If you need ideas for keeping the kids busy for the remainder of summer vacation, you’ll want to check out this list of 100+ summer boredom buster ideas for kids!
100+ Summer Boredom Buster Ideas for Kids
It’s officially the middle of the summer in my neck of the woods, and I’ve heard a lot of parents complaining that their kids need to go back to school. I’m not sure if it’s because the kids are fighting, bored, or just ornery, but my kids are driving me nuts too. That means it’s time to get creative and find fun things for them to do to occupy the last few weeks of summer vacation. That’s why we’ve put this list of fun art projects, outdoor activities, cooking, and other learning endeavors you can do with your kids. Hopefully, this list will help you find fun things to do for the rest of the summer with your kids, no matter their age.
Art Projects
Art projects are a lot of fun when the weather is warm and you can kick the kids outside to get messy and creative. If you’d also like indoor art projects, though, we’ve got you covered there too!
Squirt Gun Canvas Art – SimplifyLiveLove
Glowing Camping Craft for Kids – Buggy and Buddy
Puffy Paint Ice Cream Cone Craft for Kids – Crafty Morning
DIY: Sidewalk Chalk “Pops” – Project Nursery
10 Ways to Use Sidewalk Chalk – Castleview Academy
DIY Nature Paint Brushes for Kids – Apple Green Cottage
Add a weekly field trip day!
- Head to a berry patch and pick your own berries. Find a list of Pick Your Own Farms by state here.
- Find new museums to visit.
- Make a goal to hit all of the parks and pools in your local area.
- Head to a country road and stop and pick flowers.
Road Trip Activities for Kids – If you’re taking road trips this summer, you’ll want to keep the kids busy in the car with these activities
Grow something in a garden
Gardening is a great way to get kids active outside and is also a fabulous way to encourage them to eat more fruits and veggies. Although it’s mid July already, it’s not too late to plant something in your garden and still get a harvest. Here are a few gardening activities your kids may enjoy:
Play Garden for Kids – Growing a Jeweled Rose
How to grow a Pumpkin Patch for Halloween Pumpkins – SimplifyLiveLove
Be a Butterfly Hero – Grow a Butterfly Garden in a Pot – SimplifyLiveLove
How to Grow a Three Sisters Garden – Simplify Live Love
Kids’ Container Pizza Garden – Little Family Adventure
10 Educational Gardening Lessons for Kids – Your Modern Family
Fun & games in the yard
I love giant yard games. My brother-in-;aw gave our kids a giant jenga game for Christmas last year and my kid really enjoy it. Here are a few more activities you can easily create as well.
Giant Yard Jenga – Creative Green Living – make your own yard game for under $10 and then play all summer long!
Create a Backyard Sports Camp – Little Family Adventure
Make a life-sized Angry Birds Game – She Knows
Squirt Gun Water Races – Design Dazzle
Water Balloon Baseball – Craft River
Snot Shot Coordination Game – Castleview Academy
Break out the backyard water toys as well
Get out good ole fashioned backyard water toys like the tether ball splash from Bestway,
the triple slip-n-slide, and the color wave inflatable pool. There’s not much better than being in the water when the weather is hot and these three fun outdoor water activities make outdoor fun possible with minimal effort and without breaking the bank.
Rainy day activities
When the weather is rainy, I highly recommend playing in the rain and later, the mud at least once. Look how much fun my kids are having in the mud. They do wash… and it’s a lot of fun to hose them off with frigid water before allowing them to step foot in the house too. 😉 But if you’d also like a few fun indoor games, here are some you may enjoy:
DIY Ring Toss – From ABC’s to ACT’s
Laundry Basket Ski Ball – Frugal Fun For Boys
Host a scavenger hunt – No Time For Flashcards
Build a Marshmallow & Toothpick Buildings – The Idea Room
Make your own bubble bath – Homemade for Elle
28 Rainy Day Activities for Kids – The Learning Table
Get cooking with these kid friendly recipes
Cooking with kids is always a good idea. They learn so much from cooking – math skills, practical homemaking skills, how to live a healtheri lifestyle. I highly recommend cooking with your kids a few times this summer and here are a few recipes they may enjoy.
Granny’s Granola Bars – Little Family Adventure
Peanut Butter Apple Nachos – Made to be Momma
Mini Apple Sauce Muffins – Simplify Live Love
Cooking as a Family leads to Innovative Kids – Sandy Toes Creations
Keep learning alive with these STEM activities & books
Did you know kids often lose knowledge during the long summer breaks? Make learning fun for them and help them keep up their basic reading and math skills in the process.
Science Experiments Using Water – SimplifyLiveLove
Science Butterflies – SimplifyLiveLove
Science Experiments Using Eggs! – SimplifyLiveLove
DIY Solar Oven for Kids – Castleview Academy
STEM Smores Ovens – All About 3rd Grade
Science Experiments with Bubbles – SimplifyLiveLove
Summer Alka-Seltzer Rockets – Playful Learning
Iv’e also received some fun books and learning activities you may enjoy reading or working on with your kids this summer!
Little Passports – Global Adventure, an educational subscription service that sends fun learning adventures to your mailbox every month, or however often you’d like to receive them. My girls were excited to learn about Brazil in the World Adventure series we got in the mail a few weeks ago. They really enjoyed the cute suitcase, passport, and fun learning activities!
Michelangelo for Kids is another book we got in the mail. This book is about Michelangelo’s life and ideas and includes 21 activities. Be forewarned – the book does contain pictures of naked statues of men. My kids guffawed a bit about the photos, but they don’t honestly bother me.
Another fun set of books I received this summer include A Journey through Nature, Space, and Weather. These cute books are great for younger children and my six and eight year old loved the posters the book jackets became. The books are full of educational information and are really cute.
What fun things are you doing to keep your kids occupied this summer?
Disclaimer: Thank you to Bestway Water Toys, QEB Publishing, Little Passports, and Chicago Press Review for providing some of the items included in this post. While I did receive free product, I was not compensated for this post and my opinions are mine alone.
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