Summer
Activities for Children
Summer is a time for children to rest from the hectic,
structured pace of school, but their bodies and
brains still need to be stimulated. What can you do
to keep your kid busy, yet allow
them to enjoy the summer months? Following are activity
ideas, divided by age group, to help beat summer boredom:
Ages 2-4
Build a worm house. Put a soil-filled juice can in a large glass
jar, then fill in the space between the glass and the can with sand
or soil. The can in the middle will force the worms closer to the
glass, so your child can see them. Add worms and sprinkle oatmeal
on top for food. Moisten every few days by poking wet cotton balls
into the sand for soil.
Make fruit salad. Gather seasonal fruits, including unusual ones,
and discuss the different textures, colors, and seeds with your child.
He or she can participate by washing the fruits and cutting the softer
ones with a butter knife.
Tour your house. Name rooms and objects. Help your child learn words
like big/little, rough/smooth, and round/square by saying things like “this
chair is little, this chair is big.”
Paint with water. On a hot day, give your child water and a two inch
or wider brush. Let them “paint” surfaces like sidewalks,
walls, fences, and stones and watch the water evaporate.
Visit the library. Libraries used to offer little or nothing for
children below the age of four, but in the past few years, many have
introduced programs for toddlers. Children and adults can participate
in activities that may include reading aloud, storytelling, fingerplays,
rhymes, and songs.
Garden. Gardening is a lifelong hobby that your child can begin at
any age.
Ages 5-7
Take a walk around the block. See how many shapes and colors you
find. Look up for birds and down for animal tracks. Note the different
sounds in the city and country.
Visit a farmer’s market. Admire the mounds of fresh lettuce,
berries, and newly baked goods. Compare the different kinds of tomatoes,
squash, and other vegetables. Note the different smells and colors.
Look for new, unusual fruits or vegetables to try.
Make cereal necklaces. Any dry cereal with a hole will do. Tape or
stiffen one end of the string with glue for easier stringing. When
done, tie the ends together.
Grow a crystal garden. Mix 4 tablespoons salt, 4 tablespoons water
and 1 tablespoon ammonia. Be careful not to get ammonia near your
eyes or on your skin. Pour the mixture over charcoal in a small bowl.
Add different-colored inks to various parts. If undisturbed, interesting
crystals will form after several days.
Discover geography. What makes a place special? What are the physical
characteristics of your hometown? Take children for a walk around
your neighborhood and notice what makes it unique. Read stories about
distant places with your child or sing songs to teach geography; for
example,”Home on the Range” or “California, Here
I come.” Make a wish list of places you would like to visit
with your child. Look them up on a map and plan a trip there---real
or pretend.
Create a “serial story.” One person
tells the first part of the story, and then someone
else picks it up, and then another
person, until everyone has a turn (if the last person
isn’t
ready to end the story, it can keep going).
Make yogurt popsicles. Mix a carton of plain, low-fat yogurt with
6 ounces of concentrated unsweetened fruit juice. If you like, add
vanilla or honey. Freeze in molds or three-ounce cups, inserting craft
sticks when partially frozen. Don’t use honey with infants under
the age of one, because honey may contain botulism toxins.
Ages 8-12
Grow your initials for a design on the lawn. Arrange string in a
design on the grass. Saturate it slowly with plant food solution.
In about a week, the design will appear as deeper, darker grass. Unless
you feed it every two weeks, the mark will slowly blend with the lawn.
Collect spider webs. Gently chase away the spider and protect the
bush or plants with newspaper. Spray the web from every angle with
white enamel paint. Ease a piece of dark construction paper onto the
back, touching all of the web, if possible. Snip the web’s supports
with a pair of scissors. When dry, frame it or put it in a nature
scrapbook.
Visit the library. For elementary schoolchildren, there are variations
of the read-alouds and storytelling hours that often include discussions
and presentations by the children themselves. Many libraries also
have summer reading programs.
View and create collections. Go to a children’s museum to view
hands-on exhibits or suggest that your children start a “collection” and
build their own museum. They can collect natural materials, such as
acorns and leaves from a local park or sea shells from the beach.
Churn up a freezer of ice cream. This is an opportunity for a science
lesson. What ingredients go into ice cream? How do salt and ice make
it freeze? Any food preparation is a science lesson.
Learn about weather. Use a map to look up the temperature of cities
around the world and discover how hot each gets in the summer. Discuss
the fact that it is winter in Australia and why.
Camp out. Pitch a tent in the backyard for an evening. Create a treasure
map for children to find hidden treats in the yard, roast marshmallows,
collect fireflies in jars, and look at the stars.
Ages 13-15
Start a book club. Make it a club for two, or add a few of your child’s
friends and their moms or dads. Set aside one evening a week to get
together and discuss a book. If you’ve opted for the larger
book club, have your child plan a menu for the club’s meeting.
Get a job. Since summer is vacation time for most families, have
your teen offer his or her services pet sitting or watering plants.
This gives an opportunity to earn some pocket money and learn responsibility.
Find local group activities. Many communities offer a summer program
through their parks and recreation department. While these programs
are usually geared toward younger children, some activities, like
swimming, basketball, and volleyball, may interest your child. It
also is possible that your teen can participate in some of the activities
for the younger children as a volunteer.
Add special projects. If your child earns a weekly allowance for
doing chores, add special projects to his or her chore list and pay
a bonus for each completed project. For instance, if there is a task
that you absolutely hate doing, like cleaning the closets, add this
to the project list. If you have more than one child, put the projects
out for “bid”—let each child bid on how much they
think it’s worth, and accept the lowest bid.
Plan a trip. Demonstrate your trust and confidence in your young
teens by allowing them to schedule a trip each week for the family.
Get other parents involved so that it’s a group outing. Suggest
a trip to the local art museum, science exhibit, or state fair.
Cook. Allow your children to choose “what’s for dinner” and
have them prepare it. Tell them that it can’t come out of a
box, and they have to prepare the meal form start to finish. This
means buying the ingredients, cooking the meal, AND cleaning up. Consider
getting your child to start a garden to help see where food really
comes from.
Have your children teach you something. This is a great way to learn
about computers. It is a great self-esteem builder when your child
is allowed to be the expert!
Sources: Penn State Cooperative Extension Office, KidsPeace, National
Association for the Education of Young Children
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