Fun Summer Activities for Kids

With summer here, your kids will have long days to keep themselves amused. Here are some great ideas for kids outdoor play to keep them busy and happy.

Outdoor Play Activities

1. Pour colored sand in with regular sand in a sandbox for more variety. Encourage kids to be more creative than just building sand castles. Have them dig out a road, use a small tube to create a tunnel, and bring in mini cars. Hide some dinosaur bones for them to do a dig or get some small plastic animals from the dollar store to create a safari landscape.
2. Set up an outdoor stage for your kids to perform. Hang blankets over a clothesline to use as a curtain. For costumes, put out old clothes, old dance recital outfits and Halloween costumes.
3. With chalk, sketch out a twisting driving course on the driveway for kids to navigate with their bikes, cars or scooters.

Outdoor Games and Crafts

1. Set up a paint station and decorate an unfinished birdhouse. They can be purchased inexpensively at any craft store. Consider placing the finished birdhouse outside a child’s bedroom window so they can see the birds up close.
2. Kids love playing with large cardboard boxes. Use them to make a pretend car or camper, a fort (they can cut out windows), attach several together to make a train, or make a tunnel that they can crawl through.
3. Face painting is always fun for children. There are kits that offer safe nontoxic face and body paints that wash off easily from companies like Snazaroo. Have the kids change into their bathing suits and they can have fun painting each other. Alternatively, for girls, another option is to put out some of your old makeup (make sure it is hypoallergenic) and a few hand mirrors and let them have fun.
4. Introduce kids to popular games from your childhood, such as croquet and marbles (if they are over 4 years old).
5. Have the kids try making a teepee. Take four large branches and tie them together at the top with strong twine, then wrap an old bed sheet around the whole structure.

Water Fun for Outdoor Play

1. If you have a kiddy pool, bring out the bath toys for extra fun. If your kids aren’t using their kiddy pool anymore, place it on a low table and use it as a water play table instead. They can have boat races or rubber duck races, make a fishing pond or use it with sand toys such as funnels, sifters and spinning mills.
2. If kids want to cool off and you’re not crazy about water guns, instead fill up squeeze bottles with water or give them buckets of water with soft new sponges they can toss at each other.
3. Let the kids help you wash the car! Believe it or not, washing the car is a fun activity for kids. They like to feel useful and washing a car is a simple enough job. If they are really young, let them wash their wagon or tricycle.

Summer doesn’t have to be boring! From face painting to water fun, to digging in the sand, there are so many fun summertime activities for kids to enjoy.

You can read more from Kimberly on her blog Mom in the Go Lane or on IG @mominthegolane