School holiday activity ideas for dads and kids

School holiday fun with kids

We have compiled a great list of low cost, simple and easy activity ideas which may come in handy to keep you busy these school holidays.

• Playing with Dad is important. Children who play with their fathers are more confident and better at coping with challenges, setbacks or problems. Playing with you can help your kids to cope with the challenges we are all facing now.
• Role play is a great tool for social and emotional learning. If your kids can’t go to the shops, they can set up their own. They could create a restaurant, set up a circus, do a talent show, hairdressers or be a vet with toys. Join in as a customer once they are set up.
• Do a scientific mini exploration outside. Children can use phones to take photographs of the world from the perspective of an ant or a butterfly and create a picture or PowerPoint journal of a day in the life of their mini creature.
• Explore the world online together. Build on your children’s knowledge of the world around them. Learn about and locate different countries, name continents, countries, cities, rivers, mountains etc. Have family quizzes to test your knowledge.
• Get creative to get the housework done. Ask your kids to design a makeover of their bedroom by creating homemade pictures, rearranging displays and tidying and cleaning. Get them to draw up plans of their ideas first.
• Don’t be afraid of letting them get bored occasionally. Children don’t have many opportunities to let their imaginations flow and get creative in this era of over-stimulation. The ability to deal with boredom is an unmistakable sign of good mental health.
• Let the kids run loose in your wardrobe. Choose 3 different outfits and have a fashion parade.
• Host a movie marathon. Write up pretend movie tickets, cook popcorn and each select a movie of your choice to watch.
• Build a blanket fort together, a great instructional video here. Build it so you can watch your movies under it, with fairy lights and all.
• Have a cupcake decorating competition.
• Set up your own home restaurant. Decide your entree, main and dessert. Design a menu, signs and set up the table.
• Have a family games day. We are talking ‘old fashioned’ board games – think Uno, monopoly, celebrity heads, twister and chess. Choose a few games to play and make a day of it.

Try our downloadable activity sheet for getting back to nature challenge.

Download activity sheet