Activities To Do With Kids This Summer

Activities to do with kids this summer

By Sadhbh Devlin

I’m three weeks into my Parental Leave now and really enjoying it so far. I definitely feel it was the right decision and despite the less easy parts of staying at home (such as the constant demands from little people!) it is lovely to have a new daily rhythm in my life. The financial pressures haven’t been too severe yet, as we still had my last regular pay packet to live on until now. We have been quite frugal with it, but this month coming is when things will start to tighten a little bit more and we may encounter some challenges. We have a couple of family weddings coming up too, so I have been extra careful to bear them in mind as I plan ahead!

Walk in the woods With this being the first week of the Primary School Summer Holidays, I thought it might be a good time to share some of the lists I mentioned last time, for frugal family fun. Although these lists are made with a pair of three-year olds in mind, most activities will suit any age. Hopefully you’ll find a few ideas that will see you through the break!

Note: These lists for places to go are for the Dublin/Wicklow area because that is where I live, so it might not be so useful if you are not in that neck of the woods. I’m afraid this post would get out of hand if I tried to make lists every county but it would be brilliant if you could all share ideas of places to go in your area in the comments section!

I’ll begin with a list of outdoor places to visit – because it’s Summer and, even in Ireland, sometimes the sun shines and it’s nice to go outside with a simple picnic.

Outdoor places to go for free

The Beach (on our list we have Bray Beach, Silver Strand, Magheramore and Brittas Bay) which is your favourite beach?
Walk in the Woods (we love Glen of the Downs, Avondale, Knocksink, Crone Woods, Kindlestown, Trooperstown, Devil’s Glen… the list is endless!)
Visit some pretty Gardens (Kilmacurragh Gardens, Festina Lente, The National Botanic Gardens, War Memorial Gardens)
Meet the animals at the free Pet Farm
Do a playground crawl – check your county council site for listings and try a new one every week!
Feed the Swans at Bray Harbour
Visit historical sights like Glendalough, Malahide Castle, and Newbridge House
Climb Killiney Hill and Bray Head
Bring a wish to the fairy tree in Marlay Park
Take a walk around Blessington Lakes and Roundwood Reservoir

Indoor places to go for free

Visit the Library most have fun things happening over the summer months: Check out Going Places With Books, a new initiative from Dublin City Libraries where libraries will be hosting a variety of activities for children of different ages during July and August)
Free Story time every Saturday in Dubray Bookshops nationwide
Have a good look at the animals in the Natural History Museum
Discover the Art at the National Gallery (ask for their family pack on arrival)
Check if there are any free exhibits/workshops at The Ark
Drop-in to some of the family activities in Collins’ Barracks

Note: All OPW sites, both indoor and outdoor, have free entry on the first Wednesday of every month, so if you time it right and bring a picnic, you could have a very frugal day out indeed!

At Trooperstown

Free Rainy Day Activities

Indoor Treasure Hunt
Play Board Games – we love Orchard Toys games for our little ones
Make a Home Cinema – close the curtains, make popcorn and put on a favourite movie
Make Shadow Puppets
Try this easy felt unicorn tutorial
Bake (Banana Bread Muffins) decorate and eat cupcakes
Make Paper Aeroplanes, Boats, Hats
Have an indoor Picnic
Go ‘camping’ indoors
Play dress-up
Make an indoor obstacle course
Use masking tape to make a road/race track for toy cars
Spend some time making jigsaw puzzles
Make simple jewellery with cheap beads/painted pasta quills
Make playdough - this is the best recipe (so many wonderful ideas on that site!) or check out our own play dough recipe
Paint
Have a disco
Teach your children how to sew/knit
Take part in this wonderful Virtual book club Summer camp
Dress-up
Build a fort in the living room
Use free printables for colouring-in

Other places we have reviewed here:

I hope these lists are somewhat useful to you, or at least inspire you to use some of the free resources in your area. To be honest, I have actually only done a few things from my own lists so far! I have taken out membership for the girls in our local library which is brilliant, gone for a walk in Glen of the Downs which was magical and spent an afternoon on our local beach in the sunshine. The lists are there as a sort of back-up, for those days when I have no idea what to do and we’re all climbing the walls, but there are even simpler things I enjoy doing too.

By far the best thing I have done so far on my parental leave is connect with some mama friends in my town. It’s amazing how a cup of coffee, a chat and, for the girls, a chance to play with another child’s toys, can satisfy us all so well.

P.S. If you don’t have a network of friends who are parents – please use meetmums.ie to find where the parents all hang out in your area, and make some new friends – there’s nothing like safety in numbers!

Sadhbh Sadhbh Devlin has always been told she has a head for hats. This may be true, but in fact she only owns two actual hats, both woollen and shapeless. She does however, wear many metaphorical hats. She is mama to twin toddler girls, wife to a very tall husband, a full time employee in an Irish language organisation, a greeting card designer and small business owner, a photo snapper, a writer of words in tiny, secret notebooks, a crafter and an obsessive tryer of new things. She writes about most of these lovely hats at Where the Wishes Come From