Summer Gaming Activities

Today I am going to share with you the affordable and cheap summer activities that kids can do. I have got a couple more days to go most people on summer holidays and it’s time to get thinking about what it is that we can do with our children. 

The biggest problem that a lot of people are facing now is that we do not have the capacity finances to be able to do labor activities anymore due to the cost of living crisis that has raised petrol prices. Rising prices made a huge impact on how we are going to look at some holidays and what we do.

 I have come up with a list of free activities that cost 10 pounds or less or activities that you can do at home so hopefully this selection will help you gain a few ideas on different things that you could do to mix up the summer holidays without breaking the bank within the activities.

I have included some that just cost for parking or petrol so that is the cost that’s involved where the activity is free so there’s a combination of different activities here.

Planning Ahead to Save Money

One thing to remember is before you get started is to plan ahead try and plan in a couple of activities. You must also organize your food situation as well as get into the habit of taking food with you planning your lunches and knowing when you’re going to eat.

 So you don’t get stuck needing water or any food when you’re out this will help reduce the costs and try and spread out your activities.

You don’t have to be busy doing something every single day you could do an activity every other day they have plenty of free time at home as well to enjoy. So that you’re mixing it up and you’re not putting too much pressure on yourself either and if you are wanting a stay-at-home day that is just chilled a walk around the block is just as much fun and just as much fresh air as you need to kind of keep you mentally ticking over.

So those days are okay too don’t put pressure on yourself to be doing something all of the time.

Free Activities to Do Outside

First of all here are my favorite free activities to do with my son so straightforward one is going to the park that’s just as exciting as you might imagine for a child.

The children absolutely love it and you could mix up going to different parks so you’ve got different activities different um apparatus that they can use.

So that will make it more interesting lots of towns and cities have splash parks as well. So they have water that is free-flowing that is a free kind of splash activity for your children to enjoy without costing a penny.

Free Activities to Keep Children Active

If you’re trying to get your children to be active on a sunday morning in your local area i should imagine there’s probably a junior park run.

I highly recommend kind of getting your children signed up to this you don’t have to necessarily run it yourself, but you can get your children running.

It’s nine o’clock on a sunday morning at one of your local parks if you look on the website you’ll be able to find one close to you by using their search. 

It’s free to sign up it’s free to turn up and join free to run and adults if you want to run you can do it with them otherwise you can let them go around themselves because it’s always marshalled.

There’ll be lots of volunteers that will do that and check that the course is safe. So that’s a free activity you can do every sunday to get your children active it’s for ages four to fourteen.

Walking, Photography, and Nature Exploration

One of me and my son’s favorite things to do is to go walking quite often we’ll do photography walks or country walks we’ll go to coastal park or dartmoor. We will take cameras with us to take pictures and that’s kind of the thing that we’re trying to do to make that more accessible for children. You could get like a disposable camera or you could let them use your phone depending on their age and sometimes children have their own devices that have cameras. 

So that’s an opportunity for them to explore nature and wildlife by trying to take photographs of it.

Museums and Educational Trips

Next up is the museum quite often the museum have lots of different exhibits that are standard but they also have new exhibits every couple of months that you can go and have a look at.

So my local one has a current lego exhibit so we’ll go and look at that at some point and it’s free to have a look at that’s free to go around

There is  usually only a small section of the museum that is paid but that’s very rare that they do that now quite often.

It’s all free so there’s always lots to explore at a museum and often they do some activities in the summer holidays as well so it’s definitely worth having a look into that too.

Bug Hunts and Outdoor Learning

 Our next free activity is to do a bug hunt you can go anywhere that’s got a grass area or woodland and check if you can hunt for different bugs you could always write yourself a list of different insects or plants that you could go looking for and see if your children could find them.

Activities That Cost £10 or Less

Activities that cost 10 pound or less now so first of all you could sign your children up to a weekly sports session.

For example you could do gymnastics you could do badminton golf lessons there’s lots of different activities that your child could do on a weekly basis. It would be a relatively cheap activity but it still gets them active and doing something so find something that interests them and see if they enjoy doing that on a regular basis. So it usually costs 10 pounds or less to do a less than a week so that’s something that could get them active and keep them motivated in the summer.

Low-Cost Family Activities

Next Up is swimming which is a relatively low cost activity. It is usually between five and eight pounds per person depending on the age.

It’s a relatively cheap activity that you could do as a family next up is mini movies and cinema so most cinemas offer a weekend special price for a slightly older film that’s maybe six months after its release date.

They’ll call it a mini movie so it’s only costing about two or three pounds per person to go and watch it. It’s a cheaper way of seeing something at the cinema so you still get the cinema experience and also you can take your own food and you can still see a relatively new film at a low cost.

Country Parks, Bowling, and Open Gardens

Next one is country park so usually they’re free to go into quite often it’s just a cost for parking or for travel. If you don’t have a car so there’s lots of country parks dotted around the UK that you can go and access maybe one that’s nearby.

So you don’t have to go too far and they’ll have nature walks they’ll have different animals and different wildlife.

There’s lots of things to look at when you go there next is ten pin bowling.

 Ten pin bowling companies have special offers in the holiday so quite often we’ve gone in half terms or summer holidays because they’ll do a special deal but it’s only about five pounds for one game and some food.

Free and Low-Cost Activities at Home

okay now on to activities that you can do for free at home or cost very little. If you don’t already have the resources in in your home the first up is drawing. So that you could get an object or a plant etc and do some observational drawing or sketching of that item they could sketch their favorite toy.

They can have it in front of them and they’re just sketching they’re just spending time slowing down and really looking at the details and trying to add to their picture try and give them a kind of long period of time.

So they know they have to sit down for a certain period like 20 minutes so they know they really have to work on one picture for a really long time and similarly painting you could get painting equipment out and let them paint any picture that they like or you could get them to do other object or toy of the garden.

Using a picture from the internet and trying to copy you can give them different muses different items that can inspire them for their painting. If you don’t have the paint in stock most craft stores etc will have small kits with a small selection of different paints for five to ten pound.

Creative and Practical Home Activities

Next up is Card Making so this could be something that you do over the summer holidays.

Getting ready for different birthdays or christmas. There may be a small cost involved here so you may want to get some playing card that you could fold but they could decorate or paint or do drawings on them to make them special. If you have a garden another activity that you could do is getting out and doing some carpeting most kids are quite happy to help out in the garden then do do weeding or different chores or do planting.

So there’s always something that children can get involved in to help maintain the garden.

Family Nights and Indoor Fun

Next up for an activity at home is a movie night so you could either pay for one on a subscription service or if you’ve got a subscription service already watching a new film that’s just been released.

 It maybe just the cost of buying a bag of popcorn from your local shop that’s a relatively cheap activity you could do.

But you can make it more exciting by having it all cozy with blankets or you could have it so that you have everything like a picnic set up on the floor that you’re watching it together on cushions.

Imaginative Play and Building Activities

Next up is done building children love doing den building they’ll spend hours making and playing in the den so just make sure that you have anything that you don’t want to be used tucked away and let them have free rein of the sofas.

The cushions the tables and the chairs etcetera to blankets to put everywhere and to make a really exciting.

Den you could have some string lights that maybe you already have you could decorate it so it looks really nice for them to enjoy.

They can cozy up and read books in there next up is to do lego challenges if you’ve got a boy that is obsessed with lucky like i do then you can give them a challenge. 

It could be that i want you to create a boat or want a racing car or i want you to make a house so you can give them specific challenges and they’ve got to try and make their interpretation of the challenge.

Baking, Fancy Dress, and Wrapping Up

Last one which has got a small amount of cost if you don’t already have the ingredients is to do some baking so you could make cakes or biscuits etc together with your children.

So they have fun making as well as eating my last activity is for them to do fancy dress children love dressing up. They might want to borrow some of your clothing or they might have their own fancy dress costumes already or clothes. They could make into a costume you could give them a challenge and get them to try and do a certain theme and see what they come up with that would be a great bit of fun for them to enjoy.

Hopefully you’ve enjoyed all these activities to do over the summer and most of them cost 10 pound or less so they’re relatively easy activities that’s going to be most of my summer is going to be doing.

All of those things so hopefully you enjoy that too don’t forget to share below if you’ve got any other ideas of cheap or free activities that you could do over the summer and i shall see you soon take care bye.