Free things to do with your child in summer

Getting outdoors and experiencing nature can be great for you and your little ones' mental health, there are endless activities to keep the family entertained for hours. 

Turn a daily walk into a fun spotting game by making a list of things for your little ones to look out for. It could be butterflies, bees, sunflowers or seagulls. You can change the list for each walk to keep it exciting each time, and then see how many things from the list you can see. 

What about exploring the local pond and trying to identify various pond life with this Gran Gran Plan. Or try making your own bug hotel and enjoy spotting all the various types of insects and bugs that visit!

Find more outdoor activities to do together.

If you enjoy the camping experience, why not do it again ‘festival style’? You can enjoy festival life without the big price tag by putting on a festival at home. It’s a great activity for all ages to get involved with, think dressing up and creating the ultimate festival look, forming your own band and practising your dance moves. 

Read our tips to stage the ultimate family festival at home.

With British weather being as unpredictable as it is, sometimes you might need to change plans last minute, but that doesn’t mean the fun has to stop.

Your kids will be full of ideas and stories, so why not ask them to act out their made up stories in a performance? There could be costumes and props involved, or they could put on a puppet show like JoJo & Gran Gran. Follow Gran Gran's Plan and learn how to make the puppets from old socks.

Art and craft activities allow kids to explore their creative side by making or creating something all by themselves, it can be rewarding and can help them express their feelings. It also doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. You can get creative with old t-shirts, cardboard tubes and old plastic bottles. Best of all, it’s environmentally friendly by finding new ways to reuse items around the house. Check out these awesome ideas for how to make recycled art.

If you want to explore creativity, but don’t want the mess that might come with some crafts try out the online Creative Lab game. You can draw, paint, and use online stickers, as well as pop glitter bubbles and play paint spin art. All the fun with NO MESS! 

Museums can be both a fun and educational activity to do with the whole family. You can find lot’s of free museums across the UK with our museum finder. Make a day out of it and take a homemade packed lunch to save spending money on lunch whilst you are there.

Whether you are going on a long journey and want to keep your little ones busy, or just need a breather for yourself, you can download our free CBeebies apps and know they are in safe hands, free from any advertisements or in-app purchases. Read more about how our CBeebies games and story apps are both fun and can help your child learn. 

You can also rediscover your family's favourite clips from Bluey or watch full episodes on iPlayer for free to keep your kids (and you!) entertained for hours. Remember to download your favourite episodes to your BBC iPlayer app to watch on the go. 

Need some more tips for long car journeys? We’ve got you covered.