My kids are home for summer, what now?

INSIDE : The kids are home for the summer time, what kind of kid activities should we do now??! Check out these 60+ Fun Summer Boredom Buster Ideas to do with your children!

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This post has been updated from it’s original June 2018 publish date.

My kids are home for summer, but now what should we do?

It is the age old question.  Your kiddos are finally home for summer break and all you can think about is not having to wake up early for school, keep up with all the homework and after school activities!  It’s finally time to just sit back and enjoy your time together… until you hear the dreaded, “I’m bored”.  

Now I had every intention of getting my two kids in a few summer camps or programs, but I will be honest – it just didn’t happen.  I did squeeze them into our city swim lessons and I signed them up for our church’s vacation bible school.  But… otherwise, it’s me and them this summer – which is both wonderful and challenging.

Regardless of the age of your children, there are tons of fun summer ideas that are both fun and inexpensive.  I also have 35+ Screen Free Summer Activities to do with kids post and a Kid’s At Home School Schedule.

60+ Fun Summer Kid Boredom Buster Ideas

15 Kid Indoor Activities

• Attend your local library’s children story time.
• Spend the afternoon making amazing Paper Airplanes and have races to see who can go farther, do the most loops and more.
• Make a fort out of blankets and watch movies on the iPad in it.
• Let your kiddos spend some time filling out a Summer Journal with all kinds of fun prompts to get them started.
• Have a cotton ball indoor fight.
• Get out a slime bubble lab playset!
• Get out books and have your kids set up a library.  Let them “check out” books and then sit and read them together!
• Have a blast with the most creative “Wreck This Journal“. We have three and LOVE them!!
• Make a silly movie on the iPad using iMovie or another fun kid friendly app.
• Create a Lego city.
• Have fun making origami.
• Setup a puppet show.

• Setup a pretend restaurant and “sell” snacks and cookies to each other.
• Use play-dough to spell out words and your name in play-dough.
• Listen to kid-friendly audiobooks together.

17 Kid Outdoor Activities

• Run through a backyard sprinkler.
• Have a water balloon fight with the neighborhood kids.
• Create a race track on driveway with chalk.
• Setup a treasure hunt with a snack at the end as your treasure!
• Go camping (even if it’s in your own yard!).
• Go to an afternoon matinee movie and eat popcorn.
• Visit your local zoo.
• Visit your local botanic garden and draw your favorite plants.
• DIY the coolest large scaled Dominos and make up games with them!
• Make up a silly scavenger hunt.
• Make and play HUGE outdoor pickup stick game.
• Grow a vegetable garden together.
• Make Summer fun Fish Ice in your backyard kiddie pool or water table.
• Spend time at the pool or local lake and bring the best summer floats available!

• Setup an outdoor bubble party with a bubble machine
• Draw out a chalk city
• Ride bikes through the neighborhood

17 Kid Craft Activities

• Get out a watercolor set and paint silly portraits of each other.
• Enjoy summer reading and make Marbled Paper Bookmarks to go along with them!
• Make homemade play-dough and containers.
• Paint rocks and leave them around your town.
• Get out Perler Beads and get creative!
• Craft Braided Clay Bracelets.
• Make homemade sidewalk chalk paint.
• Make slime.

• Make scrapbook doll houses (girl and boys).
• Have fun with Tie Dye and make pillows!
• Create crafts from Popsicle sticks.
• Be inspired with 1,001 Boredom Busting creative ideas.
• Get your craft on and make organizing everything pretty!
• Make a fort with blankets and twinkle lights. 
• Make a Custom DIY Twister Game!
• Enjoy Heart Coloring pages
• Marble bookmarks with acrylic paint

12 Quiet Kid Activities

• Enjoy some quiet coloring time with this cute summer page.
• Keep their brains working during FUN summer learning with Summer Brain Quest books!
• Have your kids draw a picture of their dream vacation.
• Learn to sew a simple drawstring bag or pillow.
• Do some fun coloring on this Cactus Printable page.

• Learn how to make a simple finger knit project!
• Create personalized pencil cases.
• Have your children write and illustrate a book.
• Make a bouquet out of Felt Flowers.
• Write or draw letters to family and friends.
• Make a lego creation together
• Do a silly puzzle together

11 Active Family Friendly Activities

• Go mini golfing.
• Find a fun Kid’s yoga class online and do it as a family!
• Go roller skating.
• Put on your favorite tunes and have a dance party.
• Setup a water toy zone outside and plan to GET WET.
• Go to your local farmer’s market.
• Go roller blading.
• Go to a local sporting event (baseball, soccer, etc) and cheer on your favorite team.
• Have your kids create an obstacle course and time them going through it.

• Go to an Art Museum
• Paint pottery together

7 Food Related Kid Activities

• Create a kid friendly Watermelon popsicle bar.
• Find a fun kid’s cookbook and kid safe knife set and try a new recipe together once a week!
• Have a lunch picnic in the backyard.
• Bake sugar cookies.
• Make homemade ice cream with a simple ice cream machine (we have this one).
• Make homemade popsicles (2 of my favorites are Layered Popsicles or Lime Cream Popsicles).
• Enjoy some Watermelon Lemonade, yum.

What fun plans do you have this summer to keep those kiddos entertained??!

And you might be interested in my 35+ Screen Free Summer Activities to do with kids post.

Looking for a plan for the summer time? Check out my Kids at Home Summer Schedule printable!

Or possibly this Kids At Home Schedule would be interesting for you for a little routine before your kiddos head off to Elementary school.