I can always tell that summer is winding down because the kids start bickering even more and my patience begins to wear thin.  I have also run completely out of fun, boredom-busting activities – my creative juices are tapped out.  I seem to accumulate books of kid crafting ideas so I decided to do a search and come up with a few fun projects to get us through the rest of summer.

1.  Start getting back into a routine by creating an activities chart.  Similar to a chore chart but with fun things to do everyday.  Our list includes playing outside, reading time, art time, practicing ball tosses (for my budding tennis stars) and more.  They get a sticker for each activity they complete and it has really energized the kids (tv and computer time aren’t on the list!).

2.  Make crayon resist paintings.

What you need:  black tempera paint thinned with water, drawing paper, crayons, paint brush

What to do:  Design a picture using light colored crayons (dark colors don’t work well).   Lightly brush one coat of paint over the whole picture.  The crayons resist soaking up the paint so the picture stands out.

Tips:  If you want an area of white on the picture, be sure to color it white.  For easy clean up, put your drawing on newspaper before painting.

3. Create peek boxes.

What you need:  Shoebox (with lid), paper & craft supplies, glue, tape, scissors

What to do:  Take the lid off the shoe box and make a whole in one end of the box.  Build a scene inside the box (facing the hole).  Cut a 2 inch hole in the box top to let in light.  Tape the top of the shoebox on and decorate the outside of the box.

Tips:  This is a good way to introduce the concept of perspective and for stimulating creative writing projects.

4. Play the button pitching game.

What you need:  20 buttons for each player, tape or string, tape measure.

Rules:  Measure 1 yard from a wall and mark the spot with tape of string.  Take turns pitching buttons at the wall.  The object is to get your button to bounce off the wall but land very close to it.  All buttons must hit the wall.

Game Play:  For each round, every player pitches one button.  The player with the closest button to the wall wins the round and collects all the pitches buttons.  Play continues until one player has all the buttons.

5.  Go on a collage walk.

What you need:  Piece of cardboard or flat board and a bottle of glue.

What to do:  Go on a walk around the neighborhood.  Collect objects as you walk along and create a collage.

Tip:  For my little kids, we use plastic containers for collection and glue them on when we get home.

6.  Create puppets from paper bags, socks, popsicle sticks or even spoons.

What you need:  Puppet base, supplies for trim (buttons, feathers, year, markers, straws, etc) and imagination.

Help me out – what fun, crafty ideas do you have for the end of summer blues?

summer activities

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