- Summer is such a fun time! Here are 50 Summer Fun Ideas that DON’T involve media!
Oh, how we love summer here in our home! The children are out of school, many of us have summer vacations and the days of staying up late and sleeping in are all a needed break from the routine of the year. I can remember as a girl summer seemed to last forever. But, can you believe summer vacation is already half over? At least here in our home summer seems to be flying by! As we are returning from our annual vacation at the lake with our grandparents we realize that we only have 5 1/2 weeks until school begins.
But, we still have several weeks of this balmy season and I for one intend to enjoy it with my little ones. However, there is one challenge that we continually face…MEDIA. In our technological world, it seems that our children have forgotten to play. We revert by default to movie watching, Netflix binging, texting, Youtubing, Snap chatting, Facebooking, and gaming (and I am talking about Fortnight not UNO). It’s amazing how when you take those things away from children all of a sudden…they don’t know what to do!
Sometimes in our fast-paced society, I think our children need to be reminded of the simple things. Even things like making a paper fan. Our minds get so programmed we need to be entertained that we forget basic creativity. I am going to declare one day next week as a “Screen free day”. I know this is going to cause many groans and sighs but I think a clean break from time to time is good. Actually, a “Screen free week” wouldn’t hurt either (although I don’t think we will do that at this time).
There is one challenge that we continually face...MEDIA. In our technological world, it seems that our children have forgotten to play.Click To TweetAnyhow, back to helping with creativity. To help our my children, I created a list of 50 things that they can do in those moments they are tempted to say “I’m bored.”
50 Summer Fun Ideas
- Read a book
- Play piano or another instrument
- Color or draw
- Jump on the Trampoline
- Take a walk
- Ride bikes/skateboard
- Draw with chalk on the driveway
- Nerf guns
- Build a fort inside
- Play with legos
- Card games
- Board games
- Play Foursquare
- Basketball
- Bake cookies
- Clean your room or rearrange it
- Write letters
- Play school, house, library or store
- Pool table
- Volleyball
- Regular or Chinese jump-rope
- Make Playdo
- Make Slime
- Paint rocks to hide
- Swim or Sprinkler or Homemade Slip n’ Slide
- Mow the yard
- Water the flowers
- Build a tree house
- Watercolors
- Ping pong
- Make paper airplanes and have a war
- Collect worms or bugs
- Make jewelry with beads or Knit
- Play with trains
- Make a huge hot wheels track
- Make something in the shop
- Driveway hockey or tennis
- Frisbee golf
- Just Dance exercise (if you don’t have a wee you can find songs on youtube)
- Play Mad Libs
- Watergun fights
- Make snowcones
- Play Mother May I
- Listen to audiobook
- Learn Paper Origami
- Bubbles
- Create your own movie plot and film it
- Make puppets and plan a show
- Layout mats and do gymnastics upstairs
- Wash the car or van
I hope a few of these have inspired you and your children to have fun this summer by unplugging from media and rediscovering real play through these 50 summer fun ideas. (And yes, for those wondering that IS my 21 year old son doing flips off of his grandparents boat dock. When you have boys, encouraging creativity sometimes means holding your breath as a mama.) 😀
What summer fun ideas do you have?
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Jenny is the Happy wife of 23 years to Steve, Mama of 8 children and the owner of A Mother’s Heritage Blog. Writing is therapeutic to her and she loves encouraging others. She is a stay at home mama, owner of Concordia Virtual Assistance and has a passion for all things birthing and babies as a Doula for Cradled in Love Birth Services.