Money Saving Craft Activities To Keep Children Entertained In The School Holidays

When the kids are off for 6 weeks (7 weeks in some areas!) it can be quite the stressful task figuring out how to keep them entertained for such a long time. When it’s sunny outside, it’s a little easier, but when the weather is bad it can be quite the hotbed of frustration trying to keep them and you happy when you’re all stuck inside the house.

Crafts might seem like a great idea for a one off, especially if you have younger children, but if you use your imagination, crafts actually work in a wide variety of situations.

Here are some money saving craft activities to keep children entertained in the school holidays:

Draw What You See

A walk to the park can be fun for a little while, however, kids can quickly get bored and want further stimulation. To mix education with crafts, why not ask the children to draw what they see? So every 5-10 minutes get the children to stop and draw at least one animal or plant they have seen, and if possible, identify it. To make the adventure more fun, you could take photos of animals and insects they see on your phone, then get them to draw them at home. You could even get them to pick their favourite animal or insect they have seen on the walk and make a 3d version of it out of art and craft supplies.

Car Journey Challenge

Kids in the back of the car can be a bit of a nightmare when they are bored! So why not give them a car journey challenge to focus on so they are not continually asking you ‘are we nearly there yet’ every 10 minutes. Give children something to lean on, paper and a pencil and get do a guessing game where they have to draw something and you have to guess what it is. You could also give them a little box of crafts (no glue or scissors!) including ribbons, bendy furry wire and stickers and challenge them to make certain animals or objects before the next service station shop. It helps to offer small rewards like a piece of chocolate or a sweetie!

Camping Crafts

Camping is incredibly fun and saves a lot of money when it comes to overall holiday expense. Camping when it’s sunny is great fun, but when it’s raining it can be tricky to entertain kids in a few feet of canvas! A small craft box is essential for rainy camping days, and will enable the kids to be creative in a great space where there’s lots of inspiration for them in the way of nature, other people and wildlife. When it’s sunny get them to collect natural objects like shells, sand, feathers and leaves and keep them aside for a craft making session in the tent when the weather lets you down.

My Holiday Story

A good six weeks holiday project to enjoy with your child is a ‘my holiday story’ scrapbook. This can be a book your child adds to every time they do something fun during their holidays. It doesn’t have to be extensive, one page could just be them writing about their time at the park with their friends. Some pages could be cut outs of souvenirs from a day out at a theme park, other pages could be paintings they have made showing what they got up to at the weekend. This will not only serve as a continual craft project to go back to, but be something lovely for them and you to keep. It could even be a great show and tell item for them to take in when they go back to school.

Garden Decoration

Why not let your kids pretend to be garden designers for the day. Get some washable chalks, coloured sand and old pots together and let them run riot painting and drawing around the garden. They could plant things in the pots they have painted, and draw whatever they want on the patio tiles. Just make sure the chalks are washable!

Enjoy Yourself!

Remember, although having the kids around for the entire school holidays might feel like an endurance marathon at times, they grow up so fast so be sure to treasure this time with them.