Summer Fun! What do to when they scream “I’m Bored!!!”

As my kids are beginning the journey into their teen years, I find myself thinking back to the days before iPods, Rock Band, summer jobs, weightlifting, and babysitting jobs.  Days when summer meant taxing my creative brain to come up with activities/ideas to keep the kids from the constant complaining of “I’m bored!”

So this post is for you with younger kids, here are some of the simple things we used to do for fun on those summer days!

I used to fill cake pans with water and freeze them.  BUT, here is the fun part, I would slip fun little toys ( i.e army men, super balls, polly pockets etc) into the water before it would freeze.  Then the kids would chip away at the ice to get their treasures!  Sometimes I would even put coins in their, they could then keep the money.  I used a dinner spoon to chip away at the ice.  They loved this on a hot day!

We used to play LOTS of four square in our driveway.  I bought a playground/kickball and we would make the four square “court” with chalk on the driveway.  We had neighborhood competitions and family fun with that cheap activity.

Reading Hikes- Ok, this is such a teacher thing…….To encourage the kids to read in the summer, we would take find hiding places around the house, or outside, or even at a park on occasion, and read there.  Everyone loved picking the secret place to read.  The rule was once you arrived at the spot you had to read for at least 15 min.

The local track was also a great, free place to run off some energy.  The kids seemed to run longer, faster, and harder when they could run in the lanes at the track!  Remember to bring lots of water!

Squirt guns……need I say more!

A letter scavenger hunt.  When the kids were learning their letters, we used to walk around the neighborhood and look for something that starts with an A, something that starts with a B,…….you get the idea.  When we got through the whole alphabet, then the walk was done.

These are just a few ideas that come to mind.  I have LOTS more.  This is the kind of thing teachers do over the summer!  I am so used to thinking up lesson plans during the school year, I used to always think of fun summer “lesson plans!”

Enjoy your kids!  Before you know it they will be off driving to a summer job!  🙂