Little boy and his elder sister helping in the garden. The kids are replanting and watering some flowers.
Summer break affords kids endless opportunities to while away the hours doing a myriad of activities. But if your kids are anything like mine, they quickly default to requesting endless movie marathons and video game sessions. Establishing your ground rules on tech usage makes for a good start to a great break, but to avoid the inevitable complaints (you know the ones—“I’m bored!” and “There’s nothing to do!”), arm yourself with a summer bucket list chock-full of activities that will win over even the toughest of cynics.
Here are 30 activities—some to be done alone, some with friends and some with you—sure to make this one of your family’s best summer breaks yet (no batteries required!).
- Take a family bike ride. Hitch a bike trailer to the back of your own bike for the littles and let the big kids lead the way. Discover a nearby trail or, if you feel adventurous, aim to ride together to do errands!
- Become a cartographer and draw a map of your house, street and neighborhood, noting trees, mailboxes, landscape and more.
- Go berry picking. For a comprehensive list of local u-pick berry farms, check out KCParent.com.
- Aim to visit every park in your city and, as a family, rank them in order of best to least favorite.
- Grow a garden. Plant potted herbs on the windowsill, containers of tomato plants on the deck or a raised bed in the backyard.
- Make a fairy garden, complete with miniature-scale furniture.
- Learn classic outdoor games like kick the can and red rover and then invite the neighborhood kids to join in on the fun.
- Visit a local farmer’s market where you can purchase fresh produce, grass-fed beef, local honey and wildflower bouquets, all while enjoying the sights and sounds of street musicians and entertainers.
- Make a homemade bubble solution and have a bubble blowing competition (see who can blow the most in a minute, make the largest bubble or blow one that lasts the longest!). Not up for the mess? Invest in a cheap bubble blowing machine, turn on some tunes and have a dance-off with bubbles!
- Develop a summer pen pal. Dollar stores offer box sets of cards or, if you want to make it special, consider purchasing personalized stationery, special stickers, a wax seal or custom stamps. Choose a day of the week, such as Mail Monday, to write weekly.
- Teach phone etiquette and put it to practice by letting your kids call Grandma, aunts, uncles or friends. Even little ones can join in on conference calls!
- Take up speed stacking, a competitive sport where cups are stacked in various combinations as quickly as possible. Compete as a family or sign up for a local competition.
- Jump rope, learn how to double Dutch and have fun memorizing traditional jump roping poems and songs. Need inspiration? Check out the book Anna Banana: 101 Jump Rope Rhymes.
- Volunteer at an animal shelter. Kids can build their reading skills as they read to dogs or cats.
- Clean up a park. Grab a trash bag, some gloves and get to work beautifying a space for all to enjoy.
- Pack a picnic and enjoy lunch out on the back patio, at a park shelter or a nearby field.
- Sign up for a summer reading program and get lost in a good book. Need some inspiration for what to read next? Check out Read Aloud Revival, a website loaded with fantastic book lists and resources, devoted to helping parents establish a family culture around books.
- Use chalk to make driveway art or design your own games with it, such as hopscotch, tic tac toe, hangman and more.
- Go swimming! If you have a baby, be on the lookout for tot hours at your local pool, a morning session devoted exclusively to little ones’ splashing and play.
- Break out the sprinkler and slip and slide. No slip and slide? No problem! Make your own out of a long sheet of commercial trash bags and Dawn dish soap.
- Take turns drawing family portraits or make silhouettes of each family member’s profile.
- Look through family scrapbooks together. At the end of the summer, build a new one that documents what you did throughout your summer break.
- Interview elderly neighbors or family friends to learn more about them.
- Establish a weekly visit with a grandparent or close family friend and do crafts or games together.
- Bake your way through the alphabet, making menu items from A to Z.
- Set up a lemonade stand or bake sale. Encourage your kids to come up with a company name and logo and then have them advertise throughout the neighborhood.
- Have a campout in the backyard. Pitch a tent, grab some sleeping bags and make tin foil dinners over the fire pit.
- Redecorate a bedroom together. Pick the perfect paint, new valances, light fixtures and accents.
- Work as a family. Clean out the garage or wash the cars. Even the littlest ones can be helpers by “washing the house,” using water and a paintbrush.
- Perform random acts of kindness. Make cookies for a neighbor, dinner for friends, and send pictures to a much-appreciated teacher.
Lauren Greenlee is a freelance writer and homeschooling mom of three from Olathe who loves spending summers outside and unplugged.