Summer is here in full swing! Our family is at first very excited for pool days, beach trips, warm sun, lots of grilling, and deck time. The sun stays out longer so the kids stay awake longer. However, the thrill of summer itself wears off all too soon. Soon you have to find fun ideas, crafts, games, and if those kids are lucky, toys and trips 😉
Over the past few years, I started a new technique to help nip the inevitable I’m bored… If the word bored comes out, a chore is assigned to you above your usual chore list. My oldest is finally getting the hang of it and barely utters the word now. Victory! The middle one I’m still working on and the youngest is too young to pay attention. Regardless of the word, they still feel the feeling so we’ve been working hard at ideas of family fun for the summer.
Summer Fun Brainstorming
Involving the family can be a daunting task, so I’ve found its best to have some ideas to help steer them in the direction of staying within a budget, time frame, location, etc. We use the following ideas to brainstorm to get started (some can be used for every season, not just summer):
- Person – is there someone you’d like to visit or play with?
- Food – is there a certain food you want to eat/make/try?
- Thing – is there a certain thing you’d like to do that’s free/low cost? Reasonably priced?
- Place – is there a certain place you’d like to go this summer?
Here are 3 of our Summer Fun Favorites!
1. Firecracker Slime/Goop Fun
I considered this to be family friendly because even I found it fun to listen to the pop rocks and I may have snuck in a few pops myself. The kids loved listening and they enjoyed feeling the candy pop and fizz. This summer fun recipe is a repeat in our house. My biggest suggestion with this recipe is use small amounts of food coloring or natural coloring. We all have smurf hands after the littles get a hold of the dye.
Ingredients
- Corn starch
- Water
- Pop rocks
- Contact solution
- Food coloring
- Plastic container
Recipe
- Add corn starch to plastic container
- Slowly add a few drops of contact solution and slowly add a few drops of water and mix it up until it has your desired consistency
- It should be solid enough to roll up but quickly turn to liquid in your hands
- Add the food coloring (just a few drops goes far) and then sprinkle the pop rocks candy over top and mix it all together
- Enjoy the goopy slime that pops and fizzes
2. Cool off with Some Water Play
Our kids love the water, especially in the summer, so all of these suggestions they absolutely love!
- Bust out your sprinkler! Enjoy some splash time with the kids hopping through the water!
- Get out the little pool and fill it with water and toys! Splash around and see how long the water stays in there!
- Dig out the water table! Use all the different wheels and spinners and race boats around the table.
- Go to the community pool, the neighbor’s pool, or even put up your own!
3. Bubbles
We found a super easy bubble recipe to make and bubbles can be fun for the whole family. You can make a competition out of bubble making, bubble stomping, bubble size, etc.
Recipe
Mix 6 parts water with 1 part dish soap (Dawn or your favorite alternative) and 1/4 part corn syrup. Mix well and pour into bubble container. Old bubble containers or old milk jugs work great. Then get to make bubbles!
Bonus Fun!
Here are some bonus summer fun ideas:
- Go to a new park, state park, local park, amusement park
- Go to the farmer’s market and try every sample
- Camp in the backyard
- Go to the grocery store and see how many samples you can get
- Make homemade popsicles (use a popsicle holder or plastic cups and fill with a shake)
- Find seashells at the beach
- Make homemade snow cones (blend ice and add a simple syrup)
- Draw with sidewalk chalk
- Have a campfire
- Take a nap
- Check out the library’s summer reading club
