Looking for some ideas to entertain the kids? We asked parents what fun, free ideas they enjoyed doing with their kids. From bug hunts to indoor picnics, here are 50 things to do for your children that cost nothing but time. After all, the best things in life are free!

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We asked Mykidstime parents to share their ideas for things that they love doing with their child that don’t cost anything. And literally, all these ideas take is time! Free fun, you cannot beat it!

Things To Do For Your Children That Cost Nothing

1. “We sing lots of songs together, maybe try to think of as many songs as we can on a particular theme, e.g. Rain or Love or Animals.”

2. “I just got out my daughter’s twistables and drew a picture for her (of me and her) and left it by her bed.”

3. “I sometimes put a little note in my daughter’s lunchbox telling her I love her. I draw hearts on it & put on stickers.”

4. “I draw a smiley face and write ‘Eat me’ on my daughter’s banana she takes for school”

5. “I find that nothing pleases my son more than when I stop what I’m doing when he asks me and do whatever it is he wants me for”

6. “We love playing cards together.”

7. “I put a selection of his artwork on a notice board, he’s so proud of it and I change it around when new stuff comes in.”

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8. “We love playing Fortunately, Unfortunately. One person kicks off a story saying something like ‘One day a man was in the jungle. Unfortunately he met a lion’.  The next person has to be the Fortunately person, so e.g. ‘Fortunately the man was a lion tamer’.  And so on.”

9. “My son loves a treasure hunt. I get posty notes and write a word on each one like “toilet” or “television” and he has to go from one location to the next, gathering the clues till he finds the treasure (usually 1 sweet).”

10. “Silly word games pass the time if driving.”

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11. “I read my son a story every night under the duvet with his torch.”

12. “Making cards for birthdays, Christmas, etc.”

13. “When we make the effort to go outdoors. Even when the weather is brutal, my daughter is happy to stick on her wellies and splosh through every puddle in sight.”

Here are 10 Things to Do Outside in the Rain.

14. “She really loves it when I do painting. We have all the gear, so it’s essentially free at this stage.”

15. “My son’s favourite thing is stories. He loves colouring and singing songs too.”

16. “He’s learning to play cards now, not quite getting the hang of it but still enjoys it”.

17. “I have to say the most fun we had was climbing in the snow.. it was brill… kids, my husband and I had a blast and the kids slid down the hill on a plastic bag they found! They thought they were on a sleigh in Norway!”

18. “My kids have a great time with playdough (homemade or shop bought) or plasticine”

19. “We go on nature walks around the garden and collect leaves, twigs, conkers etc (depending on the time of year) and do some bird spotting and then identify them from a book or online etc.”

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20. “We live near to a few beaches and playgrounds so we go there alot too, my daughter loves collecting shells and bringing them home to paint or play with.” Here are 50 Interesting Things to Do at the Beach with Kids.

21. “Dancing around the kitchen is another fave here! She is so happy when we do it too.”

22. “We sometimes build a den out of chairs and blankets and put cushions underneath and have a mini picnic!”

23. “I make sandwiches for my son’s lunch but sometimes cut them into really fun shapes”

24. “Mine love indoor picnics – we put a rug or duvet on living room floor and sit down with our pile of sandwiches and treats.”

25. “Helping to wash the car.”

26. “I play hairdressers with my daughter. She loves brushing my hair out.”

27. “The other day we did finger painting, she made a ferocious mess and was loving the fact I was down on my knees messing with her”

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28. “My kids sit on a quilt at the top of the stairs and I pull them down as if it’s a sled.”

29. “Hide and seek is a regular family favourite.”

30. “Collecting an array of bugs and creepy crawlies in jars and then trying to identify them. We also pick lots of wild flowers and edible berries”.

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31. “This year we picked rushes and made St. Brigids crosses“.

32. “My daughter is ‘writing a book’…. we have a scrapbook and she dictates the story to me and she draws the pictures to illustrate it. We do a page or 3 at a time.”

33. “We had a marathon session of Kerplunk last night. DS set up a ‘league’ on the blackboard and we all played against each other – great craic.”

34. “Homemade obstacle courses in the back garden are popular in our house, the kids love them!”

35. “Planting seeds costs next to nothing. We got some bean seeds a few years back, it grew around 7 foot tall over the summer (her magic beanstalk!), we kept some of the beans (ate the rest) and plant the new beans every year for more beanstalks!! Same with the sweet pea flowers.. Cheap and easy!”

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36. “I get my kids to ‘paint the garden walls’ with paintbrushes and water. They get great fun out of it as well as the inevitable water fight and soaking”

37. “We went to a beautiful local park (no playground – just acres of grass with goalposts and a lovely river walk). We brought a football, tennis racket & tennis ball. I made sandwiches & filled a bottle of diluted orange. We had a great afternoon with the kids playing rounders & football. As we were leaving they both thanked me for a great day.”

38. “My daughters arrived down with a shoe box this morning. They had written out loads of slips of paper with things that they could play such as skipping, mammys and babies, school, football, treasure hunt loads of things for both indoor and out. Every now and again they’d appear and I’d pull one out and they’d go off and play no arguments or discussions!”

39. “One thing I heard before that I keep in mind is that children will always remember places they were brought rather than things they were bought so I am always on the lookout for places to go.”

40. “Tonight I played hairdressers with my daughter. I’ve been quite unwell recently and the joy it gave my daughter to give her a bit of time where I played with her hair and she mine.”

41. “At the weekend the three of us will play ball – she’ll sit in the middle of us and we’ll throw it to each other, could spend hours doing it and she just laughs and laughs, it’s infectious! She also loves playing Row Row Row Your Boat and all those good games.”

42. “Treasure maps. I draw a map and put arrows etc on it. Smallies have to go to each spot (numbered) and collect clues. If I am really organised I will soak the map in tea and burn around the edges!”

43. “My daughter who is 8 loves calling out random pairs in the car and getting me to choose one for e.g. Spring or Summer? Taytos or Pringles? Chips or Potatoes? Can go on for ages and gets silly (lots of fun!)”

44. “Playing car colours. Everybody picks a colour and you count how many of your colour you see then for fun drive through a car park!!”

45. “Jumping in the muddy puddles (with the bath following, of course!)”

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46. “We create a playlist of the favourite songs we all like and then we dance around the kitchen to them!”

47. “My daughters love making ‘perfume’. They go into the garden and pick some lavender and mint and then mix them with water and put into jars or bottles and make nice labels for their perfume”

48. “My kids and I head off for the nearest park with a hill and we run down the hill being aeroplanes (arms out wide making loud engine noises)”

49. “We write each other letters and take turns to post them through the front door and then write a reply. The excitement of the letter, even though they know it’s coming, arriving through the door, beats email any day!”

50. “We play a version of Going on a Bear Hunt. We put on wellies, find something to catch the bear with – could be a bag or a pair of gloves or a jar :) and off we go swishy swashy etc”

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Do you have a suggestion for something free to do with your child?  Please let us know in the comments section below.