Summer holidays on a shoestring

Finding ways to occupy the kids over the Summer Holidays can be challenging and can quickly get expensive but fear not we have pulled together some of our favourite cheap and free activities for Play Day 2023. This year’s theme is ‘Play on a shoestring’.

We asked the staff at Calon Cymru for their 'play on a shoestring' ideas and here’s what they came up with.

Water paintings

Water paintings are great fun and are easy to set up! All you need is a brush, a pot of water and a pavement or patio. Let them paint on the pavement to their heart's content. And it dries off by itself so no cleaning either. Gemma Nicholls - Placements Manager

Bonus idea –

Set a theme for the things that they need to paint. How about animals, my favourite things to do, or a self portrait.

Rock pooling / Crabbing

We are so lucky here in Wales to have a beautiful coastline ready for fun activities. Get yourself to the beach and explore the rock pools. A small net or a crab line are relatively cheap to pick up at the beach shop.  Lisa Jones - Operations Manager

Bonus idea –

See who can find the most interesting creature or biggest crab! Or use this as a learning opportunity, take pictures of creatures and then find out more about them when you get home by using Google to see what you can find out.

Science experiments

Do you have a little scientist at home? Science experiments are fun & educational.

Visit funlearningforkids.com for lots of ideas. I did the lava lamp experiment with my children and they loved it. Lisa Jones - Operations Manager

Building sandcastles

You can't go wrong building sandcastles. All you need is a bucket and spade and a bit of imagination. Lisa Jones - Operations Manager

Bonus idea -

Get creative, build a moat and fill it with water from the sea, find shells and seaweed to decorate or maybe you just want to make the biggest sandcastle possible. Hours of fun!

Target practice

Use a piece of chalk to draw targets on the fence then use a water gun to hit them. Bonus feature - the chalk is washed off as you play meaning no mess and lots of opportunity to get creative with different targets. Gemma Nicholls - Placements Manager

Bonus idea -

There are lots of options for targets, you can give different targets different points for hitting them or just see who can get closest.

Other target ideas include drawing a coconut shy or fairground shooting gallery with cans or ducks. Or how about drawing a dog that needs a good wash, use your water gun to clean the dog. With a bit of imagination, the possibilities are endless!

Scavenger hunt

Make a list of things that can be found around the house and get the children to find them. Make a list of things that can be found around the house and get the children to find them. Gemma Nicholls - Placements Manager

Bonus idea -

There are lots of options to differentiate this activity – you can get the children to compete, the fastest time wins, or most objects off the list in a certain amount of time. Get them to take turns to find the next object so each child has a fair opportunity to look for their own objects without competition. For older children why not try making it a bit harder by giving clues to objects and locations instead of a list of objects?

Board games

There are so many games to choose from that there is nearly always a game that suits any group. We all have a sneaky board game hiding away in the back of the cupboard that we don’t get enough use from. Personal recommendations would be ‘Labyrinth’ or ‘Dobble’. Lynsey Armstrong – Storytelling and Events Executive

Bonus idea –

Why not head to a local charity shop and see what preloved goodies you can get cheaply?

We hope that there are some ideas here that create hours of (cheap and free) fun for a summer holiday filled with excitement and laughter.