22 Fun School Holiday Activities Using What You Already Have at Home
🎨 Get Creative with Crafts
- DIY Cardboard Creations: Build robots, race cars, castles or anything their imagination dreams up using boxes, tape, and markers.
- Paper Craft Magic: Try origami, snowflakes, paper chains, or make-your-own board games.
- Homemade Playdough or Slime: Mix pantry staples like flour, salt, and water for hours of sensory fun. See Lisa's tried and true recipe below.
- Nature Art: Collect leaves and flowers and turn them into collages or seasonal art.
- Daily Drawing Prompts: Choose a theme (e.g. “under the sea” or “robots”) and let the doodling begin. Create a school holidays wall to display each day's drawings.
🧪 Backyard Scientists & Explorers
- Sink or Float: Test different objects in a tub of water to explore science through play.
- Baking Soda + Vinegar Fizz: Add a little food colouring and watch the bubbly fun.
- Scavenger Hunts: Create a list of things to find around the house or garden (by colour, letter or texture).
- Time Capsules: Collect drawings, letters, and treasures to seal up and open later.
🎭 Imagination Station
- Puppet Show: Use socks or paper bags to make characters, then put on a performance.
- Dress-Up Days: Create stories and characters from costumes and household items.
- Indoor Obstacle Course: Use cushions, chairs, and tape to create a challenge course.
- Treasure Hunt: Hide clues around the house leading to a surprise (even if it's just a note or snack).
📚 Quiet Time Ideas
- Home Library: Set up a cosy book nook and let them “check out” books.
- Write a Book: Fold blank pages into a booklet and let them write and illustrate their own story.
- Journal or Scrapbook: Capture holiday memories with drawings, stickers, or printed photos.
- Podcasts or Audiobooks: Free resources online are great for quiet afternoons or car rides.
🧺 Everyday Adventures
- Kids in the Kitchen: Bake muffins, prep lunch, or set up a play café.
- Toy Rotation: Pack some toys away and bring them back later — like new!
- Blanket Forts: Add pillows, fairy lights and books for instant indoor magic.
- Dance Party or Karaoke: Pick a playlist and let loose. No talent required!
- Mini Helpers: Make chores into games — folding laundry, sorting recycling, or watering plants.
✨ Final Thought
It doesn’t take much to create special moments — just a few bits from around the house, a little imagination, and the willingness to embrace a bit of mess and a lot of fun.
🧑 Lisa's Playdough recipe
- ½ cup salt
- 2 cups flour
- 2 TBSP cream of tartar
- 2 TBSP vegetable oil
- 1 to 1 ½ cups of boiled water
- food colouring to colour
combine dry ingredients in a bowl, mix wet ingredients together in a separate bowl then pour into the dry ingredients. Mix together until it forms a sticky dough. Separate into separate portions if you want to create several different colours. Add food colouring and mix in. Let the dough cool slightly then tip onto a floured board and knead. Its then ready to use. Enjoy!