It’s school holiday time again here in Perth and that usually means kids who want to be entertained. This can cost you a fortune but I’ve come up with a few free school holiday activities in Perth that will keep your kids occupied for hours!
The IKEA Playroom
As long as your child is over 3 and fully toilet trained, IKEA are shouting you 1 hour of glorious, kid free time. If you’re really keen you can go down and retrieve them and then send them back in for another hour if there’s room.
You can then head straight to the cafe for a coffee or hot chocolate and quiet time.
I am often wary of this one as I know the playroom can get full pretty quickly and then you end up hanging around for hours just so the kids can have a play. However, we’ve been there by just after 10am twice now and gone straight in. When I picked the kids up after 11, there was a wait but well worth it if you’re needing a break.
Admittedly this is only free if you avoid walking through IKEA and picking up a hundred things you just have to have!!
Your Local Shopping Centre
Lots of shopping centres put on free events and entertainment for kids in the school holidays. Karrinyup has a jungle gym in the middle of the food court. Innaloo has been running a treasure hunt to find Minions hiding in certain stores.
We spent about 2 hours at Innaloo with the kids hunting for Minions. The less you help them, the longer the adventure will take. Again – only free if you don’t get sucked in by the cute clothes and goodies at the shops!!
Have a look at the websites of stores near you and see what they might have on or check out this page for some more events.
This School Holidays in Perth Play A Free State-Wide Game Of Hide and Seek
If you haven’t yet discovered WA Rocks, it’s time to join over 40 000 others who have started painting and hiding rocks. This is kind of like the Pokemon craze but without the kids using up all your data allowance!
Kids and adults have been painting and hiding rocks all over the State (and some are even travelling overseas too). Rock hunting costs nothing and if you want to paint and hide your own there’s lots of idea on the Facebook page for keeping your costs down.
We have found some beautiful rocks and hidden lots of our own as well. Simply head to the Facebook page and enter your suburb (or the area you are in) into the search bar to see what crops up. Or scroll through the Facebook feed until you find some rocks that tickle your fancy then head off on adventure to see what you can find.
When it’s raining you can stay in and paint instead! Heaps of fun for the kids and helps keep you active and creative.
Kingsley Pump and Jump Trail
This was a completely unexpected find on Barridale Drive in Kingsley last week. I was heading to an appointment and saw a cute little park for kids.
I tucked it away in my memory banks as I figured it would be fun for Moo and Squirt would probably enjoy it too. Last week I knew we would be up that way so packed bikes and scooters into the car in case we had time to spare. I had not even seen the huge BMX/Mountain Bike park right next to it. Squirt’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head when he saw this:
Squirt rode until we had to go to his wrestling training and then begged to go back after class. It was getting dark and starting to rain (“only spitting” argued Squirt) but I caved and both of them had a go until it was too dark to see any more. Moo still rides a 3 wheel scooter and wasn’t super confident to start off with but she was determined to do it and with me running alongside a few times and helping her up some of the hills as required, she really started to conquer it.
This trail was such a winner that they both convinced me to return the next day and spent another 2 hours doing laps until it was again too dark to see any more!
Kingsley Pump and Jump Trail has only been open a couple of weeks but is obviously a hit as it has been pretty busy. All the kids do a great job of avoiding each other, looking out for other riders and even getting back up after they stack!
Our Favourite Free School Holiday Activities In Perth
So there you have it. Some of our favourite free school holiday activities in Perth.
What are your favourite school holiday activities? Bonus if it’s a freebie!
