Summer is the time to relax, but it’s hard to relax when your kids are running all over the place because they’re bored with nothing to do. As parents, nannies, and babysitters, we are all trying to find new and exciting ways to entertain the children in our lives. No one wants their children to waste away inside as they binge watch TV. We want each of their summers to be more exciting than the last, which is hard to do when you start running out of ideas. We created a list of 60 fun things to do with kids to keep them from being bored and help them create memories they will have for a lifetime.
- Go to the park
- Go on a picnic
- Bake cookies or some other treat
- Visit an amusement park or water park
- Create a scavenger hunt for the kids or use this website with 30+ pre-made printable scavenger hunts
- Read a fun book
- Paint/draw a picture
- Plant a garden
- Play in the sprinklers/hose on a hot summer day
- Take them to get ice cream
- Make a slip-n-slide using a tarp and soap or shaving cream
- Take them on a hike
- Set up a lemonade stand
- Go on a bike ride
- Go to the aquarium or zoo
- Make homemade ice cream
- Have a water balloon fight
- Make a fort
- Make a campfire in the backyard and roast hotdogs and s’mores
- Make sock puppets
- Go to a museum
- Play mini golf in your driveway or backyard
- Make paper boats and race them in a kiddie pool using straws to propel them
- Make your own sand art
- Visit a fire station
- Go rollerskating
- Wash a car
- Play with sidewalk chalk
- Make homemade popsicles
- Catch fireflies in a jar (then let them go)
- Decorate bikes and have a neighborhood 4th of July parade
- Volunteer at an animal shelter
- Make paper flowers using different colored tissue paper
- Make balloon animals
- Visit all of the local parks in your area
- Make homemade bubbles
- Make and decorate a bird house
- Decorate a pair of white canvas converse with paint pens and markers
- Create 3D buildings using toothpicks and marshmallows
- Have a tea party
- Go the kids to a pottery workshop
- Have a paint fight (with washable paint) then wash off in the sprinklers or with the hose
- Take the kids to a baseball game
- Volunteer at a nature center
- Go to a botanical garden
- Go fishing
- Make and race paper airplanes
- Go to a flea market or garage sale
- Paint on wet glue with food coloring
- Use yarn to great a mission impossible scene and try to avoid the “lasers”
- Put a bar of soap in the microwave and make soap clouds
- Turn an old box into an indoor slide on the stairs (make sure to use a lot of cushion at the bottom to prevent injuries)
- Use pool noodles to make a backyard obstacle course
- Make homemade moon sand with 8 cups of flower and 1 cup of baby oil (very easy to clean up)
- Create bubble snakes with a water bottle and one mismatched sock!
- Make a homemade solar oven
- Create homemade bird feeders
- Make cool
- Go bowling and save money with kidsbowlfree.com
- Take pictures doing all of the activities you and the kids do and then create a photo album at the end of the summer