What can we actually do together, rather than me supervising?
Hobbies to do with children
The test applied here is stricter than "suitable for children": the child has to be doing the same thing as the adult, not watching or being helped. That rules out a surprising amount. Every activity listed records a typical minimum age, and several are genuinely better with a child involved because they do the finding.
68 activities in the catalogue, 68 written up so far.
Subhashish Panigrahi / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
3D printing
Making physical objects layer by layer from a digital model — a manufacturing process that became a domestic hobby, with all the calibration that implies.
£100–£300 to start · indoors · sedentary
Archery
Shooting arrows at a target with a bow, under a club and governing-body structure that begins with a beginners’ course.
£300–£1,000 to start · indoors or out · moderate effort
Annatsach / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Astronomy
Observing the night sky, from naked-eye constellations to telescopic deep-sky objects.
£100–£300 to start · outdoors · sedentary
Angling
HobbySportFishing with rod and line — the parent of several very different sports that share a licence, a set of ethics and almost nothing else.
£100–£300 to startOutdoorsGentle
Antique collecting
HobbyBuying, researching and living with old objects — furniture, ceramics, silver, clocks and glass.
£100–£300 to startIndoors or outdoorsGentle
Athletics
SportTrack and field as an organised club sport — running, jumping and throwing under one roof, and open to adults at every level.
£25–£100 to startIndoors or outdoorsVery demanding
Automotive detailing
CraftHobbyCleaning, correcting and protecting vehicle paint as a craft — where the order of operations matters far more than the products.
£100–£300 to startIndoors or outdoorsModerate effort
Bicycle maintenance
HobbyCraftServicing and rebuilding bicycles, from a puncture to a full wheel build — the rare craft that pays for itself.
£100–£300 to startIndoorsGentle
Bikepacking
SportHobbyMulti-day riding with everything you need strapped to the bike — camping, navigation and cycling combined into one problem.
£300–£1,000 to startOutdoorsVery demanding
Birdwatching
HobbyFinding, identifying and recording wild birds — a hobby you can start from a kitchen window.
£25–£100 to startOutdoorsGentle
Bouldering
SportClimbing short, hard problems close to the ground, with mats instead of ropes — the lowest-friction way into climbing.
£25–£100 to startIndoors or outdoorsVery demanding
Calisthenics
SportStrength training with your own body as the load — pull-ups, dips, handstands, and the long ladder of steps between them.
Free or near-free to startIndoors or outdoorsVery demanding
Campervan conversion
CraftHobbyTurning a panel van into somewhere you can sleep, cook and sit out the rain — carpentry, wiring and plumbing in a space that moves.
Over £1,000 to startOutdoorsDemanding
Comics making
CraftHobbyTelling a story in panels — the sequence, the page, the lettering, and the finishing habit that turns drawings into a comic.
£25–£100 to startIndoorsSedentary
Composting
HobbyTurning garden and kitchen waste into soil — the methods, what a heap is telling you, and why almost every problem is one of three things.
Under £25 to startOutdoorsModerate effort
Crochet
CraftMaking fabric from yarn with a single hook, one stitch at a time, from a £5 starter kit.
Under £25 to startIndoorsSedentary
Cycling
SportRiding a bicycle for transport, fitness or pleasure — the parent of a large family of quite different sports.
£300–£1,000 to startOutdoorsDemanding
Disc golf
SportGolf played by throwing discs at chain baskets, on free public courses, usually in parkland or woodland.
£25–£100 to startOutdoorsModerate effort
Dog training
HobbyTeaching a dog to live well with people — a genuine skill with a contested literature and a surprising amount of law attached.
£25–£100 to startIndoors or outdoorsModerate effort
Dressmaking
CraftMaking clothes that fit a real body, from commercial patterns or your own — where the sewing is the easy half and the fitting is the craft.
£100–£300 to startIndoorsSedentary
Embroidery
CraftDecorating fabric with needle and thread, from six basic stitches to centuries-old traditions.
Under £25 to startIndoorsSedentary
Fell running
SportRacing up and down open hillside on unmarked routes — a navigation sport with running attached, where GPS is banned outright.
£100–£300 to startOutdoorsVery demanding
Fiction writing
HobbyCraftMaking up stories and writing them down — the cheapest serious craft there is, and one where finishing is a separate skill from writing.
Free or near-free to startIndoorsSedentary
Film photography
HobbyCraftShooting, developing and scanning film — where every frame costs money, which changes how you take them.
£100–£300 to startIndoors or outdoorsSedentary
Fishkeeping
HobbyKeeping a freshwater or marine aquarium — which is really the practice of keeping water, with fish as the beneficiaries.
£300–£1,000 to startIndoorsGentle
Fly fishing
HobbySportCasting a weighted line to present an almost weightless artificial fly — the one branch of angling where the casting is the skill.
£300–£1,000 to startOutdoorsModerate effort
FPV drone flying
HobbySportFlying a small aircraft from its own camera view — the law that makes it a two-person activity, the simulator that teaches it, and the kit you almost certainly build yourself.
£300–£1,000 to startOutdoorsSedentary
Game development
CraftMaking games as a hobby — where the difficulty is not the engine but finishing something small enough to finish.
Free or near-free to startIndoorsSedentary
Game mastering
HobbyRunning roleplaying games for other people — a distinct craft of preparation, improvisation and table management.
£25–£100 to startIndoorsSedentary
Geocaching
HobbyUsing GPS coordinates to find containers hidden by other people, in places you would never otherwise stop.
Free or near-free to startOutdoorsModerate effort
Goat keeping
HobbyKeeping goats at home — the registration nobody expects, what goats actually need, and the honest commitment before any of the pleasure.
Over £1,000 to startOutdoorsModerate effort
Harp
HobbyLearning the harp as an adult — which harp, why the answer is almost never the one in the orchestra, and what it actually costs to find out.
Over £1,000 to startIndoorsGentle
Hiking
SportHobbyWalking longer distances over rougher ground — the cheapest way into the outdoors, and the one whose risks are most underestimated.
£100–£300 to startOutdoorsModerate effort
Home automation
HobbyMaking a house respond to sensors, schedules and each other — a systems hobby whose hard part is deciding what should happen, not making it happen.
£100–£300 to startIndoorsSedentary
Horse riding
SportHobbyLearning to ride — the routes in, what it honestly costs, and the horsemanship that comes with it, from a page that stops short of the horse’s care.
£300–£1,000 to startOutdoorsDemanding
Horticultural showing
HobbyGrowing and staging produce and flowers for judging — where presentation counts as much as cultivation.
£100–£300 to startOutdoorsModerate effort
Hydroponics
HobbyGrowing plants in nutrient solution rather than soil — which system suits which plant, what it genuinely costs, and the gap between the windowsill version and the tent version.
£100–£300 to startIndoorsGentle
Indoor climbing
SportRoped climbing on an artificial wall — the route into the sport for almost everybody who now does it outdoors.
£100–£300 to startIndoorsDemanding
Karate
SportA striking art of forms, partner drills and graded belts — taught in several distinct styles that disagree more than beginners expect.
£25–£100 to startIndoorsDemanding
Kayaking
SportPaddling a closed boat — four different sports sharing a paddle, and why sorting out which water you want comes before choosing a boat.
£300–£1,000 to startOutdoorsDemanding
Knitting
CraftMaking fabric from yarn with two or more needles — the yarn craft that produces clothes people actually wear.
Under £25 to startIndoorsSedentary
Mahjong
HobbyA four-player tile game of drawing and discarding, whose several national rule sets are the single most confusing thing about it.
£25–£100 to startIndoorsSedentary
Metal detecting
HobbySearching ground with a detector for coins, artefacts and history — under a legal framework that matters.
£300–£1,000 to startOutdoorsModerate effort
Microcontroller projects
HobbyBuilding small devices around Arduino, Pico and similar boards — the cheapest way to make something physical respond to the world.
Under £25 to startIndoorsSedentary
Miniature painting
HobbyCraftPainting small figures and models to a standard far beyond what their size suggests is possible.
£25–£100 to startIndoorsSedentary
Model railways
HobbyCraftBuilding and operating a miniature railway — part modelmaking, part electronics, part landscape painting in three dimensions.
£300–£1,000 to startIndoorsSedentary
Music production
HobbyCraftRecording, arranging and mixing music on a computer — a craft with a very low entry cost and a famously steep middle.
£300–£1,000 to startIndoorsSedentary
Mycology
HobbyFinding, identifying and recording fungi as a subject in its own right — a field science that amateurs still genuinely advance.
£100–£300 to startOutdoorsGentle
Orienteering
SportHobbyNavigating between control points on a detailed map, at whatever speed suits you, against the clock.
Under £25 to startOutdoorsDemanding
Padel
SportA doubles racket sport played in a glass-walled court where the walls are part of the game.
£100–£300 to startIndoors or outdoorsDemanding
Pickleball
SportA paddle sport on a badminton-sized court with a perforated plastic ball and a non-volley zone.
£25–£100 to startIndoors or outdoorsModerate effort
Pool
SportThe pub and club cue game — and the three different rulebooks everybody assumes are one.
Under £25 to startIndoorsGentle
Pottery
CraftForming clay into objects and firing them permanently hard — by wheel, by hand, or both.
£100–£300 to startIndoorsModerate effort
Robotics
HobbyBuilding machines that sense and move — from a line follower on a kitchen table to a combat robot in an arena.
£300–£1,000 to startIndoorsGentle
Running
SportCovering ground on foot — the cheapest sport there is, and the parent of a very large family of disciplines.
Under £25 to startOutdoorsVery demanding
Scale modelling
HobbyCraftBuilding plastic kits properly — why assembly is the easy part, what the airbrush question really is, and how a model stops looking like a toy.
£100–£300 to startIndoorsSedentary
Sea fishing
SportFishing the coast from shore, pier or boat — free to start, open all year, and the branch of angling with the most serious safety story.
£100–£300 to startOutdoorsModerate effort
Sewing
CraftJoining and shaping cloth by hand or machine — the root skill that sits under dressmaking, quilting, mending and most of the textile crafts.
£25–£100 to startIndoorsSedentary
Smallholding
HobbyWorking a few acres with livestock and crops — the scale between a garden and a farm, and the registrations nobody mentions.
Over £1,000 to startOutdoorsVery demanding
Songwriting
HobbyCraftWriting original songs — and the finishing problem that stops most people, which almost nothing written for beginners is about.
Under £25 to startIndoorsSedentary
Sourdough
CraftHobbyBread raised by a culture you keep alive — a timing and observation problem rather than a recipe one, which is why recipes keep failing you.
Under £25 to startIndoorsGentle
Table tennis
SportBat and ball across a net on a table — the most accessible racket sport, and at club level a genuinely brutal one.
£25–£100 to startIndoorsModerate effort
Target shooting
SportPrecision shooting at paper and electronic targets — a club sport where the certificate and the club come before the rifle.
£100–£300 to startIndoors or outdoorsGentle
Treehouse building
CraftHobbyBuilding a structure carried by a living tree — where the tree, not the timber, sets every rule.
£300–£1,000 to startOutdoorsDemanding
Triathlon
SportSwim, bike and run in one race, with the transitions counting too — an endurance sport where the hardest part is usually the water.
£300–£1,000 to startOutdoorsVery demanding
Whittling
CraftShaping wood with a single knife — the cheapest, oldest and most portable making craft there is.
£25–£100 to startIndoors or outdoorsGentle
Yacht cruising
HobbySportMaking passages and living aboard a cruising yacht — where the planning, the maintenance and the weather decide far more than the sailing does.
Over £1,000 to startOutdoorsModerate effort
Yoga
SportHobbyA family of movement and breathing practices with a long history, now most commonly met as a class in a hall — and far more varied than that suggests.
Under £25 to startIndoorsModerate effort
This is one hand-picked cut through the catalogue. If your constraints are more specific than a single question, the hobby finder takes several at once and shows you why each suggestion matched.