Five Simple Kids Activities For Summer
We have had an unusually chilly and gloomy Ohio June. I am trying to get as creative as I can, but not break the bank. In fact, all of these activities are FREE. I like free, creative, easy things to set the stage for more free, creative, and easy play for my kids! Here’s Five Simple Kids Activities The Seiffert Family have already done this summer: so these are tested and approved! And did I mention free? Enjoy!
1. Make a Theme Tent. What do you need? Any tent (we have a quick pop up beach one) or make one with blankets and sheets. Set up your tent wherever you want, inside or out. Then choose a theme: Shopkins, Star wars, cars and trucks, Barbies. You get it. Take all of the toys for that theme and set them up in the tent. If you do this while they are doing something else you can then shout: “Guys! Guess what! Come play in the Shopkins Tent!” Watch their eyeballs bulge and get ready for squeals. You just created a hidden little world of play. Tell them them the tent rules: “Be Kind. Share. Repeat”. If you include snacks in the tent? SUPERHERO MOM. Set up the tent with a different theme periodically.
2. Paint Your Own Nightlight. You need paint, preferably the kind that will stick to glass. Acrylic is what we used. Watercolor not so much. We used mason jars and painted the inside of the jars. They will take most of the day to dry, so this is a good morning project. By the end of the day, we used a battery operated small string of lights or you could use a battery operated tea light inside the jar. Anything to put inside the jar for a glow. My kids were so excited to have made their own nightlight. Again, we just used what we had around the house. You could use a jar and stickers all over. Or decorate on white paper, color, and tape onto your jar. Add the light and YOU ARE AWESOME. So are they.
3. The Kitchen Treat Challenge. My kids love to be in the kitchen, especially when it comes to making sweet treats. And they love to make it up “on their own” in light of several cooking shows out there. Call your kids over and tell them you guys are going to concoct a treat! Get out peanut butter, butter, chocolate chips, and whatever cereal you have. We based this roughly on making puppy chow. If you like to measure precisely, this may not be your jam. But we added peanut butter, a little bit of butter, and chocolate chips to a bowl and melted it all in the microwave. The kids took turns stirring it all up and “taste testing” the peanut butter-chocolate mixture to make sure it was just right. We then stirred in Honey Nut Cheerios and put spoonfuls inside muffin tins. This is super messy, but they felt like super chefs. Win! We put them in the freezer for 30 minutes. During that time? Come up with a name for your new treat! Ours recently was: Peanut Butter Delicious Delight. Who doesn’t want that? Almost any cereal will work with peanut butter and chocolate. Well, Froot Loops are questionable. But those are questionable to begin with. Or try a homemade candy bar: melt chocolate chips on top of graham crackers. Spread with a knife. Add nuts or sprinkles. Pop in the freezer for a bit. Wham! We have also done this without using sugary things for my oldest on the SCD Diet! We grab various nuts, dried fruit, unsweetened coconut, and honey. Toast them in a pan together with a dash of salt until they are all lightly browned and sticky and then dump on parchment paper to cool. Homemade granola or bark. YUM!
4. Metropark Monday. We have 12 metro parks in NW Ohio. We love to take a morning and bring some friends and go explore the parks and trails! Easy. Free. Try a new one each week. You will be winning!
5. Room Re-do. My middle child loves to decorate and wanted to redecorate her room. She sees me decorating all the time but my big goal: shop your own house. Don’t buy anything new. Move furniture around and use different things from different rooms for different purposes. The big game changer for a bedroom: move the bed to a new place! This is a big splash difference. I am not talking new paint or new anything - just moving everything around to give it a fresh new feel. This also makes cleaning your room motivating: “Once everything is off the floor then we can re-do!” We also drew new pictures for their walls and swapped out some wall hangings from other places. We had a blast freshening up this space! A fantastic rainy day activity.
I hope at least one of these speaks to you or gives you a lead on something fresh and fun to do this summer! Let me know if you try these or have more ideas!
Chin Up,
Amy