Raising kids on a teacher salary has forced me to be creative with activities for the summer months. Here’s my top ten list of activities we have tried that have successfully kept my kids entertained for a decent amount of time!
Painting the water table:
Okay, so this one requires you to own a water table, but most families I know have one, but if not they are fairly inexpensive to purchase. Water tables alone are tons of fun for the kids, but sometimes my kids get bored of water play. Enter-water paint! I simply got some washable paint out of the craft drawer, gave them sponge brushes, and let them paint the sides, top, and insides of the water table. They *loved* it! The best part? It washed right off with the hose when they were done!
Painting sun-catchers:
We love art time in our house, so anything with paint is a win. You can purchase small suncatchers anywhere these days-places like Walmart, Target, Amazon all have them for cheap. I bought both of mine for 99 cents each at Walmart. My kids spent about an hour carefully painting their suncatchers, then after letting them dry we hung them in their bedroom windows. They are still hanging on their windows months later!
Nature Walk Scavenger Hunt:
Like most kids, my kids love to be outside…especially in the summertime. One of the activities we do often in the summertime is go on a Neighborhood Nature Walk Scavenger Hunt. My kids get their binoculars ready and bring an old bucket as we walk. I have them find things like: a rock/pebble, a flower, something yellow (usually they grab a dandelion), etc. We also try to look for butterflies and moths (for some reason my son loves chasing moths)! You can adjust your Scavenger Hunt to things you know they will see in your area. It’s a good no-cost activity to get us all out and walking, even if it’s only in the backyard!
Cabela’s:
Okay, hear me out on this one. One day when I was thinking of things to do with my kids, I was talking to my mom and she mentioned Cabela’s….like the sporting goods store. I was skeptical but wasn’t about to go outside in a heat wave, so figured I’d give it a go. My kids *have not stopped talking about it*. In Cabela’s they have a big aquarium of fish and turtles, and honest-to-God my kids thought it was an actual aquarium. My son even sat next to his friend at karate the following weekend and blabbered on about “the catfish at Cabela’s”! If you have a Cabela’s nearby, it is totally worth it for an afternoon trip!
In-House Obstacle Course:
When we were quarantined, I had two toddlers on my hands and zero patience! I did whatever I could to entertain those two kids as best I could. So we came up with an obstacle course. First, we used painter’s tape to tape across a hallway in a mismatching pattern (see photo). Then we had my kids army crawl, bear walk, crab walk, etc. through it without touching the tape. My husband wanted to get creative and he even had them jumping over tape on the floor and they had to do a dance at certain times. It was hilarious, but most importantly, time-consuming!
Bowling:
Another one of my quarantined activities is what I like to call “Cup Bowling”. We happened to have some Solo cups leftover from one of the kids birthdays, so I set up the cups as bowling pins on the kitchen floor (any hallway flooring will work too). I grabbed one of the balls the kids use for play, and used tape to make a lines as the bowling “lanes”. They each got a turn and had to bowl their ball to see how many cups they could knock over. Endless fun! Then we let them build towers with their cups when they were finished with bowling. It was a great inside activity that kept the kids entertained for a while!
Color Matching:
To start to practice their colors at an early age, I thought of this idea to get colored construction paper and have the kids match a toy to that color. Here’s how it went: I put four pieces of colored construction paper on the ground and taped them in place (I used red, green, yellow, and blue, but you can vary your colors). I then started with one color and gave my kids ten seconds to find something that color. They had to run around the house trying to find anything that color and run it back to the construction paper and lay it on the correct color. We did this through all of the colors. You can make it more challenging by shortening the time, asking to find an item in a specific room (kitchen, toy room, etc.). It was a great way to pass the time!
Races:
I don’t know why but my kids are obsessed with races, and they are super competitive! One of the ways we have found to entertain them in the summer is to take it outside for some good, old-fashioned competition. They start at one side of the yard and have to race across to the other, but we always have them run like a specific animal. For example, they might have to “run like a cheetah” on the way down, but then “slow as a sloth” on the way back. Some of the animals we’ve used include: “fly like a butterfly”, “bock like a chicken”, “slow as a turtle”, “crawl like a bear”, etc. I don’t know why but they have a ball just by racing across the yard! Bonus: they get tired out, too!
Check out your local library:
I know I’m a teacher and am supposed to recommend educational things during the summer, but in all honesty the library is such a great way to entertain kids in the summer. Joining your library is completely free! Most libraries have multiple events throughout the summer for kids. My kids love Storytime. We typically go to Storytime, then have a little playtime in their kids section before checking out books for the week.
Simon Says:
Let’s bring back some creativity in our kids! Thinking of things for the old-fashioned “Simon Says” game is one of our favorite things to do at home. We always start with the typical directions (“Simon says put your hand on your head”, “Simon says touch your toes”, etc.). Then we get creative and my kids can come up with some silly directions to follow. We’ve had my son say things like “Simon says hold your head like this” as he tries to detach his head from his neck! We usually end up laughing a lot with this game!
There you have it! Ten things I have done in the past to keep my kids entertained in the summertime. I am sure there are so many more things to do, but these are some of our family’s favorite summer activities for cheap!
