20 Great Summer Activities for Kids
As the song in Phineas and Ferb said, “there’s a 104 days of summer vacation”, and although summer can be more or less 104 days, there will be so much time to kill. Your kids might die of boredom if they realize that there is nothing fun to do at home. To help your kids have a great and exciting summer vacation, here is a list of the things they can do.
Make a summer bucket list
Summer is around 3 months and in that length of time, there are so many things your kids can do. However, they might just end up watching television and playing video games all day and surely we do not want that! To make it a more fulfilling summer, you and your children might want to make your own summer bucket list.
A summer bucket list is a list of all the things you want to accomplish before the summer ends. Starting the summer with a list of the things they want to accomplish will give your kids a lot of things to look forward to and at the same time make them more enthusiastic for the days to come. To add to that, the list can give you an idea of what your kid really wants. Their having a bucket list can also help you assess what your kids are looking for be it a summer vacation out of town or simply a family bonding time.
Baking
Do you know how to bake? If so, now is the best time to pass your skill on to your children. Baking is a very nice interactive activity that involves delicious food (if you baked it right). Surely, your kids would want to do something with you or at least to have bonding moments with you and baking can help them achieve that. If both of you do not know how then you can have fun in the kitchen by trying to experiment how to make simple goodies. Besides, there are many simple recipes on the web that you can easily follow.
Learn how to cook
Like baking, cooking can make your children more excited. Nobody says no to food anyway, right? If you don’t know how to bake, do not have an oven, or are just not into it, you and your kids can try cooking simple dishes. You can teach them how to make pancakes or any simple breakfast dish. If they don’t get it right, then they can always try and try again. The good thing about this is you and your kids will learn how to take turns and how to interact properly when preparing the meal. You can also teach them responsibility by asking help from them in cooking breakfast. Once they learn how to cook breakfast for their family, it’s not just fun they received, but also some sort of pride that they have learned to be a bit independent.
Try a new sport
Sports is always exciting whether it’s because there’s always something new in every game you play, or moving around releases endorphins that make people happy. Learning a new sport or practicing the sport you used to play is one of the best things to do during summer. You can easily turn this into a family bonding opportunity too because you can ask your children to teach you the sport. If it’s basketball, you can all be in teams and try to beat each other. Not only does sports take idle time off their hands, they also teach your children to be disciplined and cooperative with their teams.
You can find some great products in our sports toy category here.
Take a dance class
Similar to learning a new sport, taking dance classes can turn your children’s summer into a fun one especially when they love dancing. Nowadays, there are a lot of dance classes to choose from and it’s not just confined with your daughter learning ballet. Well, ballet classes are an option and a lot of girls want to learn ballet, but if your children want to dance something else, then enroll them in a different dance class. They will also gain new friends while learning!
Make your own board game
While there are many board games available, your kids might be more attracted to making their own game. In this way, their minds will be caught up in developing something they would have fun doing and sharing with their friends.
To add more fun in the activity, you can let your children work on an outdoor board game. All they need is chalk and a flat surface to write on and they can draw on the floor to resemble a board. If you don’t want them to make a mess, or make permanent marks on the floor, you can give them tape instead.
Adopt a pet
There are a lot of kids who like pets. They want to have a dog, a cat, a fish, or a bird. Giving them one for summer is a good thing because they have a lot of time to bond with their pet and to train them themselves. You can bring them to a pet store, or better yet, bring them to a foundation to adopt an abandoned pet.
Giving your child a pet will do wonders to your kid especially when they love the pet itself. They will learn how to be more caring of their pet and be more aware of their needs. They will also learn to be more responsible because they know that they are primarily in charge of their pet. And who knows, the new pet might add more sunshine to the whole family.
Learn how to play a musical instrument
Learning how to play an instrument is challenging but rewarding. It might even take your children more than the summer for them to be good at playing. Nonetheless, it will be fun to try something new. You can either teach them yourselves or enroll them in a class.
To give them an incentive to learning a new instrument, you can ask your children to perform something for you at the end of the summer. You can plan a small event with your friends and their classmates in their music class and hold a night of song and dance. This will give them the motivation to continuously want to learn and play the musical instrument they just learned.
Find some great products in our musical toys category here.
Camp out in your backyard
On a cool summer night, you can hold your family’s camping experience and you don’t even have to go far. All you have to do is set up a tent in your backyard with your kids. To bring it closer to a camping experience, you can have a makeshift fireplace by roasting marshmallows on a grill. You can also roast hotdogs and bring popcorn along! You can prepare snacks and talk about ghost stories. You can also fill the tent with comfy pillows and comforters. You can also suggest this to your children so they can invite friends over for a camping sleepover at your place.
Write a song or a poem
This can go hand-in-hand when your child knows how to play a musical instrument. You can ask your son or daughter to write a song for you or about something else. You can ask them as a favor or as a challenge. If your children are not musically inclined and prefer writing a poem, then asking them to write one is also a good suggestion.
Writing a song or a poem is equally challenging and if your kids are just looking for something to do to pass the time, then this suggestion can help. For all you know, they might get carried away and start writing more songs or poems.
Have your own scientific experiments
There are a lot of scientific experiments your kids can try. And what makes it better is that there are simple experiments that only require things that can be found in your home. You can suggest making alien bubbles where they only need dry ice and a bubble solution.
They can also try making soap clouds by just putting soap in a microwave. Another simple experiment is the rocket where you just use a plastic bottle and fill it with vinegar and pop baking soda inside. You have to be careful, though, because it might hit your face! If you want a “safer” kind of rocket, you can suggest experimenting on balloon rockets which do not involve any kind of explosion.
Make a photo album or a family album
This can be done by you and your children. All you have to do is compile a bunch of family photos and put them in a scrapbook. A simple photo album can do, but what makes it not so simple is the design you will put in all of its pages.
You and your children can help each other design the album and this activity can be an opportunity for you to bond. This activity will also spark creativity in them and it will also help you compile good memories with your family that are worth remembering.
Have a creative space
Creative space can mean any white wall or any board where you child can write anything, throw anything, or paste anything. This does not require much, only enough space where they can be artistic.
They can do a lot with a blank space. For one, they can make it as a freedom wall where they can write what they feel, maybe write their favorite quotes, or they can doodle all they long. They can also throw paint balloons on it to create an abstract artwork.
If your kids want to write down their dreams then they can do so, too. The point of this blank space is for your children to be more creative and at the same time, more expressive of themselves. This space can also help you get to know your child more over the summer – what they are feeling, their likes and dislikes, or their aspirations. You can even join in writing stuff on their space.
Help you child get their creative juices flowing with a look at the top easels for kids here.
Go out for a swim
What is summer without a little splash? Almost anyone will think of a swim when summer is mentioned and so make sure that you at least give your children an opportunity to have fun in the sun. You can take them out to a resort or a beach and simply swim. If your kids do not know how to swim yet, then now is a great opportunity for them to learn. You can enroll them in swimming classes or you can teach them yourselves when you all go swimming.
Swimming is a fun activity for everyone and you might want to treat your kids out for a dip. You can bring water guns too and have a competitive game of water fight. You can also go into water sports with your children. Just make sure that they are allowed to do so.
Paint your sneakers
This is another creative activity that you might want to suggest to your kids provided that they have canvas sneakers. All you need is some paint and your shoes and then they can paint almost anything on them.
Hold a fundraising activity and donate the proceeds to charity
By now you have probably heard of girl scouts selling cookies to houses and to the adults they know. This activity is no different because your children will be trying to think of what to sell or what service to do so that people can give money to them. Now they can use the money to save up for something, but you can also suggest giving it to charity or to a foundation of their choice.
Some small fundraiser events your children can do would be selling lemonade or cookies like what girl scouts are doing. To add to that, the preparations your fundraiser will need can also be a fun activity for your children. If they are selling chocolate chip cookies, then they can ask their friends to come over and help in baking them. And if you have the time, you can take part in their baking session and help out in making the goodies. To make it more fun and more cute for the children, use cookie cutters of different shapes and sizes.
Fundraisers take a considerable amount of time and they can get a lot of idle time out of the picture. But, they are more than that especially when the proceeds go to charity. By having a fundraiser for a charity, your children will also be taught how to work hard and to help the needy as well. This activity is like hitting two birds with one stone.
Try tree planting
People think that tree planting is only done by adults or only done in mountains. This is not actually the case because you can have your own tree planting activity in your backyard. Tree planting is fairly simple all you have to do is dig a hole in the soil that is deep enough for the roots to go downwards and not be uprooted. As for the seeds, you can just buy them in the grocery store and you get to choose which trees you want to plant. It doesn’t even have to be trees; it can be any plant you want.
If your kids are a little impatient and want to see results already, then pick a small plant and put it in a pot. Teach your kids how to properly care for a plant so they don’t forget them over the summer.
Create a make-shift fort or castle
If you have a bunch of boxes lying around, then you can give them to your kids. Surely, they will find something to do with them. For one, they can make a fort or a castle inside or outside your house. They can also dress as kings and queens to look the part.
Both the making of a castle or a fort and the dress up are fun and engaging activities for children. Not one child went through their childhood without having played make-believe. With just boxes, your children can go to different heights and go to different places without you having to spend as much.
Have an outdoor picnic
An outdoor picnic is similar to camping in your backyard. However, you can also bring your children to a park instead of your backyard. To make this activity more fun for them, you can ask your kids for help in making the sandwiches and other snacks. They would be more than happy to help you especially when they learn something new. And when you do go out on a picnic, you can bring board games and cards with you and play under the sun.
Go out of town
Last activity, but definitely not the least, is to go out of town. At some point, your children might still get bored after trying to do all the other 19 things mentioned above.
Maybe they want a change in scenery? Maybe they want to explore? Or maybe they just want to spend more time with you doing new things. No matter what their reasons are, going out of town is one of the most exciting things that can be done during the summer.
There are a lot of tourist destinations out there and they offer family team-building activities. Without a doubt, your children will be very excited anticipating this out of town trip they might even forget boredom. A trip is always something to look forward to and an out of town trip can be the climax to your children’s summer vacation.
