Fifty Fun Activities You Can Do With Your Family This Summer!

Summer has arrived, and its time to start planning some fun things to do with your kids! Remember, it’s not the length of the activity that is most important, but the quality of the time you spend with your child that means the most. Also, as you will see from the list, there are many activities that don’t cost money!

• Create a scavenger hunt where you have to find something that starts with every letter of the alphabet or every letter in your child’s name etc.
• Have a game night at your house and play Charades, Pictionary, etc.
• Go for a walk in the woods and make a collage from nature objects.
• Make rainbow jello and have a jello-eating contest with your hands tied behind your back.
• Write a letter to someone or make them a card and mail it.
• Decorate a shoe box and put all the things that represent what people see in you on the outside and fill the inside with things that people may not know about you.
• Have a picnic in your own backyard.
• Put up a lemonade stand in your front yard and donate your earnings to a charity.
• Write and illustrate your own book.
• Make a homemade pizza.
• Draw some pictures in your driveway with sidewalk chalk.
• Visit the library and sign up for the summer reading program.
• Have a backyard campfire and roast some hot dogs or make s’mores.
• Make popsicles with Dixie cups using fruit juice.
• Go for a fun bicycle ride.
• Have a water balloon fight.
• Plant seedlings or start up a garden.
• Have a bubble blowing contest.
• Go to a park and play on the playground.
• Run through the sprinklers or go swimming.
• Bake your favorite cookies and give them to your neighbors or friends.
• Catch fire flies in a jar.
• Play “I Spy”.
• Look for four leaf clovers.
• Make sock puppets and put on a puppet show.
• Set up an obstacle course in your backyard.
• Watch a funny movie.
• Play flashlight tag.
• Learn how to make simple origami.
• Follow an ant around for awhile.
• Fly a kite.
• Go on an alphabet hike and try and find something that begins with each letter of the alphabet.
• Create your own comic book.
• Pitch a tent and camp out in your own backyard.
• Write yourself a letter and open it up when you graduate from high school.
• Cook your favorite meal.
• Write down your ten most favorite things you like about your friend or family member and give it to them.
• Make paper airplanes and see whose goes the farthest.
• Paint some rocks.
• Interview an older relative or neighbor and ask them what it was like when they were young.
• Make a gingerbread house.
• See how many different kinds of bugs you can collect.
• Work a puzzle.
• Have a costume party.
• Play your favorite card game.
• Make some jewelry.
• Visit the zoo.
• Play “Simon Says.”
• Visit the children’s museum.
• Make some taffy.

I hope there are some items on this list that you and your family can enjoy this year and I hope you have a fun, relaxing and safe summer! 

Donna Wolter is the Youth First social worker serving Holy Rosary and

St. Benedict’s Cathedral schools.