5 Free Things To Do With Your Kids This Weekend

Is everyone sitting at home getting cabin fever and wondering what to do? Get them up and out of the house for some fresh air and fun activities. Weekends are the perfect time to spend with your family and go on an adventure so put on some comfortable shoes and get ready to have fun!

Here are some of our favourite free things to do in Singapore with your children this weekend:

Urban Farm & Barn by Pocket Greens

Get your hands dirty while learning valuable skills. Urban Farm & Barn is the perfect destination for an educational day out that will be much more fun than you thought! Located at the top of Bukit Panjang Hill, this hidden away treasure is a beautiful edible garden!

Urban Farm & Barn offers short tours of their facility where you can learn more about growing your own vegetables. Here children can learn how to care for plants and see how fruits and vegetables are grown.

They offer home gardening kits to buy or you can rent trays of compost in which you can plant your own vegetables.

By renting the trays, you can plant your own seeds (which is available from their shop) in the trays, take them to the “vertical garden” and see how they grow. After 2 or 3 weeks, depending on what vegetables you planted, you will be able to go and harvest your vegetables.

Opening Hours:
Mon: Closed
Tue - Thurs: 8.30am - 11.30am
Fri -Sun: 3pm - 6pm
​Public Holiday: 3pm - 6pm

Jurong Eco-Garden

Take a day to enjoy in nature and have fun spotting insects, butterflies and birds along your journey. Jurong Eco Garden is a breath-taking park located in the heart of of CleanTech Park at NTU.

The garden features a Summit Forest, Wildlife Corridor, Stream Ravine and Freshwater Swamp Forest. It is home to more than 139 species of flora and fauna and offers the opportunity to spot birds, dragonflies, butterflies and insects. There is plenty of space for kids to run around in and some greats spots for photography fans.

SEE ALSO: Little India in Singapore

Ground-Up Initiative - Balik Kampung

Spend the day doing good deeds, learning useful skills and getting to know new people with the Ground-Up Initiative.

The Ground-Up Initiative was started by Mr Tay Lai Hock. Mr Hock was a business man, continuously travelling across the globe. He got quite shaken up after a plane from Silk Air crashed and author Bonnie Hicks passed away in the crash. After tying up loose ends, Mr Hock sold all his possessions to travel the world. After travelling over 6 continents he realised that he can find meaning wherever he is.

During his travels he also come to realise that "One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between man and nature shall not be broken." Because of this, Mr Hock decided to start the non-profit Ground-Up Initiative where people can reconnect with the earth and enjoy a sense of community with others.

Balik Kampung means ‘going home’ in Malay and is a community where you can go and volunteer to work on Saturdays. There are plenty of families who bring their children here to learn about sustainable living in Singapore and get their hands dirty with helping out. Visitors are from all walks of life so you are bound to meet numerous interesting people as you farm, cook or do housekeeping chores.

This will be great family bonding time to teach children to love and care for nature, the value of community and helping others. You will need to sign-up to volunteer, for logistical reasons, but the volunteer program is always open on Saturdays from 9:00 am – 1:00 pm.

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• 10 Incredible Transformation Photos of Singapore
• Singapore Botanic Gardens
• 8 Perfect Spots to Catch the Sunset in Singapore

Spend a day in nature at Sengkang Riverside Park  

Spend a day in nature with your family riding bicycles, hiking or enjoying a picnic at the 21-hectare Sengkang Riverside Park. The park offers numerous hiking trails, an educational journey of fruit trees with some exotic trees and features Singapore’s largest man-made wetland.

The park is located at Anchorvale Street abutting Sungei Punggol and often have exercise groups meet up during weekends.

Go Pillbox hunting

Get your imagination running, buckle the kids in and make sure that you take plenty of snacks and water on this exciting adventure of search for the surviving pillboxes across Singapore.

These pillboxes were military fortresses in the Second World War that were built under British command. They are concrete bunkers or guard-houses with small holes to keep watch and fire at enemies with machine guns.  

There are approximately 9 pillboxes which survived WWII. Most of them have been locked but if you are lucky, you will find one or two of them that you can climb into and explore around. The remaining pillboxes are located at Sime Road, Chancery Lane, Sembawang, Pasir Panjang, Siloso beach, Palawan beach and Labrador park.

This will be a fun family road trip with a bit of history and a lot of adventure.