If you’re a parent, I bet you know this feeling. Every Friday night, a little alarm goes off in my head: tomorrow’s the weekend, what am I actually going to do with the kids? If we go out, I worry about crowds. If we stay home, I worry we’re wasting the day doing nothing. So I search for ideas, save a bunch of them, and then never look at them again. They just sit in a folder somewhere, gathering dust.
If that’s you too, you’re not alone. Kids don’t need a perfect plan for their childhood. They just need you actually there with them. A puddle, a cardboard box, a simple kitchen experiment, any of these can turn into one of their favourite memories.
So based on my own experience with my own kids, I put together this list. A hundred small, easy, no-fuss things to do on a weekend. You don’t have to stress over what to do anymore. Just pick a good mood, close your eyes, and pull one out like a lucky dip.
100 Things To Do With Kids
- Break up a biscuit and put the crumbs where ants will find them
- Collect pebbles and paint pictures on them
- Make a house number sign and hang it by the letterbox
- Catch small fish in a creek and keep them in a home fish tank
- Make bubble solution with dish soap and blow bubbles through a straw
- Get up early together for a Saturday farmers market and buy fresh fruit and veg
- Collect cans and bottles for the container deposit scheme (Containers for Change / Return and Earn) and trade them in for cash
- Make a “nature telescope” out of a paper tube to watch birds
- Wear gumboots in the rain and jump in puddles to see whose splash is biggest
- Collect cans and bottles for the container deposit scheme and put the money towards a small treat
- Freeze drinks in jelly moulds to make your own icy poles
- Leave a bowl of water out for wildlife on a hot day, and build a shaded shelter for a stray cat
- Make a fruit kebab and drizzle it with honey
- Fold paper boats and float them down a creek
- Have a stone-skipping competition by the water
- Arrange leaves, sticks or stones into letters or numbers
- Roll around on the grass
- Find and identify the small animals living in a pond
- Listen to music and tap out the beat with your hands or feet
- Collect fallen leaves and throw them up into the air
- Pick wildflowers and weave them into a flower crown
- Stomp footprints in the sand at the beach to make a smiley face
- Twirl an open umbrella around in the rain
- Look through photos of mum and dad as kids
- Watch your own reflection in a puddle or pond
- Sort through old clothes together
- Run across the grass pretending to fly like a bird
- Take turns imitating the sounds different animals make
- Learn to find the Southern Cross and the Pointers in the night sky
- Hold a seashell up to your ear and listen for the sea
- Raise tadpoles in a tank and watch them turn into frogs
- Collect stones at the beach and stack them into a cairn
- Learn to recognise ten common flowers
- Fly a kite together
- Count the rings on a fallen branch and guess how old the tree was
- Have a water balloon fight on a hot day, then build the ultimate sandcastle
- On a cold morning, breathe on a fogged-up window or car window and draw a picture
- Bushwalk to a lookout that isn’t too easy and isn’t too hard
- Play hide-and-seek using only natural cover
- Pick fruit at a farm and turn it into your own jam
- Learn how different vegetables actually grow
- Watch the clouds and give each shape a name
- Plant a seed and watch it sprout and grow
- In late summer, go blackberry picking along a local track
- Pitch a tent outdoors and have a camping picnic
- Learn together how a household appliance actually works
- Press leaves and flowers to make your own specimens
- Draw a hopscotch grid on the pavement with chalk
- Find a straight stick and use it to swipe through long grass
- Soak in a natural hot spring together in winter, like Peninsula Hot Springs
- Build a small cubby house out of branches
- Bake a batch of Anzac biscuits together
- Make dumplings together from scratch
- Ride a pedal boat at a local lake
- Feed small animals at a farm or park
- Go rockpooling at low tide and see what’s hiding among the rocks
- Go strawberry picking at a pick-your-own farm
- Catch bugs and put them in an insect-viewing box
- Go for a bushwalk and see how many different bird calls you can spot
- Take a ride on a ferry
- Take a flight and try to get a window seat
- Make a pinwheel and get it spinning in the wind
- Sit outside on a summer night and listen to the cicadas and frogs
- Collect shells at the beach
- Drive to a country town and watch a paddock of wheat ripple in the wind
- Take an electric fly swatter outside and go bug hunting
- Visit a local flower or produce market
- Check the weather forecast together before mum and dad head to work
- Go yabbying in a local creek or dam with a net and some bait
- Use a magnifying glass or microscope to look at the tiny details in nature
- Do a family clean-up together, room by room
- Let your child wash your hair for a change
- Make a creative card together for an upcoming occasion
- Use pressed leaves to make a painting or collage
- Put up festive decorations together for a holiday
- Make a batch of lemonade or ginger beer from scratch
- Visit a university campus just to look around
- Hold a driveway or garage sale to sell some old toys
- Have a proper pillow fight
- Try your hand at pottery
- Let the kids plan and decide everything for one whole day
- Go for a bike ride together
- Visit the zoo and take a photo of every animal you see
- Visit a local street festival or fete and try something new together
- Watch (or help) dad shave, as a small everyday moment together
- Make sure the kids know your home address and phone numbers by heart
- Take the kids to a public fireworks display, like a New Year’s Eve show
- Go through the family first aid kit and check what needs replacing
- Build a secret hideout out of a cardboard box
- Go somewhere high up and look out over the whole city
- Take a train to a nearby town just to try the local bakery or fish and chip shop
- Learn how to use public transport together, trains, buses and trams
- Go to a local park and feed the ducks with bird seed, not bread
- Sit down and talk about what each of you dreams of doing one day
- Visit a factory and see how something is made
- Visit a fire station
- Grow your own bean sprouts together
- Grow a piece of fruit and eat it together once it’s ready
- Go fruit picking at a local farm
- Go for a morning run together
A Few Tips Before You Dive In
Don’t try to do it all. You don’t need to tick off every single one. Pick one or two things your kid is actually interested in that day, and put your full attention into those. That matters a lot more than rushing through a checklist.
Safety comes first. For any activity, especially the outdoor ones, make sure you’ve thought about safety and you’re keeping an eye on them the whole time.
Let the detours happen. Sometimes the plan falls apart the moment you step outside. That’s fine. The moment your kid stops dead because they’ve spotted some weird bug on the footpath might end up being the best part of the whole day.
If you’re after ideas for the longer school breaks rather than just weekends, our school holidays and term dates for 2026 page has the dates for every state, and our things to do with kids section has more ideas by location.
Download Our Printable List
