In a recent piece on keeping fun-hungry children happy I offered a number of ideas – and forgot the free ones entirely, which are arguably the most important. So here are some activities that cost nothing at all.
Using what is already in the house
Cardboard boxes. The most reliable toy there is. A large box becomes a house, a car, a boat, a shop. Add a few cut windows and some crayons and it occupies an afternoon.
The recycling bin. Tubes, cartons, tins and lids make robots, castles and instruments. Wash everything first and check the edges.
Old magazines and catalogues. Cutting and sticking is endlessly absorbing, and collage requires no skill to produce something satisfying.
Paper. Aeroplanes, paper chains, folded boats, snowflakes cut from a folded square.
Yarn scraps. Finger knitting needs no tools at all and produces a cord within minutes. Weaving on a cardboard loom is only slightly more involved.
Odd socks. Sock puppets, with buttons or drawn-on faces.
Outdoors, free
A scavenger hunt. Write a list – something red, something smooth, a leaf with five points – and go for a walk. This transforms an ordinary walk entirely.
Collecting. Stones, leaves, shells, seed heads. The collecting is the activity, and the material then feeds craft at home.
Puddles, sticks and mud. Genuinely.
Nature printing. Lay leaves under paper and rub over them with a crayon.
Free at the library
Books obviously, but most libraries also run free children’s activities, story sessions and craft afternoons. They are consistently underused.
Free online
Enormous numbers of printable colouring pages, papercraft templates and activity sheets. A printer and some paper covers a great deal of ground.
What makes free activities work
The same things as any other children’s activity.
It should finish in a sitting. It should be forgiving of imprecision. There should be no single right answer. And the result should be usable or displayable.
And the honest point
Children rarely notice or care what something cost. A cardboard box is frequently more interesting than what came in it, and an afternoon spent making something together is remembered long after a bought entertainment is forgotten.
