The summer holidays is fast approaching us now. Every parent is constantly looking for the best fun summer activities for their kids.
Whether it’s a local park, sports clubs, arts and crafts events, there is no shortage of summer activities and kid-friendly entertainment that you can fill each summer day with.
But if you find yourself sat wondering what you can do with your children that day, check out our list of fun summer activities for children below.
Cheaper Fun Summer Activities for the Whole Family
Build a back garden obstacle course
Construct an obstacle course in your back garden or the local field, with hula hoops, skipping ropes, hoses and other materials from around the house. Your kids can take turns completing it – and the person with the fastest time wins a prize!
Make a Bird Feeder
Invite summertime birds to your garden with a DIY bird feeder. To make it, simply coat sticks with peanut butter and roll them in birdseed. It’s the perfect opportunity to teach your children about nature and animals.
Organise an at-home picnic
You can host a picnic lunch without leaving your property! Choose a mealtime destination, whether it’s a patio table or blanket in the garden. Prepare picnic staples like sandwiches, load them into a basket and enjoy dining al fresco.
Decorate Rocks
The next time you go to the beach or on a hike, have your children collect rocks. At home, they can decorate the rocks with paint, stickers, markers, glitter, and other art supplies. Display the finished products around the house, use them as paperweights, or give them to relatives!
Check out Wildlife Parks
Tie up your boots, pack a bottle of insect repellent, and play naturalists for the day and a wildlife park. These are usually public lands and waters set aside to conserve animals and plants. You can hike through the stunning forests and identify hundreds of native species (including endangered ones).
Arrange a Scavenger Hunt
What adventurous child doesn’t love a scavenger hunt? Whether you set up this free summer activity for children indoors or outdoors, the objective remains the same: find hidden objects using clever clues.
Read a Story
Many bookshops are libraries are beginning to host storytimes for little readers once again. You can feel good about this free summer activity because it fosters a love of reading.
Fun Summer activities for Toddlers
8 fun and simple activities that will keep toddlers that will keep them engaged and busy with sensory, fine motor skills, problem-solving and curiosity!
Make instant ice cream
What better ways to keep your little ones cool this summer than making and eating ice cream? Instant ice cream recipes like this one is a fun way to teach children how to make a yummy dessert in under 15 minutes. All you need is milk, a sugar alternative, ice, vanilla extract and some salt.
Build a bug hotel
The RSPB has detailed a great step by step guide on how to create a bug hotel. Using materials like woodchips, logs, old bamboo canes, moss, old leaves and wooden pallets. These structures can be adapted to suit any space and you could even give your bug hotel a name!
Take children on a sensory journey
You can take children on a wonderful sensory journey with their feet by filling trays with a variety of materials like dry sand, mud and leaves; leading them in a line from one tray to the next. If you make the last tray clean soapy water and let them step through onto a towel, they’ll have clean and dry feet at the end too!
Make messy play spaghetti
Making rainbow spaghetti gives children a sensory experience that helps develop their motor skills around gripping and picking. You’ll need to cook up some spaghetti, separate them into bowls and add in food colouring. Why not add letters or ‘treasures’ to mix into the gloop which children can have fun picking out?
Put together a water wall
You can create a water wall from a board, wooden fence or chain link fence. Then, you’ll need to attach plastic bottles and hosing to wood using a staple gun or use zip-ties for chain link fences. Line up the containers to check their placement before you fix them permanently in place.
Make a sensory play tub
Combine storytelling, props and water play for a great sensory experience! The ‘5 Little Ducks’ song is great for counting up and back down again from 1 to 5. Fill a tub with water and add 1 plastic mother duck and her 4 babies, subtracting one duck during each verse until there are none left. You could also attach foam numbers to a window and have children hide a number during the countdown.
Build a Weather Station
You can check the weather each day during circle time and record what you find using a class magnetic weather station. You’ll need a magnetic surface like a baking tray, some magnetic letters, 4-5 sheets of foam, 4 magnets, a marker, scissors and glue. Then, follow the step-by-step guide to create your own weather station here and watch as your children learn to become little meteorologists!
Make milk carton boats
Take an old milk carton and shape it in the fashion of a boat. You can even paint it and stick a toothpick in it with a taped flag! Test it out by putting it in water in the sink or bath. Does it float? If not, your kids can brainstorm on how to fix it.
Check out some further ideas and how children learn through play.
What fun activities do you do with your children? Tweet us @topsdaynursery
