10 Fun And Inexpensive Summer Activities To Do As A Family

Summer is finally here. And I don’t know about you guys, but I’m all ready to hit the playgrounds bright and early, splash at some new outdoor paddling pools and overall, just make it one epic summer that my kids and I are sure to remember forever. Now, I know I’ve mentioned it here on my blog before, but every time the season changes, I see it as an opportunity to do loads of fun activities with them that I think they’ll enjoy. For example, every winter we go Christmas shopping together, visit Santa’s Grotto and have a wander around Nottingham’s Winter Wonderland. And every spring we like to visit the farm, spend time at the playground and feed the ducks at the park. We just love it.

This summer my daughter, Stacey, is nearing her sixteenth birthday, so I think it will be more difficult to find inexpensive activities that both she and Oscar will enjoy than it usually is. But I’m going to give it a damn good try anyway. And as the weather has warmed up nicely here in the UK over the last few days, I thought it would be a good time to do a little round-up of 10 fun and inexpensive activities you can do as a family this summer. I hope you enjoy having a read of it as much as I enjoyed putting it together. So, without further ado, let’s get started and dive right in …

01. SET UP A TENT AND GO CAMPING IN THE BACK YARD

Craving old-fashioned family fun this summer? Then put away the video games and pitch a tent in your back garden for a night of activities under the stars. (Older kids – tweens and up – are probably ready for a real campsite, but children 7 and under may not be prepared to rough it.) By sticking close to home, your little ones can feel safe and secure, be within walking distance of a bathroom, and still enjoy a wonderful family bonding experience. In fact, there’s no reason to limit your guest list to family: Backyard camping also makes a fantastic sleepover idea!

You might think that backyard camping sounds expensive as you’ll need to buy lots of fancy equipment for it. But, honestly, you won’t. If you don’t have one already, you just need to buy yourself a run-of-the-mill pop-up tent, and then you can take out sleeping bags or duvets (whichever you have at home is fine), a backpack and some torches. It’s as simple as that.

Even though you’ll be only a few steps away from your house, make sure the kids pack and bring everything they would need for a real overnight trip. This means pyjamas, a change of clothes, a few toys, a camera, books, etc. You could also include some of your favourite drinks and snacks as well. When we go backyard camping we love to make s’mores and tell stories around the fire pit until we’re all sleepy and ready for bed. It’s pure bliss!

02. VISIT A LOCAL SPLASH PAD, SPRAY PARK OR PADDLING POOL

Oscar loves playing in water. So this summer we’ll be making the most of the warm weather and heading to our local paddling pool so he can splash around with his friends and have a whale of a time getting wet and (hopefully) keeping nice and cool at the same time. And the great thing about these sorts of facilities is that they’re usually FREE to use!

You can easily check on Google to find splash pads and paddling pools near you. And if you live in the Nottinghamshire area, like us, we highly recommend checking out the recently refurbished Bulwell Bogs Splash Park, The Canch in Worksop and Nottingham’s Victoria Embankment Paddling Pool. They’re all awesome.

And if you don’t have a splash pad, spray park or paddling pool near you, don’t panic! Why not head to your local swimming baths for an hour or two? Or set up a paddling pool in your back garden? It’s guaranteed to keep the kids entertained for hours on end. Get one big enough, and you can join them in there too!

03. USE SIDEWALK CHALK TO DRAW ON THE DRIVEWAY

Ever since my kids were really small, I’ve tried to encourage them to be creative. And one of my favourite ways of doing this is by letting them draw on the driveway with sidewalk chalk. Whether it’s just scribbling, proper little works of art, or drawing a colourful hopscotch to play on, they absolutely love it!

Drawing with sidewalk chalk is something I love doing with the kids, as you never know what arty ideas they’re going to come up with next. And even though it looks like it’s quite a messy activity, it really isn’t! Throwing a bucket of water over it at the end of the day will soon wash it away (or you can wait for the rain to do it for you), and then you’ll have a lovely, blank canvas to do it all again tomorrow. Perfect!

04. TAKE A TRIP TO THE BEACH

If there’s one thing my kids love to do during the summer holidays, it has to be visiting the beach. And, if you don’t live too far away from one, it can make for a really fun, yet inexpensive day out! We usually go armed with numerous buckets and spades, sieves, and other sand toys, and the kids will spend hours building (and destroying) sandcastles, paddling in the sea, and running around after each other.

Once Oscar starts getting bored we’ll usually have the picnic we take with us, and then we’ll treat him to a donkey ride before playing some beach games like cricket or boules. And if it’s a breezy we might even give flying a kite a try! Finally, we’ll have an ice cream each before heading home. It’s so much fun.

My top tip for a day at the beach would be to take plenty of suncream, make sure you have hats for the kids, and always take some spare clothes if you’re travelling by car as you can guarantee a rogue wave will get you when you paddle in the sea and you don’t want to sit in wet stuff all the way home. Take it from someone who found this out the hard way! LOL.

05. VISIT A PICK YOUR OWN FRUIT FARM

When I was little I used to love going blackberry picking towards the end of the school holidays. And this is a tradition I’d love to start with my two now they’re both old enough to enjoy it. Sadly, the place where I used to go blackberry picking is no longer there thanks to a new development in my area, so I’ve been thinking of taking them to a nearby ‘Pick Your Own Fruit Farm’ to pick strawberries instead.

I can just imagine them walking up and down the fields, filling their baskets with strawberries that we can eat later on at home. Although when I buy them from the shop Oscar usually pinches them from the punnet while I’m preparing them for dessert, so I think he’d probably end up with more in his tummy than in his basket! LOL.

And it’s not just strawberries up for grabs, either. You’ll find everything from courgettes to cherries, wildflowers and herbs at PYO Farms up and down the country – with some farms having up to 40 pickings on offer! It’s sure to be an activity both you and your little ones will treasure forever.

06. GO TO THE PLAYGROUND

If you’re anything like me, you’ll be excited to hit the outdoor playgrounds near you where the kids can play for FREE! This is one of the things that Oscar has been looking forward to doing the most this summer as we have 3 really great playgrounds near to where we live. We usually see quite a few of his school friends when we go to them as well. And he’d happily spend all day every day on them!

We spend a LOT of time at the playground on sunnier days as they tend to start climbing the walls if we stay indoors too much. It’s much easier to take them somewhere where they can run around and burn off some energy before we all go stir-crazy! I usually pack some drinks and snacks to take with us when we go, so I’m prepared for when they inevitably come over to say they’re hungry or thirsty.

And if the kids have been looking forward to a trip to the playground, but then it suddenly starts raining, I usually take them to an indoor play area instead. They enjoy visiting indoor play areas just as much as outdoor ones. However, they can get pretty expensive because of the entrance fee and the fact that you can only consume food and drink bought on the premises while you’re there. It’s well worth it when the kids are having a good time, though.

07. MAKE YOUR OWN ICE CREAM OR LOLLIES

There isn’t a kid (or parent) in the world who would refuse ice cream or lolly on a hot summer day. So why not have a go at making some of your own this year? Making ice cream (or lollies) is a great kids activity in which parents can easily monitor. There’s a great classic vanilla ice cream recipe over on BBC Good Food that’s super simple to follow, and I’ll definitely be giving it a try with Stacey and Oscar this summer. Yum!

08. BLOW BUBBLES

I don’t think I’ve ever met a child who doesn’t enjoy playing with bubbles! And as it looks like we’re in for another nice warm summer this year, it will give them plenty of chances to get outside and play with them! I usually save the wands from old bubble containers, and then make my own bubble mixture whenever Oscar asks to play with them. I then pour it into an old plastic cup so he can dunk the wands into it and blow pretty bubbles all over the backyard! He just loves it.

Homemade Bubble Recipe:

• 300ml water
• 50ml light corn syrup
• 50ml washing up liquid

• Mix the water and light corn syrup together in a heatproof bowl, and microwave for 2 minutes
• Gently mix in the washing up liquid and leave to cool before pouring into a container such as a plastic cup or yoghurt pot
  

Want to go one step further and really amp up the bubble blowing fun? You could set up a bubble refill station in the backyard for hours of fun without all the mess! I promise your little ones will love it!

09. DO SOME SUMMER CRAFTS

Here in the UK, the weather likes to go from one extreme to the other. So if you wake up one morning and find that it’s chucking it down with rain outside, don’t panic! There are plenty of indoor activities you can do instead. And our favourite one of these just has to be crafting!

Now, I’m the first to admit I’m not the most creative of mummy’s, so I usually have to have a little help when it comes to thinking up craft ideas. And that’s why I always buy in loads of fab little craft kits from Baker Ross! Basically, they come complete with everything you need to do each craft, and the instructions are always easy to understand too. Some of our favourite summer-themed craft kits at the moment include:

Sealife Sand Art Pictures
Ice Cream Mix & Match Magnet Kits
Fish Wand Kits

Don’t forget, it doesn’t have to be a rainy day for your kids to enjoy crafting. It can be a nice break from all the outdoor activities they’ve been doing over the summer months, and you can even sit and do them outdoors if you wanted to! The possibilities are endless.

10. GO GEOCACHING

Something I’ve never done with my kids before (but really want to) is geocaching. And, if you’ve never heard of it before, geocaching is basically is a real-world, outdoor treasure-hunting game where participants use a GPS to locate the coordinates of hidden geocaches – which are usually containers filled with little knick-knacks. These take the place of old-fashioned treasure chests, and you hunt them down on a GPS device (or the GPS on your phone) instead of using a map and compass!

Geocaching looks to be pretty straightforward, which is good. All you need to do is set up a free geocaching account on geocaching.com, enter your postcode to find the geocaches hidden near you and then set out to find the geocache of your choice using the GPS coordinates provided on the website. My friend recently had a go at it with her little girl and she said you’d be surprised at how many geocaches are hidden away in your area right now! And since it’s fun, free and family-friendly, geocaching is perfect for getting the kids outdoors and adding some frills and flounces to their summer holiday adventures.

And there you have it – my top ten ideas for fun and inexpensive summer activities you can do with the whole family. I hope you enjoyed having a read and that it gave you some inspiration for things you can do with your own brood this summertime. And if you’d like some more ideas for things you could do as a family, why not check out my post on fun and inexpensive spring activities to do as a family too?

What summer activities do you guys enjoy doing with your family?
Why not let me know in the comments below.
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