Most kids in my parts of the woods got out of school this week. You know what that means. Lazy days and fun-filled activities await. I’m not the kind of parent to spend all day entertaining my kids (I still have to work from home), but I do try to spend the morning helping with some fun activities for kids that I know they’ll enjoy. We recently sat down and put together a list of things we could do at home or things we could do for little money. We know there are the classic activities like the zoo and the pool, but we wanted to add some fun and creative ideas.
As you can see from the list below, there are lots of activities that involve getting in the kitchen. The kids love to bake, and I LOVE to teach them some easy recipes. Some of the activities even involve watching a movie and doing a craft with it for less stressful days, but altogether, I hope there are some ideas your own family will enjoy. Most of these are super simple and require very few materials. I hope they help make things even more fun this summer!
Summer Kids Activities from Lil’ Luna:
Make Homemade Gak
- Make a Lemonade Stand and sell lemonade to donate to a charity.
- Christmas in July – Watch Polar Express and drink Hot Cocoa (or Frozen Hot Cocoa)
- Make Tie Dye Kids Aprons and bake bread
- Make Homemade Gak
- Watch Teen Beach Movie and make Sand Pudding Parfaits
Make a Lemonade Stand and sell lemonade to donate to a charity.
- Watch Beauty & the Beast and make “Grey Stuff” treat
- Make marshmallow buildings using marshmallows and toothpicks
- Campout in the backyard
- Make Edible Playdough
- Watch a dinosaur movie and make Dinosaur Ice Fossils
- Printable Summer Activity Packet
- Watch Monsters Inc and make Gooey Monster Cookies
- Play Candy Land and Make Candy Jewelry
- Host a Pizza Party (with Free Printable Pizza Party Invites)
- Make Mickey Mouse Oreos
- Printable Treasure Map + Activity
- Have water day and make DIY Sprinkler Relay
- Make Cookies and Deliver them to neighbors
- Make some DIY Lava Lamps
- Make Homemade Glitter Slime
Printable Treasure Map + Activity
Fun activities for kids from the web:
Make Plant Pals
- Make Plant Pals
- Make Tiny Bubbles
- Make Easy Wall Pop Art
- Make Discovery Bottles
- Make Drawing Dough
Make Sun-Print Cards
- Get in the kitchen and make homemade Gummy Bears
- Make Sun-Print Cards
- Have a picnic and make Fun Paper Animal Plates
- Make Paper Bag Animal Puppets and put on a show for the rest of the family
- Make Homemade Popsicles
Make Fun Paper Animal Plates
Make a Bottle Bank
- Paper Poppy Wall Art from Tonya Staab
- Make a Bottle Bank and give your kids some opportunities to earn and save money
- Make Colored Pasta Beads and Make Jewelry from My Name is Snickerdoodle
- Have a Kids Car Wash from Domestic Charm
Watermelon Pie from Make and Takes
- Make Watermelon Pie from Make and Takes
- Create Homemade Hot-Air Balloons from bloesem kids
- Make Colored Pasta Beads and Make Jewelry from My Name is Snickerdoodle
- Have a Kids Car Wash from Domestic Charm
- Build a Fort, Pop Popcorn and watch a movie
Paper Towel Butterflies from Make It and Love It
- Paper Towel Butterflies from Make It and Love It
- Paint Bag Writing from Let’s Explore
- Pop Bottle Sprinkler from WonderTime
- Sidewalk Chalk Paint from Mom’s Crafty Space
- Paint with Sweetened Condensed Milk from ECE Made Easy
- Make Colored Pasta Beads and Make Jewelry from My Name is Snickerdoodle
- Have a Kids Car Wash from Domestic Charm
- Build a Fort, Pop Popcorn and watch a movie
- Play Salon by doing hair and painting toe nails
- Add water and bubbles to the trampoline and do Slip ‘n Slide
So many great ideas in one place!! Hopefully, this provides a little inspiration for some fun to have with the kids while they’re home for the summer. We ended up writing these all out on popsicle sticks so we could pick one each day to do, and the kids have been having a blast. 😀
For even more ideas, you can check out this Summer Fun Checklist:
For even more summer ideas, check out:
Do you have more ideas?? If so, leave a comment below and I will add it to the list!! Here’s to one fun-filled summer!
ENJOY!
All the 30 summer activities you have listed above are really fit to the kids. Definitely, kids will enjoy while doing some of the summer activities. Indeed, I can get a lot of tips here for that summer activities I am going to use for summer activities for kids that I am organizing.
So glad you like all the ideas! Hopefully they will help entertain the little ones this summer. 🙂
Thank you for sharing these wonderful activities for my son. I do not need to think more because I already had an idea from reading your post.
Pretty cool stuff. I loved those plant pal most. They made me chuckle 🙂
these are some really good summer activitys
Thank you so much, Faith! Glad you like them. 🙂
I have posted quite a few on my blog lately. I’m doing a series called “Summer Made Simple”. My favorite has been the i-spy hiking necklaces for my kids. Check them out! I LOVE your ideas and your blog by the way!
http://creativepreschoolresources.com/2012/06/07/summer-made-simple-hiking-necklaces/
Some really good ideas here! I especially like the watermelon pie and paper towel butterflies. I’m always looking for something to entertain my nephews and nieces when they visit in the summer. Some of the messier stuff we can do outside on the patio table, which is nice. Thanks for the post!
Grow a pet TickleMe Plant from seeds and watch how the leaves fold together and the branches fall down when Tickled.
http://www.ticklemeplant.com You can grow it in a plant kit or party favor
You won’t believe your eyes!
” All the kids in my school seem to be growing TickleMe Plants.”
What an amazing Round Up of FUN! Thank you so much for sharing, super happy to have found your great blog!
Jen
hi,
i was looking for the activities in summer for the children, then I faced your site.
i am really interested in the job.
please send me any ideas which will help to entertainer the children.
thanks a lot
Thanks for these ideas. My kids are going to their dad’s house and there is nothing for them to do there. Making simple daily acitivity packs for them will make the days go by much easier.
I sure am!! @LilLunaKristyn
Interesting ideas, especially the dinosaur “ice fossils”. Though I imagine if you try to bury them, they would get all muddy..
Do NOT add bubbles and water to a trampoline. This is soooo very dangerous. Water alone makes the trampoline surface slicker than ice; I can only imagine what the bubbles would do. I have a 20 year old grandson who has spent a lot of hours on a trampoline in his lifetime but he got on it when it was wet, slipped and about broke his neck. He was luck to not have a concussion from it. I repeat, DO NOT ADD BUBBLES OR WATER TO A TRAMPOLINE.
I think these would be fun, age appropriate, and interesting crafts for my four grandchildren and nieces and nephews and many would be great to set up for craft stations at our Fourth of July party!
Hopefully you can use some of these ideas for summer and the 4th! 😀
WONDERFUL IDEAS!!!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!
You’re welcome! Have a great summer!!
I can’t seem to get the pop bottle sprinkler link to work. Just so you know!
The Gak was a HUGE hit with all 3 of my kids – boy (10), girl (8), & girl (2 1/2)
Unfortunately, the post may have been removed for the pop bottle sprinkler. :/ SO glad the Gak was a hit!!
Wow, great post! Love the paper towel butterflies, I remember making those when I was a kid. The monster cookies are adorable too. Thanks for sharing!
You are so welcome!! Thanks for stopping by!!
I love this post. My kids’ summer vacation has started and these activities are very timely.
Oh, wow! Already?! Hope this helps!