Summer Fun with Your Children

With summer vacation here, I thought you would enjoy ideas of fun things to do with your children.  These are ideas that do not cost any money, keep your children busy, and give you a chance to spend quality time with your children.  Try to make sure that you spend QUALITY time with your children EVERY day.

1.            Make paper airplanes.

2.           Build a fort with sheets, pillows, blankets, tables.

3.           Picnic-Load up a basket and head out to a local park or your front lawn.

4.           Hide and Seek

5.           Bake cookies-Let your children help measure and stir.

6.           Visit the Library.

7.           Scrapbook-Give your child some old photographs to make special pages.        If you don’t have photographs draw pictures together.

8.           Treasure Hunt-Hidden treasures (something like a favorite toy), a piece of paper with a “treasure map” on it.

9.           Board Games-If you do not have board games you can make your own.

10.        Camp at Home-Pitch a tent in your living room or yard and allow children to enjoy the fun of camping without traveling.

11.         Garden-Allow children to have an area of your yard to plant seeds and maintain them throughout the summer.

12.        Catch Bugs-Make sure you show your children what bugs are okay to catch.  Use a cleaned out jar with a tight lid that has holes poked in it.

13.        Movies and Popcorn-On a rainy day gather up your children, their favorite movie and popcorn.

14.        Coloring Books-Whether you have some coloring books at home, draw pictures to color or print some out online coloring is fun for everyone to do together.

15.        Shadow Puppets-This is a great game to play on a rainy summer day.  Close off all windows in a room and see who can come up with a puppet using their hands.  You will need hands, a flashlight and a dark room.

16.        Play in the Rain-Let your child enjoy the rain by splashing around in puddles and getting soaked.  Remember to have some warm towels ready to dry off with.

17.        Dress Up- Bring out old clothes. Sure they may not be fashionable anymore, but your little ones will still want to run around in them.

18.        Plan out Something Special to do for an Elderly Neighbor- Maybe have your child read a book or bring over cookies that you baked.  You never know whose day you may brighten.

19.        Feed the Ducks or Geese-Use end pieces of bread and shred them up for the birds at a local lake.  Go down to the river and let your child throw the pieces to the birds.

20.       Play Tag or Freeze Tag

21.        Rock Garden or Paint Rocks-Gather up unwanted rocks and arrange them to create a garden. If you have some paint laying around let your children paint rocks for decoration.

22.       Sprinklers-If you have a yard, you probably have a sprinkler which means you have a fun water park in your back yard for your child to play in.

23.       Watch the Clouds-This is fun for the children and adults of all ages. Lie on your back and watch the puffy clouds go by.

24.       Collage-Gather up magazines, newspapers, flyers or anything else with fun photos.  Allow your child to cut out pictures that interest them and arrange them in a fun way to make a poster for their bedroom.