get out all of your kids fancy dress clothes your old clothes, props, or anything else that they could use to make up a play and let their imaginations run wild. They could then put on a play for you at the end of your shift!

5. Make stop motion videos. Stop motion is my 12 year old son’s current obsession! He can happily do this for hours! If they enjoy LEGO or action figures, they can make their own stop-motion animation using a tablet or camera. There are apps that make this easy (my son uses capcut to edit his videos) and it’s a fun way to express creativity.

6. Write letters or make cards. If you want your kids to do something educational like practice their handwriting skills then this is a great activity. Have your kids write letters or cards to family members or friends. Younger kids could draw cards or add pictures to their letters.

7. Photography fun. My boys love taking photos, and this is something that is pretty universal for kids I think. So give them an old camera and let them take photos of whatever interests them. Afterward, they can make a mini photo album or slideshow. Older kids could be introduced to editing software to enhance their photos.

8. Reorganise their rooms. NO child has ever willingly tidied their room. But rearranging their room is a different proposition! Give them the task of organizing or rearranging their room, either by themselves or with siblings. You could even let them choose a fun new theme or way to organize their toys.

9. Put on an art show. Another activity I loved doing with my sisters when we were kids! We would spend the whole day drawing, then we would put our pictures all over the walls at the end of the day for our parents to come along and view the ‘art show’ in our ‘gallery’.

10. Origami fun. This is another one that uses some online input, but it’s worth turning on the laptop for. Let your kids discover the art of origami or simple paper crafts like folding paper boats, animals, or making paper chains. There are plenty of online tutorials for easy origami designs.

The school holidays can be daunting and expensive (especially the six week summer break that seems to go on forever) but if you plan ahead and have some of these free activities in your armoury it really does make life so much easier. Free school holiday activities often take a little planning, but they’re much easier on the pocket than theme parks or city breaks.

Do you have any other free or low cost activities for keeping kids entertained to add to this list? I’d love to hear your tips and ideas! After all, we’re all in this together!

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