Summers are knocking at the door and times to have fun will usher in with summer vacations. These are the times; kids look forward to and create memories. But what about the days when they will get bored or create chaos at home? All of us think about going for a trip to a holiday destination or visiting your relative’s home but these are for a few days. What after that? So, here are top 15 summer activities for kids to keep them entertained during the vacay.
With these ideas, fill their days with things and activities they will look up to without getting bored. These are approaches to garner new memories while learning something new. When the vacations are over and they look back, there will be innumerable things to think about for them and be happy. Involve them in your daily activities that are also great ways to bond with your kids. Do supervise your kids while cutting, painting, cooking, and working with mud. Let’s start with the action-packed ideas about that elucidate about keeping your kids busy at home this summer with these fun ideas.
Things to Do in Summer Holidays At Home
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Art Projects
Getting creative with art projects is among the best ideas to keep kids busy in summers. Such activities not only keep them occupied but also open their ingenuity. Provide them things that encourage them to go creative. From color books and colors to papers, scissors, and glue; you can motivate your kids to bring up something on their own. After they are done, ask them to clean the mess of paper pieces and glue drops.
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Magic Fairy Bottles
How about creating an exciting decorative piece that kids can easily make and adults appreciate. These glittery bottles swirl the shimmer in a different way that is a visual treat. Making these bottles is an easy-breezy task. For their personal magical fairy bottles, your kids need water, glitter flakes, glitter, ribbons or lace, sequins, glycerin, and bottles of fancy shape.
To get started, mix water and glycerin, one part each. Add sequins and glitter to this mixture and pour into the bottle. Secure the bottle cap tightly and wrap a ribbon or lace around it. These bottles also make lovely gifts. Just add a card a note as a greeting.
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Recycle Plastic Bottles for a Garden
Get your kids experimenting the green way. Tickle their thumb for a gardening experience. This will inculcate love for gardening in them and teach them the art of recycling. It will also inspire them to admire nature.
Cut a soft drink plastic bottle in two parts. As the main planting pot, use the one having the cap on. The lower part will be used for the excess water while watering the plant. You can also simply hollow the bottle horizontally and make minute holes for water to seep out. Let them choose the plant for their recycled bottled. You can also make them grow herbs like mint and basil as well as microgreens like methi. By doing so, you will be introducing them to healthy foods.
Other approaches to keep them in touch with the nature are painting pots having plants, transforming baskets to planters, and growing succulents.
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Play Games
If you don’t have time to supervise kids but want to keep them busy, the old-fashioned games make great choices. And if there are more than one kids at home, count it bonus for this activity. There are games that a child can enjoy alone such as brainteasers. A deck of cards can also be a good option to let your child play on his/her own. You can never go wrong with the old chess, snakes and ladders, and ludo.
If you can leave your kids unattended to play outside, encourage them to play shooting a horse (mock horse), water and ice, add more…These are among the cheap and guilt-free ways to keep kids busy during holidays.
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Build a Cardboard House
Kids love a cute little house to play in, a fort, or a hideout. So, how about letting them build one of their own. It is super fun and easy! Get some cardboard boxes (shoe boxes will also do), markers, paint, cutter, and tape. Let them decide, which color they want to get their house/fort painted in.
So, whenever the question pops up – what can kids do at home in the summer? Give them this simple happiness of childhood, where just a cardboard box could make your little ones enthusiastic and they enjoy it for hours. Add their mini hideout with some pillows and sheets for the perfect play! A permanent cardboard house or a temporary one that can be stored flat depends on the space available in your home. Isn’t it cool?
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DIY Bird Feeder
In this hot season, thirsty and hungry birds will look for water and food. Let your kids get the opportunity to do this noble work by making a bird feeder themselves. This is one of the creative and inexpensive ways to keep kids busy this summer and helps them connect with nature. This is not just a fun craft with a good reason but also makes your home look colorful and musical with birds and their chirpings.
There are several ideas to create a bird feeder with materials that are already available in your home such as toilet paper rolls smeared with peanut butter and covered with bird seeds. A small cup of water to satiate their thirst should always have a place in the feeder. Once your children have made it, their joy will know no bounds. Place the bird feeder in such a place where your kids can easily see the birds eating and drinking.
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Read Books
If your kids learn to love reading, they have inculcated a superb habit. Books are not just about stories, they open a new world to your kids. They develop a better vocabulary, reasoning, language, understanding, and imagination. This is among the best ways to keep the kids busy on a long summer day.
Give them comics, storybooks, or magazines as per their age group. For kids who can’t read complete sentences, try with picture books. Set a time everyday reserved for reading. This helps the habit going and you never know, they might end up making wise decisions in selecting their reading stuff. You can also get make them join a library or a reading club.
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Cook and Bake
Cooking and baking are among the fun summer ideas for kids and parents. They will enthusiastically participate in these activities with you. Plan a cooking or baking day, once or twice a week, as suits you. Involve the kids thoroughly in the process. Shortlist some recipes and let them choose to be taken up for the day. Let them pick the ingredients as this will help them in recognizing the spices, condiments, and other things that are used in the process.
If they can read, ask them to read the recipe. Allow them to follow the instructions and keep your helping hand away as much as possible. Initially take up recipes that don’t include the use of gas stove. Some of these dishes to whip up are fruit chaats, sandwiches, veggie salads, and no-bake desserts. Keep the recipes super simple during initial cooking and baking sessions. This will keep your kids engaged in various ways, from meal planning to sorting veggies and teaching them peeling and cutting basics.
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Go Camping
Camping! The name itself is exciting enough and among the more exciting summer holiday activities at home. Get them a tent build anywhere in the house, whether indoor or in the garden. Sheets and blankets make the ideal materials for the kids camping at home. You can also add a difference to their camping play by helping them get a Tote-A-Fort set up under and through your furniture.
When the tent is up, give them materials as if they are on a real camp outing, and they will thank you. Plan some activities that will keep them going and enjoy the camping game not just for a day but fir more. A fun breakfast, artworks, activities with printables, reading, making something of their own, and playing with play dough or water are among the camping that will keep the kids on their toes. After the camping is done, ask them to write a summer camp journal.
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Enjoy a Treasure Hunt
Playing treasure hunt is an amazing answer when you find yourself with the question – How do I keep my child entertained in the summer? Prepare a treasure map and provide clues in it to find the hidden treasure in the house or the garden. Add some rules to the game to make it more interesting such as no running, there will be a team if more kids are involved, and turns to take the clues.
You can take any of the treasure hunt games from photo-based hunt, lawn or the area around for the hunt, or indoor hunt. As per the age of the kids playing, you can increase or simplify the complexity of the game. The reward for the hunt can be anything that you know your kids will love to be treated with.
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Create a Summer Diary
Encourage your little ones to keep a journal. This is among the ideas for keeping kids busy. Get them a scrapbook or a diary of their choice in which they can jot down their thoughts, wishes, experiences, memories, and even add pictures. They can also write their special day and moments in it. Start with spending 15-20 minutes writing or drawing in it. This will help them get a good start with this new habit.
And if they get an assignment that asks them about their summer vacation, they have a lot to show in a creative way. The assignment won’t be a task, it will be fun! And bonus? A great habit. Slowly, your kids will stay occupied for longer periods. In the future, it will become a lovely book of memories – pure and precious.
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Get Jamming
Having jamming sessions for kids is among the fun things to do in holidays at home. It is simple to pull off and amazing to partake in. All you need to do is to get some kids’ musical instruments such as shakers, tambourines, or bongo, and get started with jamming. If you don’t have musical instruments at home, no worries. Wooden spoons, pans, pots etc. can be used as instruments (or the noise makers!).
Once the music gets high with singing along, ask your kids to join with dance. This at home jam session will elate your kids and they will ask for more.
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Solve Puzzles
All summer long, have a jigsaw puzzle going somewhere in the house. And keep puzzle books handy. Solving puzzles keep kids mentally active. But don’t expect them to spend hours in solving puzzles, although some like solving puzzles more than others. Start with small chunks of these games a day to make your kids interested in these brain exercises. Undoubtedly, puzzles are among the fun summer activities and ideas to keep your kids busy on a summer day.
By taking up smaller sessions of puzzle solving every day, your kids will stay interested in it and won’t get bored. Today, many computer games that get the brain exercising and puzzle apps are also available but you need to monitor their screen time.
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A DIY Lamp
Usual lamps work on electricity and you can’t assign such a risky task to your children. But there is a fun alternative to create one! Give them some focusing and relaxing activity with that like Magic Fairy Bottles. This will keep them hooked with the task and the initial creation will also give them better ideas to implement in this one. For this fun thing to do in holidays at home, you will need some tissue paper, glue, scissors, stapler (if required), regular wine glasses, and a plastic acetate sheet.
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Go Picnicking
You can never go wrong with picnics as the best holiday activities for kids. A picnic spot doesn’t necessarily have to be a lakeside or some scenic beauty laden location. It can be your garden. Give them whatever makes for a good picnic meal, which is easily available on your kitchen shelf and fridge. The most basic sandwiches and chips turn into exciting feasts when savored on the mat on the garden grass with their best friends and cousins. Always a superhit with kids and parents, both!
Thus, with these 15 ways to keep kids busy during the summer, you can have a relaxed and hassle-free summer. As your children as busy with these activities, you can have some time for yourself as well. And not to mention, these activities also boost harmony among siblings. When they will look back on these days, they will have that lovely nostalgic feeling. So, get ready to save your sanity this summer and get your kids active with constructive stuff on those lazy long summer’ days.
