Zero-Waste Lockdown & School Holiday Activities for Every Family

Lockdowns and school holidays can be a real juggle for families. Trying to work from home or run a household whilst entertaining your little ones is challenging.

Follow along for creative and fun lockdown activities that are eco-friendly, sustainable, and stimulating for your kids. Big or small, there’s an idea for every family on this zero-waste list.

1. Plant a Backyard Garden 🌻

Have you been meaning to get around to growing your own garden but haven’t found the time? Get the kids involved with this outdoor activity over lockdown and watch their interest in gardening flourish. 

Whether you opt for a veggie patch or a  herb garden, planting your own food is a sustainable and fun way to stay healthy and well for years to come. 

What’s more is that when your kids are involved with planting your fresh, organic veggies, they’ll be more inclined to taste their victories when they’ve grown.

How’s that for a clever way to encourage your kids to eat their greens?

Hot tip: Reuse bamboo toothbrushes as veggie garden tags!

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2. Build Your Home-Compost System 👩🏼‍🌾

Another fantastic outdoor and eco-friendly activity that benefits your future and educates your kids is composting. 

The  benefits of composting are undeniable, and setting up your own system is a simple and fun way to get your kids involved in making sustainable swaps for the planet. 

As you set up your home compost or worm farm, you can educate your kids on the reasons why composting is so much better for the environment and help them understand what can and can’t be composted. They’ll develop more excitement over composting and help you stick to the new routine!

You can build your own home-compost creation or pick up a clever  Subpod composter to make reducing your waste easier than ever!

3. Zero-Waste Crafting 🎨

If you’ve got a crafty child, you likely already know the amount of waste these activities can produce. Between the highly-packaged crafting materials to the toxic paints and crayons, those beautiful and treasured crafts are far from eco-friendly. 

Fortunately, there are a few easy ways you can clean up your crafting for a sustainable school holidays activity. 

Instead of purchasing pre-made crafting kits, let your kids put their imagination to work by reusing egg cartons, cutting up boxes, sourcing some backyard rocks and using other supplies they already have. This reduces the amount of rubbish we produce and allows your kids to really exercise those creative brains. 

For things like painting and colouring, pick up your toxin-free and sustainable  Paint Sets or  Eco Crayons and encourage your kiddos to reuse paper by using the back of documents that are ready to be recycled. 

Image: My daughters re-using our shipping boxes and toilet rolls in their craft activities

4. Play Dress-Up 🥷🏼 🦸‍♀️

Remember trying on your Mum’s fancy shoes as a kid and feeling like a princess? Didn’t take much to have fun, did it?

Somewhere along the way, playing dress-up became a highly profitable industry for toy companies and pre-made store-bought costumes became the standard for dress-up chests around the world. 

Believe it or not, your kids will have just as much fun creating their own costumes out of clothing you no longer use. 

Upcycle your old clothing by handing them over to the kids for dress-up duty. Break out the scissors and the sewing machine or try your hand at fun and fresh  flower crowns!

Image: My daughter Harper using my jumper for dress-ups

5. Backyard Picnic 🧺

Sunny days call for a backyard picnic! 

Set up your own picnic with fresh-cut fruits and vegetables and involve the kids in selecting their favourite pillows throw rugs, DIY lanterns, and teddy's to bring along to the picnic. 

To keep your picnic a zero-waste activity, pack your goodies into these  silicone pouches and be sure to bring your  bamboo cutlery sets along for the adventure!

You can even switch up the time of day and have dinner under the stars, download a  star gazing app and try and spot them with the kids!

6. Backyard Campout ⛺️

Bring the indoors outdoors for the night and set up a cute camp out. Leave your phones inside, light some candles, cook some marshmallows, talk about your favourite memories, read books or set up a movie on a projector screen!

This is a sweet idea to do for those who don't have kids too!

7. Go on Clean-Up Adventures 🗑

One of our favourite educational lockdown ideas involves setting out with a pair of gloves and a bag! (If your lockdown restrictions allow)

Set to the street, beach, or any other outdoor area for a walk and start your scavenger hunt for litter. By having a focus for your walk, your kids will stay stimulated for much longer. What’s more, is that involving your kids in rubbish pick-up teaches them valuable lessons about why we don’t leave our waste behind.

After a litter scavenger hunt or two, your kids may even start to adopt the initiative on their own outdoor adventures!

8. Pamper Day 💆 💆‍♀️

My daughter Gracie looooves her hair and is always searching for new styles (I just did a fishtail braid with her this morning!). Does anyone else feel the pressure of doing a creative hairstyle before school?! We've been using lockdown as an opportunity to practice without the mad rush of needing to be somewhere at a certain time, if you know, you know! Check out the video below for three easy styles you can teach them.

I also love letting the girls paint my toes with our  nail polishes that are free from the 10 nasty toxins found in mainstream polishes! Make sure you have a  cotton tip on hand to clean up the edges/rest of your foot lol.

9. Get Busy in the Kitchen 🧑‍🍳

Last but certainly not least on our sustainable lockdown activity list is a beloved favourite for Mum’s everywhere. 

As you build your menu for lockdown dinners, lunches, and snacks, get your kids involved to give you a helping hand in the kitchen. This activity is fun and stimulating for children and helpful for parents!

Try out new and exciting dishes or introduce healthy zero-waste habits such as  making your own nut milk. We guarantee your littles will love squeezing their freshly made miracle milk through the bag and enjoy drinking it even more!

Lockdown Activities Without the Waste

When lockdown boredom sets in, break out this list of zero-waste lockdown activities and make eco-friendly fun for kids of all ages. We can’t wait to see the creative, explorative, and exciting ideas you come up with to keep your kids engaged and entertained!

Know a family that could use a little inspiration during this lockdown? Share this article with your zero-waste besties today and help your community move towards a more sustainable future!