8 Creative after school ideas on a budget

Whether the weather outside is behaving badly or the kids are on an off day from after school sports - channelling their inner creativity into little projects is a great way to keep their minds active when they’re not able to get outside.

From school holidays to after school finding things to do on days off from sports is a breeze. We’ve popped down 8 ideas, great for primary school aged kids when you’re in a slump and need some extra ideas for getting creative – bonus these ideas are great if you’re on a budget too.

Nature Painting

Combining outdoor activities with indoor creativity, using nature as their canvas is a great way to undertake a creative project on a budget. Next time you’re on a walk with the kids, have them pick out some leaves, pinecones or larger rocks – these can make a perfect canvas for painting, and help turn outdoor adventures into permanent memories. Even better – why not get them to theme their leaves and rocks too.

Texter Challenge

What do you need:

·       Colouring Books

·       Texters/Coloured Marker Pens

Pile up their texters into the middle of the table and ask your kids to close their eyes and pick three colours at random. Then they need to choose a picture and make it look awesome using just the three colours they chose. There are heaps of these videos on YouTube too if you’re looking for extra ideas.

Story telling

If they love writing stories, get their creative juices flowing with a story prompt jar. You can use the internet for inspiration, but this one is simple grab a bunch of story-telling prompts (that’s the opening line of a story), fold them into a jar, the kids can then pick at random and shape a story from the prompt. Why not even make a few sporty themed stories too! Bonus points if they also draw cute pictures to go along with their story.

Mug Decorating

Grabbing some cheap white mugs from a store like Kmart and using permanent markers from around the home – decorating the mugs makes for a super easy and inexpensive activity. Extra bonus points for theming their mug decorating – they can even make for cute gifts for other relatives as well.

Baking and Icing Cakes



Baking together can be a nice bonding exercise, and getting the kids to help makes the activity fun for everyone, especially if you let your kids choose from sprinkles, and icing colours too. Muffins are a nice simple recipe with ingredients found in most store cupboards too. Why not ask them to pick icing colours based on their favourite sports teams to make it extra fun?

Indoor scavenger hunt

Great for super active kids, creating an indoor scavenger hunt is such a fun activity. The idea is that you write an ‘indoor shopping list’ of all the things the kids need to find. We like the idea of them needing a central place to put their items, and asking them to find the chosen toys, books or household items one by one – makes the task last longer. A way to make it fun is to theme the scavenger hunt by colour or even by sports.

Ideas for their scavenger hunt could include:

·       Lego pieces

·       Things from the kitchen

·       Stationery items from your home office

·       Shoes

·       Accessories items like scarves or socks

Sneaker Decorating

Old running shoes or footy boots that the kids have grown out of can make a cute alternative way to store their pens, stationery or even some of their trinkets. It also gives the footwear a little more longevity too. Get super creative and let them decorate their old sneakers with markers, glue, sequins and glitter. This works especially well on white sneakers.

Make sure their sneakers are clean and dry before undertaking this!

Homemade board games

Using paper, card and texters you can make some creative board games – old sticker sets can even help you make cute looking counters. Easy games to make:

·       Noughts and Crosses

·       Funny Bunny Faces

·       Number learning

There you have it, some easy, creative after school activities for when you’re on a budget. We hope you enjoyed our selection and can’t wait to see what your kids create!