100+ Boredom-Busting Holiday Activities for Kids

“Mum, Dad–
I’m bored”

page | 2“Mum, Dad – I’m bored”| www.asg.com.au
When your child next confronts you with this
challenging call, you’ll be prepared.
For your child:
Encourage and stimulate your child to explore their
imagination and creativity.
For you and your family:
Enjoy the holiday period as an exceptional time to spend
together, really getting to know one another while you all
enjoy a range of activities that don’t have to break the budget.
In this guide:
You’ll find more than 100 free or inexpensive holiday
activity ideas to keep your children
entertained and amused
without resorting to
the television or
computer games.
Introduction
The Australian Scholarships Group (ASG), Australia’s largest
member-based organisation specialising in education benefit
programs, brings parents this guide to reduce their children’s
holiday boredom.
This guide incorporates ideas for entertaining children
during the holidays no matter what the circumstances or
financial restrictions.
Outdoors or indoors, no-cost or low-cost, excursions, trips,
in the car, make-believe, craft or creative. This guide’s got
it covered.

Contents
At home or indoors ..................................................................................................... 4
In the park or backyard ........................................................................................... 13
Around your neighbourhood and beyond ............................................... 17
In the car .......................................................................................................................... 21

At home or indoors
Press flowers
Gather or pick flowers and leaves, then place them
between sheets of greaseproof paper and press them
between the pages of a good
thick book. Once flattened
and dried out, the flowers
and leaves are great to use
as elements of a natural art
piece or for creating your
own cards to send
to friends.
At home or indoors
Hide and seek
A game for indoors or outdoors. Nominate hiders
and a seeker. The seeker counts down before
searching for the hiders. Remember, no peeking!
Dress-ups
Finally, put all those fantastic 80s
fashions you’ve been keeping to
good use. For extra fun try going on
an excursion while dressed up. Stroll
up to the local video shop in your full
pirate regalia and then rent a good
old swashbuckling DVD to watch
that night. Or walk to the local
milk bar in your jungle explorer
fatigues and buy the kids Barney
Banana ice creams.
Memory games
Play with a deck of
cards, or just a group of
everyday household items.

At home or indoors
Origami
It’s amazing what a piece of paper can make. If you’re not
quite so dexterous with your folding, perhaps a paper plane
competition is in order. Most libraries will have books on
origami or paper planes, otherwise check
on the websites:
www.origami-make.com or
www.10paperairplanes.com
Pass it on games
Great fun for rainy days indoors. Kids whisper
a phrase to each other and by the time it has
passed from the originator down to the end of
the line, it has invariably been lost in translation
often with hilarious results.
Try doing a communal drawing where one child
draws the head of a creature then folds over the
paper. Consecutive children add the torso, legs
etc without being able to see what has preceded
them until the paper is finally unfolded.
Map of the
world holidays
Get out a map or globe of the world
and take imaginary journeys by sticking
a drawing pin into the map and then
learning something about that selected
country. Also use some plasticine rolled
into a ball and press onto the globe.
Chess
Nothing pleases kids
more than defeating
their parents at chess!
Charades
An ever-popular favourite, charades can
be played in heaps of different ways.
Try playing in teams where two people
act out the clues together for a bit of
extra bonding.

Perform
Write, read or perform a song, poem or short story.
Go back in time
Rediscover one of your favourite old books and
read it to your kids.
Safety first
Run a fire safety drill for your home.
Perhaps it’s not the most exciting
holiday idea, but it could save lives
at some future time. Wormald’s
website at: www.wormald.com.au
offers free fire safety tips for
your family and home.
At home or indoors
Visit your house
You can get a birds’eye view of your
home at: maps.google.com.au
Just type in your full address and then click
on the‘Satellite’icon. Zoom in by raising the
gauge and zoom out by lowering it. You can
also click on‘street view’to see your house
up close.
Call on your inner artist
Sketch an interesting house in your street.
There could be a potential career in real
estate brochures awaiting your children!
Yum
Homemade ice cream can taste better than
the store bought varieties because you made
it yourself. Check in your cookbooks for a
recipe or go to www.taste.com.au and search
for‘ice cream’.

Food to go
Cook gingerbread people or make
fun biscuit shapes with cookie cutters.
Go to www.taste.com.au and
search for‘gingerbread biscuits’.
Select a recipe with a video that
demonstraes each step for you.
Now you see it,
now you don’t
Learn some magic tricks
and put on a show. Most
libraries will have books
on how to perform magic
tricks or check online at
www.howtodotricks.com
Note: It’s best to avoid the
‘sawing mum in half’trick
until the kids are a little
more experienced!
Let me entertain you
Host a talent quest for family members or neighbourhood friends.
Perhaps one of your children is the next Neighbourhood Idol!
Sharpen up your engineering skills
Construct a mobile to hang in your children’s bedroom.
At home or indoors
Fun with food
Roast some marshmallows, have
a barbecue, host an afternoon
tea, or cook some damper.
Decorate anything and
everything
Make an original shirt or tablecloth
using tie dye or batik. Your local
library will have instruction books or
check on the internet at: www.familycrafts.about.
com/cs/tiedye/a/041601a.htm

Patisserie at home
Bake and decorate a special
cake or a tray of cup
cakes. Now, who gets
to lick the spoon?
Breakfast chef
Cook up a special pancake
breakfast. The only difficulty is
to decide what you want with
your pancakes: maple syrup,
mixed berries, lemon and
sugar or ice cream. Yum!
Role plays
Play shopkeepers with younger kids. First they
have to stock the shop with a good range of
items and then it’s time to start haggling over
the prices!
At home or indoors
Thirsty work
Make your own lemonade and try a
lemonade stand on your footpath or near a
local playground. All you need is: one cup of
water, one cup of sugar, one cup lemon juice
(about 4 – 6 lemons), four cups of chilled soda
water, and some extra lemon and mint for
garnish. Combine water and sugar in a small
saucepan. Bring to the boil, stirring frequently,
until sugar dissolves completely. Leave to cool
and stir in the lemon juice. To serve, top with
chilled soda water and garnish.
Stamp pictures
Cut out potato stamps and
create your own pictures.
Cut the potato in half and
carve a shape into the face of the
potato. Cut away excess potato from around
the shape and ink the stamp in paint.
Cartoon kids
Get your kids to design and draw their own
cartoon character. Then get this character made
into a rubber stamp at your local shop. Then the
kids are free to create their own personalised
comic books, reusing the stamp as often as
they want.

Family learning
Research and document your family
tree. You can get a lot of great
information during the 14-day
free trial at www.ancestry.com.au
Nature at work
Construct a volcano from plaster. Let the
plaster volcano dry overnight then paint it
the next day. Use a spoon, or a funnel, to put
the baking soda into the hole in the top of
the volcano. Put a little white vinegar into a
container and pour in a small amount of red
food colouring. Carefully pour this mixture
into the top of the volcano. Now stand back
and wait for the eruption!
At home or indoors
Share the family’s secret recipes
Make some scones like grandma did! Note: If grandma
won’t give away her secret recipe try the official Country
Women’s Association Cookbook.
Encourage a
budding engineer
Play with Lego
, Meccano
,
or build a model from a kit.
Pets in the swim
Get some goldfish to have at home. Often
visiting the store is as much fun as going to
an expensive aquarium. Then you can find
clean rocks and objects to put in the bowl
to make it interesting for the fish. Daily
feeding time is also fun but remember
so much and no more, never more than
a spot, or something may happen, you
never know what!

Chef for the night
Make a special pizza letting
the kids select the toppings.
After all, who do you
think first thought of
pineapple as a pizza
topping – surely not
an adult?
Seascape
Sea Monkeys are a cheap and entertaining project for the
children. They are actually dehydrated brine shrimp that
miraculously reanimate when put in water. If you don’t want
to buy the name brand at a toyshop you can get the same
product from an aquarium supplies store as they are used as
food for tropical fish.
At home or indoors
Budding artist
Paint-by-numbers kits are
inexpensive and can provide hours
of peaceful entertainment.
Mystic path
Set up a fortune-telling stand,
or try some palm reading.
Rekindled crafts
The lost arts of macramé and embroidery
are still greatly loved by children. Most libraries
will have instruction books on these crafts
that are great for all ages, or check out
www.wikihow.com/Macrame
Holiday writing
Write a holiday diary.‘I know what I did
last summer’.

Make a mosaic
All you need to make a mosaic is some
plaster and glass beads. Your local library
will have instruction books or check out
www.mosaic-tile-guide.com
Share times past
Photo albums are a great way
to pass a rainy afternoon. We all
have photo albums lying around
but how often do we actually
look at them, let alone share
them with the kids? The children
will love looking at photos of
themselves as they grew up, and
it can bring back a lot of happy
memories. The kids will also find
it fascinating to look at their
parents’photo albums;“Check
out dad with a moustache”,“What
is that you’re wearing mum?”
At home or indoors
Party fun
Host a slumber party.
Puppeteering
Make puppets or finger puppets
and put on a show.
Teatime to share
Host an elegant tea party.
Get dressed up and use
the fine china (from the
op shop!).
Family history
Interview and write about an older
relative. You might be surprised how
much the kids learn,
“Did you know ball
point pens weren’t
even invented when
grandma was born,
much less computers”?
3-D art
Create a sculpture using
whatever medium and
materials you want.

Craft animal friends
Make papier-mâché piggies. All you
need is newspaper, a balloon,
and some flour and water for the
paste. But don’t forget some paint
and a little twirly something for the
tail. You can even turn your piggy
into a useful piggybank.
Eat up
Have a midnight feast. The holidays are the perfect
time to give the kids a treat by staying up late one
night and having a good sleep-in the next day.
Rent a special DVD and have a midnight (or late
night if the kids are younger) feast. The kids can
help prepare the feast making popcorn, chocolate
crackles or honey-joys. Go to bed by torchlight.
Play fun at low cost
Make playdough. You don’t have to buy expensive
brand name playdough, it’s much more fun to
make it at home with the kids. Combine one
cup of plain white flour, half a cup of salt, one
cup of water and two tablespoons of cream
of tartar. Mix the combination in a saucepan
then add one tablespoon of oil and some
vegetable dye. Cook in the saucepan
until thick then put in the fridge to cool.
If stored in the fridge and kept moist,
your homemade playdough will last
for weeks.
At home or indoors
Indoor sport
Try carpet bowls if it’s raining.
Budding playwright
Write and perform a play. Why not try writing and presenting
your own play? The script can be written together, then various
children can be assigned different roles. For example, they
coulb be actors, director or in stage design before swapping
roles with each other.
Pictures
into stories
Make a scrapbook on
any topic you desire.

In the park or backyard
Who needs a brush
Finger painting never really loses
its appeal and you have all the
ingredients you need right there
in your kitchen. Just mix corn
flour and water in a saucepan.
Bring it to the boil and when it
has thickened add some vegetable
dye. Once it’s cooled all you need
are some large sheets of butchers’
paper and you are ready to roll up
your sleeves and start finger painting.
Find lost riches
Create a treasure hunt. With a little
preparation writing the clues (and, of
course, hiding a suitable treasure) you can
keep the kids busy for as long as you want.
You can write clues, make a map, or leave
orienteering
style guides
for your
children
to follow.
Grow something
Plant a flowerbed. Sunflowers are
spectacular favourites with young
kids and relatively easy to grow.
Feed your
feathered friends
Feed the birds. Make your own bird
feeder or birdbath and give the
birds in your garden a holiday treat.
Go to a park and feed the ducks or
the seagulls at the beach. Contact
your local Gould Society to find out
about good bird watching locations in
your area.

Study insects
Insects! They surround us. By
some accounts, insects make up
more than 80 per cent of earth’s
animals, outnumbering the
combined total of all other
living creatures found on earth.
Get a first-hand look at the many
different species of insects. Study
the butterflies and other insects in
your garden. Start an ant farm or
worm farm.
Shoo
Make a scarecrow
to go in the
vegetable patch
or backyard.
It’s not tennis
Badminton is a fun, easy and
safe non-contact sport for all
ages that can be played in any
backyard or park.
Air race
Host a paper plane building
and flying contest.
www.10paperairplanes.com
Where does food
come from?
Many children think food
comes from the supermarket.
Plant a vegetable patch or
fruit tree and tend your food
to fruition. It’s great fun and
eventually delicious!

Tiny garden worlds
Make a moss garden
out of moss, twigs,
and grass from
your garden. Create
miniature worlds such as
fairy grottos and dragons’
lairs.
Playtime on the footpath
Hopscotch provides hours of fun for kids, all for the
price of a piece of chalk.
Pool fun
Play Marco Polo in a swimming pool. Whoever is‘it’closes
their eyes and repeatedly calls out“Marco”. All the other
players try to avoid being tagged, but must call out“Polo”
whenever they hear the cry of“Marco”.
Walk the dog
Children’s best friend
should get extra
attention on the
holidays as well.
Picnic time
Host a Teddy Bears’Picnic in
the backyard or nearby park.
Snapshot
Get the kids a disposable
camera each and have a
photographic competition.
For poolside fun get an
underwater disposable camera.
Astronomy
Look up at the stars at night and
try to find the constellations.

Bubble blowing tiggy
It makes tiggy a lot more
fun if you have to‘tag’
someone with a recently
blown bubble. All you
need are a few bottles of
bubble mixture, or even
dishwashing liquid and
water will do the trick.
Explore Aboriginal art
Try painting‘indigenous style’on bark or dried leaves you
have collected.
Camp out
Pitch a tent in the backyard and go camping.
Great for a sleepover but don’t forget the torch!
Sporting fun
Try backyard cricket, or for something different try
backyard croquet or bocce.
Building a place of your own
Build an outdoor cubbyhouse or tree house.
Up in the air
Fly a kite. Try one of the new two-stringed controllable
kites for more interesting kite play, or gaze up at the
sky and swaying treetops.
Out on a limb
Climb a tree. What can you see from up there?
Remember to always supervise any climbing activities
and warn the kids not to climb higher than a height at
which they feel safe.
Street art
Paint portraits on the footpath with water-based paints,
or draw fabulous chalk sketches on the footpath.

Around your neighbourhood and beyond
Libraries
Local libraries are everywhere,
and if you haven’t visited one
recently then you may be
pleasantly surprised. Many
libraries now have cool book
reading areas for children.
Your local library may also
run a school holiday
program for kids including
book readings, magic
shows and craft days.
Horse back
Go for a horse ride
along a beach
or country track.
Younger children
could take a short
pony ride.
By the water
Riverside or lakeside—take your pick, but there can hardly be two more
entertaining locations for young kids. The possibilities are endless: splash
about in the stream, go fishing, explore the riverbanks, or indulge in
tadpole hunting or yabbying.
Sandcastle building is always a favourite. Try
making a fairy castle on the waters
edge by dripping the wet sand
through your fingers to construct
lovely towers and minarets.
Explore the rock pools. See
everything from hermit crabs
and sea stars to a set of lost
false teeth.
Life saving
If you live near a beach
or are holidaying at one, visit
the local lifesaving club to learn
about water safety. This can be an
interesting and invaluable visit.

Chalk trail
Leave a trail of chalk arrows around your
neighbourhood. Your kids get exercise as
they follow them, as well as learning about the local area
with you acting as tour guide. Finish up the trail at
a milk bar for a nice ice creamy reward!
Local councils
Phone your local shire or council office. Many run school
holiday programs, which feature art competitions, free
concerts in local parks and sports days.
All aboard
A steam train trip, or even a ride on an
everyday contemporary train can be a
great adventure for young children.
On the water
Take a ferry ride, punt down a
stream or go canoeing. Kayak in
a river or on the ocean.
Art galleries
You don’t need to visit a large gallery
that charges admission. Many smaller
local galleries offer free admission,
as well as constantly changing
exhibitions. What a great way to
inspire the kids!
Council pools
Splashing around in the pool can be great fun and a good
way to meet other children from your area. Many local
pools have special events such as Dive-in movies on hot
nights. Ask to see your local pool’s calendar of events.

Explore the past
Find your local historical society.
Most historical societies
or clubs have a small free
museum covering local history,
photography or aeronautics.
Bike riding
Once you learn it, you’ll never forget
what good fun (and great exercise)
it is. Explore a local bike path. Check
on the internet for bike paths in your
area. Try www.bikepaths.com.au for
one close to you.
Look out
Observation decks in tall
city buildings can be a good
afternoon excursion.
Movies with a difference
Visit outdoor cinemas such as rooftop
cinemas or go to screenings in
the Botanic Gardens.
In the gardens
Botanic gardens are always a fantastic
place to take the kids. They can run
around, feed the ducks or learn the Latin
names for everyday plants. Regional or
country botanical gardens are often a
great place to visit as a day trip in the car.

Lawn bowls
Most local clubs will welcome the kids to a twilight bowling
night where the older bowlers can pass on their expertise to the
youngsters. Many clubs also offer barefoot bowling for the kids.
Architecture walk
Again you are the tour guide, but it’s great showing children
the intricacies of local buildings they may have walked past
many times, but never really appreciated.
Barbecue
Let the children help marinate the food
before you go. Then let them help with
the cooking. Most councils provide
free or inexpensive barbecues.
Explore times past
Go on a fossil hunt in a nearby
park, on a riverbank or walking path.
Contact the
CSIRO
The CSIRO often
runs free school
holiday programs
for budding young
scientists. Find
out more at:
www.csiro.au/helix
Visit
• a National Trust property to explore Australia’s past. For more information visit:
www.nationaltrust.org.au
• the planetarium. Family tickets are usually fairly reasonably priced. Go to
www.astronomy.org.au and search under‘Education’for an observatory or
planetarium near you.
• a ship in port or check out any local docks for nautical history museums.
• a lighthouse nearest you – visit www.lighthouse.net.au
• a nearby neighbourhood on public transport then explore the different shops,
buildings, parks and cafes.
• a cemetery. They are usually fascinating and you can make it a hands-on
experience by doing some charcoal or crayon rubbings of old tombstones.
Always check or ask staff first.
• a boardwalk in your local area. Boardwalks are great exercise and give you and the
kids the chance to explore some wetlands or other interesting natural areas.
Beach stuff
Is there anything more
Australian, or more fun,
than a day on the beach?
Choose from beach cricket,
frisbee, grip ball, skiffle board,
kayaking or bodysurfing.

In the car
Animal, vegetable
or mineral
Also known as 20 questions, this is a
great game where one player imagines
an object then the others have 20 yes
or no questions to try and work out
the object.
Talk
A car trip can be a great opportunity to chat with your kids
while they aren’t being distracted by television or
computer games. Let’s face it, they know they
can’t get away so they may as well chat
with you about how
school is going.
Wheelies
In this game each player gets
a set time period and has to
count the number of wheels
that pass by your car in a
given period. For example,
you score two points for a
motorbike, four points for a car
and six or more for larger trucks. Each player has
the same time period and the winner is the one
with the highest score.
In the car
Categories
One person thinks of a category then each player has to name
something in that category. Whenever a player is unable to add
a new item to the list they drop out. Categories might include
animals, colours or cartoon shows.
How many songs
Listen to the radio and each person must
guess how many songs they will play
before you reach your destination.
This game is great because if the kids
have guessed too few songs they
will actually be wishing that the
journey took a little longer instead of
screaming“Are we there yet?”

Number plates
Make up creatures using the letters on car number plates around you.
For example BDD 768 could be Big Dastardly Dragon or Bone Digging Dog.
Car scavenger hunt
Make a list of commonly seen items appropriate for the area
you will be driving through. For example – horses, wooden
fences, cows, haystacks if you are driving through the
countryside. You might see petrol stations, fast food outlets
and police cars if you are driving through a city. Try and have
about 20 items on the list. The children then call out when
they see the item and whoever sees it first gets to cross it off
their list. The winner is the first to cross off all 20 items. Older
children can help youngsters if they can’t read their list.
Complete
the lyrics
While listening to a
favourite CD, the
parent presses pause
on the car CD player.
The kids have to
complete the lyrics
for the next line of
the song.
In the car
Word association
A great game for lateral thinking. One player starts by saying any word, the next
replies immediately with the first associated word that comes into their mind.
You have to drop out of the game if you can’t think of a word immediately, or if you
repeat a word already used. For example: bird-wing-sky-plane-luggage-suitcase etc.
Name game
Choose a topic and each player must name
an item in that topic as you work through the
alphabet. For example, if the category is animals,
the answers might run – antelope, beaver, cow,
dugong. A player drops out if they cannot think of
an item for the letter of their turn.
Empty petrol tank
Each player has a certain colour car to count. Every time they see one of their colour
cars they get a point. However, if they pass a petrol station on their side of the car
they lose all their points, but only if one of their opponents sees the station and calls
out“Empty petrol tank”. The game gets more interesting when distraction tactics
are used to make your opponents miss seeing either their colour cars or the petrol
station. You can have an agreed winning score at which the winner must call out
“My tank is full”.
Magnetic travel games
Handy for long trips in the car,
magnetic games are usually
inexpensive and include chess,
checkers, Snakes and Ladders,
solitaire, Scrabble
etc.

Silence is golden
A wonderful game especially when people’s nerves are starting
to fray. Who can stay silent the longest? It’s a good idea to give
some sort of reward to the winner.
The reward doesn’t have to be a
chocolate or sweet, it could
simply be that the child
gets to choose the
music or radio station
you listen to for
the next part of
your journey.
Grandpa’s underpants
Whoever is‘it’must answer all the other’s questions with a suitably silly
phrase while keeping a straight face. For example; “What do you like in your
soup?” The answer “Grandpa’s underpants” is suitably silly. Whoever gets the
respondent to laugh first then becomes‘it’. New phrases can be thought up
at any time.
In the car
Construct an oral story
Each child (and adult if you wish) takes it in turns to add a sentence to a shared
story you are all constructing out loud. This works particularly well when kids
are trying to work in different genres. For example, your young daughter is
trying to make a princess style romance, but every few lines your older son
changes direction towards a swashbuckling knights and dragons mode.
Make plans
The car trip on the way to your holiday destination is a great time to find out
what the children would really like to do when they get there. For example,
you might be assuming that they want to go on
the roller coasters at the expensive theme park
when a conversation with them could reveal
they are scared of the roller coasters and would
much rather splash around in the rock pools.
Plan a few special things to do while you are away.
In the child’s imagination you will already have
arrived at your destination. Alternatively, if you
are returning home, review the high points of
the holiday and create some goals to achieve in
the term ahead.
I spy
An old favourite. One player says“I spy with my
little eye something beginning with the letter
A”, B, C or D. The other players then
have to guess what object they
are looking at. If one of the
children is too young to know
the alphabet then you can
choose objects
by colours
rather than
by letters.

About the Australian Scholarships Group
About the Australian Scholarships Group
“Mum, Dad – I’m bored” is provided to parents
as an education support initiative of the
Australian Scholarships Group (ASG).
*At 1 July 2013
“Mum, Dad – I’m bored”– Published 2013
Please consider the Product Disclosure Statement available at ASG’s registered office or any Information Centre.
ASG helps families prepare for their children’s education.
We deliver a range of products and resources to families to
support their children’s early learning phase right through
to post-secondary studies.
Because we are a not-for-profit and member-based
organisation, benefits are returned to our Members and their
children, rather than shareholders.
Members make regular contributions to an education benefit
fund that helps offset education fees and other expenses.
ASG has been helping families and their children for more than
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For more information about ASG and its range of education
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