Summertime Family Fun
With the cancellation of camps, classes and many organized group activities, parents and caretakers have been thrown into the role of Summer Activities Director. Keeping kids of any age busy and occupied is hard enough, but throw in various closures and work-from-home schedules and it can become a bit overwhelming.
Let us help! We have compiled a list of summer fun activities to support you and keep your entire family inspired and active!
Outdoor Dinner and Movie Night - Plan an evening outside, eat dinner on a patio table or picnic-style in the grass. And roast up s’mores for dessert. Then, as the sun sets, hang up a sheet and use a projector to screen a family favorite. Don’t forget the bug spray!
Theme Dinners - Once a week create a themed dinner. Plan around favorite movie characters, super heroes, or famous people in history. Or, pick a color theme (“let’s all wear RED tonight”), or propose fancy-dress night, backward clothes day or wackiest outfits. The sillier the better!
Water Games Day - Celebrate summer with an outdoor water games day. Throw water balloons, run through a sprinkler, set up a wading pool, have a squirt gun battle, or layout a slip-n-slide (a glossy tarp will do) and go for a ride across the yard. Just get them wet and running.
Get Artsy - Let your creativity fly with outside art projects. Create sidewalk chalk masterpieces, layout large pieces of kraft paper and create oversized works of art with acrylic paint and big brushes, give older kids a camera to capture landscapes and portraits, and gather rocks to paint inspirational messages and drawings to display near your sidewalk.
Learn about the World - Expose your kids to the wider world by picking a country each week to focus on. Assign someone to draw the flag and report on country stats and facts. Then prepare native dishes and watch YouTube videos showing culture, dances and traditions.
Create Theme Days - Some kids thrive on schedules, so for those kiddos assigning an activity to each day of the week is a good way to institute a routine and ground kids. For example: Mondays is board game night. Tuesday is puzzle day. Wednesday is read-aloud day. Thursday is laundry day and Friday is the day kids cook dinner!
Be a Tourist in Your Own Town - Have you visited the sights in your own town? Think of outdoor spots that have historical significance (think Civil War battles, first settlers’ log cabin, a historic main street, etc.), farmer’s markets, visit every playground and check them off a list, find new walking and biking trails. Find outdoor treasures just outside your door, no travel required.
Get Sporty - Many courts and fields are unusually empty this summer, so it’s a great time to pick up some balls and introduce your kids to sports: tennis, soccer, golf, baseball, and basketball. Or go nontraditional with badminton, pickleball, bocce ball, or other smaller sport. Who knows, you may have a future Olympic athlete in your family.
With a little thought and some inspiration (and a healthy dose of enthusiasm) this summer can be a magical time spent being creative, active and a little silly with your kids.