Things to do in the school holidays at home

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We’ve put together the biggest list of fun school holiday activities to do at home with kids.

All these school holiday activities can be done with stuff you have around the house or with stuff you can pick up cheaply at the local shops.  It’s 100 things to do with Brisbane kids in the school holidays at home, when they’re so unimaginably, oppressively, horrifically BORED these school holidays!  

They’re all specifically designed to keep kids busy, spark little imaginations and reduce screen time. Why not pick a dozen school holiday activities your child would love, pop them in a jar and next time you hear “I’m BORREEEDDD” you’ve got a go to list of cool things to do at home!

Fun school holiday activities at home

• Plant some seeds and have a pop up garden shop in your street when the seedlings grow

• Draw your own Minecraft bricks and create a house
• Create a “dirt pile” for mud pies and construction projects

• Make some homemade dog treats and throw a party for your dog
• Use a box to make a house for your cat
• Do some paintings and use them to redecorate a kid’s bedroom
• Bury some treasure and create a pirates map

• Do a clean out for charity – learn how here
• Make a tree house or cubby house in your yard – see the easiest way here
• Use craft stuff to create a pair of “designer shoes”
• Thread ribbons through bicycle spokes
• Build a billycart from a box and a skateboard
• Use a vegetable peeler to make “carrot spaghetti” and have a healthy lunch
• Make a magazine collage or decoupage a piece of furniture – read more here.
• Make a memory book from your digital photos
• Use YouTube videos with lyrics to do karaoke or a sing-along

• Turn your carport into a stage (using dollar shop shower curtains) and hold a play or concert

• Write a play and get the neighbourhood kids to act it out
• Create a siphon water play table in your bathroom. It’s easy – learn more here.

• Blow bubbles with dry ice/Alka-Seltzer and dish soap.  Learn more dry ice science activities here.

• Use fabric remnants and glue to make a costume
• Have a home photography lesson – this school holiday activity will pay off for years to come!
• Cut potatoes in half and carves shapes into them to make potato stamps

• Make a present for your postman, garbage man or local shop assistant
• Make a milk kaleidoscope

Make walking water

• Make a book of their favourite movie

• Pack a bag of unused toiletries for a homeless shelter
• Write new lyrics to a favourite song using the instrumental version on YouTube
• Put all the local parks into a hat and have a lucky dip each morning
• Decorate a hair clip
• Go treasure hunting for rocks, leaves and other natural treasures
• Create a “bee attracting garden” and explain sustainability to your kids
• Get old unwanted toys from all the kids in the neighbourhood and make a pass the parcel
• Turn a drawing into a jigsaw puzzle and do the puzzle together
• Make a stained glass window from lasagne sheets.   Instructions at Kids Bucket List

• Write down something nice about everyone in the family and decorate it to make gifts
• Decorate your fingernails and toe nails using stickers
• Make a “lava bath” using red food dye or an “ice bath” using blue. Freeze balloons full of coloured water to use as icebergs
• Make your own essential oil potions to give as gifts.  Learn how here
• Create a sports carnival in your backyard, decorate blue, red and gold ribbon as prizes
• Make a lei or crown from flowers

• Make a play table with shaving cream and food dye.  Learn how here.
• Tie sponges to make reusable water bombs

• Freeze bananas on sticks and make your own healthy ice blocks
• Make a movie from photos and videos from your phone using Microsoft Movie Maker or similar
• Make cloud dough – 1 part baby oil to every 4 parts flour
• Do some milk bottle lid craft
• Make the best ice-cream sundae ever – we love school holiday activities that mums can enjoy too
• Bob for apples (it’s way more fun than it sounds!)

• Make cookies but experiment with ingredients to create your child’s own “signature recipe”
• Make an egg shell sprout family
• Use all those loom bands to make a bouncy ball – see The Crafty Mummy for instructions

• Research what local wildlife eats and make a feeding tray for birds or possums
• Create a bucket pulley on a favourite climbing tree for transporting snacks and treasures
• Put up a tent and use glowsticks to build a “fire” – why not have a BBQ dinner under the stars?
• Collect smooth stones, paint them with pictures and use them to make story stones
• Use table cloths to turn a dining table into a cubby house
• Hopscotch!  Or Handball.  It’s a long school holidays, keep the chalk handy!

• Play Bust The Balloon – put a “silly instruction” in balloons and take turns busting them
• Make leaf art by putting paper over leaves and colouring their patterns
• Make fireworks in a glass – get instructions at Paging Fun Mums

• Use a book shelf to make a “precious things” display – rocks, feathers, all that good stuff
• Make a posy from dandelion flowers and other weeds in public spaces
• Make bubble snakes – learn how here

• Do some simple science experiments like these.
• Drill a hole in a shell and make a necklace
• Have a picnic in the back yard
• Organise a “Pillow war” complete with doona bunkers
• Use faux fur to make a lion’s mane for your pet
• Make jelly and fill with gummy dinosaurs to “excavate”
• Use chalkboard paint pens to draw mustaches on glass doors and then photograph kids behind the door
• Use black plastic and soap suds to create a “barefoot skating rink”
• Find a Knowledge Tree in your backyard
• Draw a pattern and dye some rice and make a Diwali Rangoli (rice patterns) – Use glue to keep it forever

• Build a terrarium. Find out how here
• Set up an obstacle course using hoola hoops and other obstacles

• Make cardboard fairies or paper cranes and hang them in a tree
• Get all the local kids to pick three outfits and put on a fashion show
• Tip out the toy box. Tell them it’s to clean it out. Really it’s to rediscover toys.
• Blend up some fruit and yoghurt and make “ice-cream”
• Write a petition about a local issue. Get neighbour families to sign and deliver to your Councillor
• Have a street picnic where kids from the whole street bring snacks and have a picnic in the front yard
• Make a lemonade stand/bake sale to save money for a day out
• Make a paper kite – get great tips here.
• Make a name sign for their bedroom door.
• Use cardboard boxes to create a real life Angry Birds game
• Play balloon tennis
• Turn an ice-cream bucket into a swimming pool for dolls
• Use crepe paper to make pom poms and choreograph a cheer routine
• Attach reins, ears and a face to palm fronds to make a “pony”
• Paint up a family of pet rocks
• Make a necklace by threading popcorn
• Use Diet Coke and Mentos to blow up balloons
• Make a Lava Lamp – learn how here

That’s one hundred of the most creative yet simple school holiday activities you can do right there at home.  Of course Families Magazine always has new ideas – so subscribe to our email for updates throughout the holiday period.  We get it… I’m booorrreeeddd – fingernails on a blackboard, seriously!

Thinking of heading out and about in Brisbane?

Looking for cool free stuff to do on Brisbane’s northside or southside?  Check out these cool school holiday activities that are 100% free!

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