20 Free Things to do with your Child this Summer
The summer holidays can be expensive for parents, even if you only have one child. Recently Sops’ dad took her to a popular zoo in the UK and it cost him over £100 for the two of them on that day. So, how do you keep your child entertained this summer, without breaking the bank? Well, fear not! We have 20 excellent ideas for free things to do this summer.
Visit a local Park
This is a no brainer, but local parks are brilliant for children to let off steam. They can run around screaming and laughing and climbing and just be their adorable adventurous selves. Your child may even make a new friend at the park. But, be warned, do not take your child to the park every day, just because it is free. Your child may not get bored of it, but you might.
NB. If your child is unsure how to make new friends, our post, How to make new friends if you are an only child, may help them.
Pot Luck Picnic
Meet up with friends and family in the park and have a big pot luck picnic. Share your food and share in the fun. Bring games and a football and let the children run around and play for hours, whilst you natter with other parents about the weather and the state of the roads.
Visit a Museum
There are some excellent museums all over the country. Most of them include children’s activities. Most of them have free entry, including the larger museums in the big cities such as London and Manchester. However, some smaller local museums may ask for a small entry fee. There are some really unique museums too. If you love crabs, maybe you’d like to visit the crab museum in Margate. Or maybe you love steam engines and fairground rides? Well, the Thurston Steam Museum in Norfolk is for you.
Go Hiking
It costs nothing to put on a pair of walking shoes and hike in the countryside. Granted, not many children like walking for the sake of it, so it is worth going to a place with lots of interesting activities. For example, High Lodge, Thetford Forest in Norfolk, (although you do have to pay for parking). If you go up a common trail in some hills such as Snowden Mountain in Wales, you may meet some new people and get talking to them and your child may find some other children to spend time together as you all walk up the mountain. This is what Sops and I experienced when we went to Wales in 2018 and walked up Mt Snowden.
Geocaching
Geocaching is another fun way to explore the great outdoors with your child and keep him or her occupied. Using your smart phone or a handheld GPS device you can explore your local area and look for geocaches. They are little treaure boxes dotted around the world. Once you find one, you need to log your name into the book in the box. You can swap the little treasures in the boxes as well. For more information check out the geocaching website.
Scavenger Hunt
Going on a scavenger hunt is a simple way to help your child explore their environment. You can find a scavenger hunt in your copy of our Free Summer Activity Book. Just sign up to our email list at the bottom of this page for your free copy.
Beach Day
Going to the beach is a classic free activity to do in the summer. But it is only free if you are clever about it. Choose a smaller beach with free parking. Go early, to ensure you can get a parking spot. Take a picnic, and buckets and spades etc. Avoid arcades like the plague. If you play your cards right, you may only have to pay for some icecream and that is it.
NB: Try not to take too much to the beach, otherwise you have to carry it all.
To download a copy of the Beach Day Checklist, please click the image below.
Bike Rides
Having a bike it a rite of passage for many children. It’s such a brilliant invention to help people travel to places faster than just walking. It’s certainly great fun for your child. You could all go on your bikes to a local park or to visit a local town. I admit I use my bike a lot in the summer to save petrol on the car. And it keeps you all fit, too.
NB: If your child needs to learn to ride bike, our post How to teach your child to ride a bike may help.
Star Gazing
On a clear night, when stars are scattered in the sky, you may want to spend the evening star gazing. This will be a great time to bond with your child and you can answer all sorts of astronomical questions they may have. You may want to swat up on the topic first.
There are quite a few stargazing apps available that you can use to point your phone into the sky and identify stars and planets. Some versions are free, and some require a monthly subscription. We recommend SkyView Lite.
Community Events
The summertime is a great opportunity to attend local community events and get to learn more about your community and what they do. Perhaps you’ll discover a new club or society that you or your child would like to join. Some events may have a theme such as a food and wine festival or an Arts and Music festival. Most of the events are free to attend, but you may want to bring some cash to buy a drink or some food.
Cooking Together
Have a cooking day together. Bake lots of yummy treats and make a glorious mess. You can use items in your cupboard and see what you can make. Food-saving apps such as Supercook can help you create recipes based on what you already have in your fridge/ pantry. Then, in the evening you can have a movie night and enjoy the treats with your friends and family.
Fort Building
Get the clothes horse out. Rip off the sheets from the bed. It’s time to build a fort. One year Sops built a fort in her bedroom. We furnished it with cushions, a fluffy rug and some fairy lights and it was very cozy. She kept it up for most of the summer and even slept in it for most nights.
Games Night
Why not play some games together one night? Get out the puzzles or board games and have some relaxing fun playing with them. Perhaps you can play a game you haven’t played in years, and then have a huge argument, which reminds you why you never play that game.
What’s your favourite game to play with your family? Let us know on our Facebook page.
Arts and Crafts
Pull out all your arty materials and make some arts and crafts together. Maybe your child was given a rock painting kit for Christmas and you still haven’t used it. This is a perfect time to sit indoors or even in the garden and have a jolly time making art together. If you are lacking in art materials check out your local charity shops for some potential materials. A friend of mine used to buy many beaded necklaces from charity shops, take them apart, and make new beaded jewellery for her friends.
Reading Together
Now you have built a fort with your child, perhaps you can spend some time reading in the fort together. You could read some books together, or maybe your child can read their own book and you can enjoy reading a saucy summer romance.
If you want to read the latest Lucy and Gabriel Adventure, and enter our summer competition, you can read it in your Free copy of our Summer Activity Book. See the bottom of this post for more details.
Learn a New Skill Together
Use YouTube to learn a new skill. It could be learning a different language, or knitting or cooking, or riding a unicycle, (which is really hard to do). There are some other video learning platforms, such as Skillshare, but they are not free. You’d be better off just using YouTube or going to your local library to learn the skill.
NB: If you are learning a new language, we recommend Duolingo. It’s only free for a couple of weeks to try out, but it’s a great fun way to learn a new language quickly.
Gardening
Gardening is for old people, right? Wrong! Anyone can enjoy gardening, even children. Perhaps whilst your child is young you can work together to make your garden fun and beautiful. Plant some wild flowers to attract the butterflies and bees. Build a bird box, or bird feeder. Grow some vegetables. You can use seeds from tomatoes you already have.
In our post 17 unique things to do this summer, we recommend you make a fairy garden with your child.
Chalk Drawings
When Sops was little, she happily scribbled on the pavement outside the house with chalk. There was a play park in front of the house, so she extended her artwork into the park and other children joined in too. Chalk drawings are a wonderful way to decorate the local parks and streets with the delightful doodles made by kids, and for children to spend quality time with each other being creative.
Community Sports
During the summer holidays, some sporting clubs offer free tryouts. This will allow your child to give a sport a go, and see if they are interested. Check out your local sport clubs and leisure centres to see what they offer.
For some ideas on sports for your child to try, read our post: What sports are good for an only child?
If there are no community sporting events, perhaps you can set up an event yourself. Do you know any PE teachers or sporty people who may have equipment that you can borrow?
Free Activity Book
Another free thing you can do this summer is download our free summer activity book. Just sign up to the email list and get your free copy of the summer activity book, including the latest Lucy and Gabriel story.
