Spring break: Easy kid activities for the frugal mom

Are you on the look-out for some easy, low-prep, kid activities to keep your little ones busy and happy during spring break? Do you want ideas for family activities to do together, as well as activities they can get on with by themselves?

Then you are in the right place. I have compiled a list of fun, frugal activities to keep your little ones entertained and happy throughout Spring break. With this list your kids will never be bored again!

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read my full disclosure for more information.

Spring Break: Easy Kid Activities in the Garden

Scavenger Hunts

Scavenger hunts are always great fun and don’t take too long to create. My kid’s love to join in creating these and help to draw up a list of items that we all need to find. If you are short on time, grab my FREE Spring Nature Hunt Checklist.

I’ve used pictures, rather than words, to be inclusive so it can be used by anyone. This one focuses on what you would find in a forest or in the countryside.

You can also create your own scavenger hunts for the beach, garden, local park, shopping centre or even in the house on a rainy day. They can be specific items, or more general, such as, ‘a small blue object’ or ‘something that bounces’ or ‘something you can climb over’.

Gardening

My kids love gardening and helping in any way they can. There are so many ways kids can get involved in the garden, or an allotment, in Spring time.

Spring is a great time to tidy up the garden, cutting back bushes and trees and removing dead branches and leaves. You can decide your planting schedule for the year with your kids.

Little ones love helping to plant seeds for flowers, vegetables, herbs and wildflowers. Visiting the local garden centre together to buy seeds or flowers to plant is fun activity and teaches your little ones so much too.

Helping in the garden has so many health benefits, as you encourage them to spend time outdoors, exercising and contributing to the family. This is great for their self-esteem and confidence.

You don’t even need to have a big garden, or a garden at all, as you can grow potatoes in buckets, herbs in windowsill pots and daffodils in little pots on your doorstep or balcony.

Getting your little one their own gardening gear can help them feel more involved too. This cute gardening set, from Amazon, is both practical and appealing to kids. Avoid those cheap plastic tools that don’t last and get them this higher quality set.

Outdoor Fun and Games

There are so many fun and frugal activities for kids to do now that the weather is nicer. If you have a garden, then a mud kitchen is great for little kids. It provides so much opportunity for imaginative play, as well as helping them develop fine motor skills and investigative skills.

This Mud Kitchen, from Amazon, is my favourite because it provides the opportunity for running water above the basin, as well as having all the essential elements of a mud kitchen.

This is a great little investment for Spring and Summer! My daughter spends so much time playing with her mud kitchen. It is SO worth it!

A sandpit is another great investment piece and doesn’t have to cost the earth. Sand play never seems to get old, and my kids can spend hours building sandcastles and searching for buried treasure. This sandpit, from Amazon, is my favourite as it has a bench, some practical toy storage, a waterproof cover, and a sand funnel and wheel to pour sand through. Now that’s a nice touch!

As the weather starts to improve in Spring, one of my kids absolute favourite activities is an obstacle course. They love to help create this with anything we find outside or in! We use old tires, bits of wood, balls, buckets, hula hoops, chalk, and bits of old pipe.

There are sections to go in and out of, to go under, around, over, balance on, and jump over. Sometimes we add in extra elements to increase the challenge level, such as carrying water in a cup around part of the obstacle course and emptying it into a container at the end. These can be a competition or timed so they can have several turns to beat their personal best.

Games of hide and seek and sardines are always fun and can be played in the garden, forest, or local park. I have written a post with some more unusual games that are great for Spring too. Be sure to check out Free Easter Games for Kids with Frugal Moms.

Water Play is another great spring time activity, and so easy to set up and vary. If you’re looking for ideas check out, Water Play Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers: Easy, Fun and Low-Prep.

Walks and Bike Rides

Family walks can sound a little boring, but there are so many ways to make them more interesting and exciting. Call it an expedition and go exploring somewhere new together. Make up family songs and stories along the way to help your little ones forget their ‘tired legs.’

You can also encourage them to keep going by making photo challenges along the way, or taking turns to video your exploits.

If it’s just rained then a puddle walk can be such fun. Both my own kids, and the little ones I childmind, love searching for the biggest, muddiest puddles to jump in! They make amazing slow motion videos too!

When the weather is mild, flower picking is a nice option too. You could take along a book with different flowers in it, or take the flowers home and compare them to pictures to learn their names, or use them for crafts. My daughter likes to pick daisies and buttercups from the grass verges and use them in her mud kitchen to make fancy teas and cupcakes! The possibilities are endless!

Nature Trips

It’s so good for our kids to experience time outside in nature. There are so many benefits to this and it’s also a free activity that gets them exercising and learning, as well as having fun.

A trip to the forest can create opportunities for den building, hide and seek, scavenger hunts, and wildlife watching. They can learn about different creepy crawlies, the changes that take place during spring time, and study the different trees and plants.

They can practice balancing along fallen trees, jumping over tree roots and climbing trees. You could take a picnic or take it in turns to be expedition leader and lead the exploration to new parts of the forest.

The FREE Spring Nature Hunt checklist is a great thing to take with you on your forest exploration too.

Visiting a local beach can provide opportunities for exploration, learning about wildlife, shells, and water safety. Fun activities include skimming pebbles, paddling in the sea, swimming (when it’s warm enough), building sandcastles, building sand walls to stop the sea coming in, shell hunts, scavenger hunts, hide and seek (if its a rocky beach with places to hide), and races.

Educational Activities for Spring Break

Educational activities don’t need to be boring or confined to school. There are a whole host of cool and easy science experiments out there that suit any age of kid. If you haven’t tried it already, the classic volcano experiment delights little ones. You simply get a bottle of diet coke and put some Mentos in it to create a lava-like eruption.

There are so many easy science experiments out there. If this is something your kid would enjoy, it’s worth checking out ‘Good Housekeeping’s’ 45 Easy Science Experiments for Kids.

If homemade is less your thing, then there are some great science kits on Amazon, like this Science Experiments Kit for Kids, that has 120+ experiments for your 4-12 year old to try.

That’s definitely enough experiments to keep them going over Spring break!

Reading and activity books are another thing that my kids love doing during their school holidays. Check out, Easter Books for Toddlers: The Best Available Now and Easter Books for 4 – 7 year olds: The best options for some inspiration. They include activity and sticker book recommendations as well as stories.

Creative Activities

Spring, or Easter, themed craft ideas are everywhere and can be low-cost and easy.

As a kid myself I used to love collecting flowers and then pressing them to make into pictures, bookmarks and cards. This beautiful Flower Pressing kit, from Amazon, would make a great little Springtime gift for your little one to enjoy with you, as well as encouraging them to slow down and enjoy nature.

Spring is also the perfect time to reorganise a messy bedroom. If your kid’s bedroom is always messy or you feel they have outgrown the current décor, then as part of their spring clean, you could get them involved in redecorating and reorganising it.

I’ve found my kids love this sense of responsibility and ownership. They take great delight in drawing their plans and helping create a new space.

It’s great for their self-esteem, as well as giving them a valuable way to contribute and a fun project to work away at over Spring break. The end result is a bedroom they love, that works well for them, and that they want to spend time in.

Spring Break Family Outings

Spring Break is the perfect time for some fun family outings. These don’t have to break the bank though! As well as trips to beaches and forests, there are lots of other things that are either free or reasonably priced.

During Spring time many attractions are beginning to open up again after the winter, and offer deals, especially during the holidays. Look for local attractions that are opening up for Spring and see what discounts you can find.

There are often Easter activities for families at local schools or community centres too, as well as coffee mornings which can be great frugal family outings.

Easy Kid Activities for Spring Break

I hope this article has helped you to sculpt a fun itinerary of easy kid activities for Spring break. There are so many fun, frugal, family activities out there that there really is no need to splash out in order to create memories.

If you are looking for more ideas, then check out Free Easter Games for Kids with Frugal Moms and my Freebie, Spring Nature Hunt and Bingo Game for kids.