Ideas for Some Summer Fun

If you are running out of ideas to entertain your children this summer, try some of these!

Bucket List

1. Go Catch some bugs.
2. Watch a butterfly hatch from a chrysalis.
3. Make and enjoy fresh kid-made limeade.
4. Paint with fizzing sidewalk paint.
5. Dream of winter by making snowglobes – love the solar system one!
6. Take a mini-road trip to a new destination.
7. Make homemade bouncy balls.  Great fun if you bring them to the splash pad!
8. Make a fire, create and roast campfire food with these yummy smore cones.
9. Freeze some fun toys in ice and be an excavator and chip them free.
10. Jump rope - create a fun durable rope from marker lids.
11. Play I-Spy outside!  Great way to notice the little details in the world around you!
12. Clean out the trash cans… and then make noise with them!  My kids love trashcan drumming.
13. With a balloon and a CD fly a CD hover craft.
14. Play with your food – eat a pretend Lorax!
15. Watch ants change colors and learn about how they digest food with a fun outdoor experiment.
16. Kool-aide Slurppies.  Nothing says summer time better than slurppies by the pool.
17. Visit a farmers market together and make veggie smoothies (or a dessert smoothie) with the produce.
18. Fill a dry kiddie pool with a variety of items for a giant sensory tub activity.
19. Watch pill bugs race.   See if you can collect a whole “family” of bugs.
20. Make and eat some homemade kid-made butter.
21. Add some fun to your slip-n-slide, with shaving cream!
22. Use damaged pool noodles for art, a sword fight, or to create a marble run.
23. Play outdoor bingo - go on a hunt for the items on your card.  Whoever finds things in a row first wins.
24. Experience and explore gravity by playing with pulleys
25. Decorate rocks for your garden – with melted crayons!
26. Have a lazy boardgame afternoon.  Here are some of our suggested best board games.
27. Pick a flower, with your favorite color of paint make flower prints.
28. Explore the colors of the rainbow with ice.
29. Play with glow sticks – put them inside balloons, dump the contents into jars of water, paint with them, etc.
30. Create with your recycle bin – make art and toys out of trash.
31. Have a lemonade stand with the kids – put smiles on your neighbors faces.
32. Decorate some tin cans and create some DIY windchimes.  Compare the sounds of different sizes/shapes of cans.
33. Collect your summer memories into a keepsake jar.
34. Create art sculptures with tin foil.
35. Decorate your yard with balloon people OR make a bunch and hand them out at the park – put smiles on the kids faces.
36. Get muddy and make some dirt soup with the kids!
37. Paint with water outside – I love mess-free art!
38. Foam – a messy project, great to incorporate with washing the car! Make foam and then use the flakes to wash the car.
39. Make a water xylophone with the kids to make music with.
40. Freeze bananas (or grapes, strawberries, etc. Dip them in chocolate or yogurt for a fun summer treat.
41. Play with giant bubbles – the bigger the better.
42. Take your kids fishing.  Don’t have a pole?  Go pretend fishing.
43. Explore your shadow – trace them, chase them, make them dance!
44. Have a tea party – outside.  Bring your friends and stuffed animals.
45. Make a splashpad at your own house with a DIY PVC pipe sprinkler system.
46. Have fun decorating the garden with some paving stones.
47. Water the yard – the slow way, with homemade watering cans.
48. Explore scents outside with a water table experiment.
49. Play and mold sculptures with Rice Crispie Treats
50. collect items for a bird nest - that the birds can use to decorate their nests with.

(You can follow links to the underlined words for instructions!)