29+ Summer Boredom Busters for Kids
Do your kids only seem interested in electronics this summer? Bring the fun back with these awesome summer boredom busters!
Why do kids get bored in the summer?
Sometimes kids just need a little motivation to get their imagination working. Therefore you will probably need to give them a bit of a nudge.
The cause of your child’s boredom may be different depending on your family’s dynamic.
Children of working parents:
Many children of working parents go to a daycare center or in-home provider. These places are wonderful for children to make friends, work on social skills, and receive loving care during the day.
Daycare is also where children play, play, play! Which is wonderful, but it can also exhaust the minds and bodies of little kids.
As a result, when kids get home they want to relax where they feel most comfortable and safe. It is important to give children the time they need to wind down and give their brain a rest.
During this rest time, you may want to allow some screen time. Tablets, TV, and video games can give kids time to just zone out after a stimulating day at daycare.
Furthermore, some families do not have screen time. At the same time, there are plenty of ways for overstimulated children to calm their minds and bodies after a busy day. Here are some suggestions:
- Listen to a story
- Look at the pictures in a book
- Draw or color a picture
- Do a simple puzzle
- Take a nap
- Enjoy a snack on the deck or porch
The need for downtime can be confused with boredom in children. Therefore, you can help your child recognize their need to calmly regulate their body.
After 30 minutes or so of quiet time, encourage your child to play! Maybe you can suggest they play outside.
On hot or rainy days, you can invite your child to play with their favorite toy, or even bring out a toy or activity they haven’t played with in a while.
Children of stay at home parents:
Kids who do not go to daycare because their parents work from home or are staying at home with their children have different reasons that cause their boredom.
Be that as it may, children who stay at home most days are not as likely to be overstimulated as their daycare attending counterparts.
Alternately, they could be under stimulated, not to mention, these kids could be tired of doing the same old, same old.
You can absolutely break the boredom trend and liven up your daily routines! Here are some suggestions:
- As mentioned above, bring out some toys or activities that haven’t been played with in a while. After a break from them, the novelty often returns.
- Prepare a craft.
- Go outside
- Visit a children’s museum, zoo, etc.
- Do some gardening.
Children in summer school or year round school:
Kids who attend school in the summer can have the same overstimulation that kids who go to daycare experience.
In addition to the suggestions above, be sure that you limit activities with a high cognitive load, as your child has been exercising their brain at school.
Be sure to find time to still let these little ones experience the magic of summer! Here are some suggestions:
- Water play
- Bubbles
- Sidewalk chalk
- Nature walk
- Catch bugs
Why do kids need us to plan their summer boredom busters?
Many kids need a little nudge from their parents to get off the couch and stay active in the summer.
During the school year, it is easy to keep ultra busy with all of the sports and activities offered. Because of this kids can have a hard time figuring out on their own what to do with all of their free time once school is out.
As parents, we can easily get frustrated with the lack of motivation our children tend to experience in the summer, but it really isn’t our kids’ fault.
Certainly, we can’t expect people who have their schedules dictated from sun up to sun down to suddenly know how to fill their own time without guidance.
Undoubtedly, our children need us to suggest ideas and plan fun activities for them. Of course, it’s important for children to make their own fun, but they may need some guidance.
21st Century kids are used to being entertained by technology.
Children are used to instant gratification from video games, TV shows, and YouTube videos. The fun is provided for them, therefore, children don’t have to use their imaginations to come up with creative ways to stay entertained.
They have limited knowledge of what activities and materials are available to them.
If you have never used scissors to cut paper, would you know what you can do or make with them?
Similarly, if you have never planted seeds or pulled weeds in a garden, would you know how to do it on your own?
Of course not!
Sometimes we forget that simple activities are not so ordinary to our little ones. As parents, with this in mind, we need to expose our kids to these new experiences.
Kids play with the same toys and games, so they need fresh ideas
Go ahead, bring out the messy activities! Set up the easel with paper and paint. Lay out the play-doh canisters and tools. And, do I dare say it? Make… SLIME!
Take some of their old toys and really talk them up, particularly toys that haven’t been played with in months. As a matter of fact, one of my favorite summer boredom busters is to bring the novelty back into toys we already have.
You can set up discovery stations by getting random materials and tools and encouraging your child to make or do something fun with them. Without a doubt, kids will use their imaginations and make creations we didn’t even think of when they are presented with a set of materials.
The novelty of new activities is powerful!
Take toys and materials you already have and make them into new games. You can either make up the game, or have your kids come up with their own rules to a new activity.
Here are some examples of household items you can use to be summer boredom busters:
- Tongs
- Golf Balls
- Bucket
- Hoola Hoops
- Sponge
- Jump Rope
- Bouncy Balls
- Paintbrushes
- Boxes
- Spoons
- Paperclips
- Aluminum Foil
By the same token, the possibilities of household items to use for new games are endless!
How to plan for summer boredom busters
If you are anything like me, you are all for a good list! Therefore, planning ahead can eliminate stress and frustration that may arise in the moment of your child’s boredom.
Believe me, you want to be prepared with those summer boredom busters! It is so hard to think of new and exciting activities to do in the spur of the moment when your child is upset about “not having anything to do.”
I use my planner (LifePlanner from Erin Condren) for all of my planning and list-making. Not to mention, this planner has so many areas and pages to put all of these extra ideas on paper. It is so handy to have these lists right in your planner that you look at each day.
Use my Summer Boredom Busters List and come up with plenty of your own ideas, keep them readily available, and yank those puppies out when your little ones could use a suggestion of something fun to do.
Make a list of activities that don’t require pre-planning or setup.
Simple, fast, fun! This list you make of summer boredom busters should be the easiest.
These activities can be done any time, any day.
Choose toys and games that you can just pull out, or even have your kids get out to play with. Many of these ideas are what your children might choose to do even without your say-so, but remember, sometimes children need the power of suggestion.
A few no-plan activities include:
- Dolls, Barbies, action figures
- Lego or other building toys
- Coloring books
- Play kitchen
Create a list of more time intensive activities or those that require planning.
Super fun, maybe messy, and sure to build memories! Henceforth, you will make a list of summer boredom busters that require some work from you. These activities might only be done once each summer.
Place these activities into a schedule so you can plan ahead and Be prepared.
Think about when you will have the time (and energy 😉) to complete the different activities on your list. Put those activities into your planner or calendar so you remember when you arranged to do each one.
Some ideas of activities that require planning are:
- Make slime
- Build a model house or car
- Canvas handprint craft
- Make mudpies
Our favorite activities to keep those little ones having fun are below!
Those littles smiles and giggles will let you know that your planning and effort has been worth it. For this reason, enjoy these moments, capture the photos, and join in the playfulness!
The ultimate summer boredom busters list!
This list is broken down into categories of activities that can be done spur of the moment as well as, those that require preparation.
Anytime summer boredom busters:
- Dolls, Barbies, action figures
- Come up with own scenarios
- Act out favorite show or movie
- Moreover, have a jar with strips of paper with possible scenarios to play out.
- Lego or other building toys
- Free build
- Copy a design
- By the same token, show a photo of a building or structure and try to recreate it.
- Coloring books
- Play kitchen
- Kids create a menu and serve you at their “restaurant”.
- Make food for their family while playing house
- Try to make the most interesting food creation
- Stamps
- Make a scene and color in with colored pencils
- Make greeting cards
- Stamp just for the fun of it!
- Read books
- Read aloud to your children
- Equally important, have the kids read the pictures.
- On the other hand, your children can listen to audiobooks or check out Wonderbooks from the library.
- Fingerprint art
- These Fingerprint Activities books are awesome!
- Grab a stamp pad and paper and make your own fingerprint designs.
- Even more importantly, make a sweet keepsake!
- Pots and pans band
- Use pans, wooden spoons, pot lids, other kitchen utensils, etc. to make music
- Perform a concert or parade
- Then, you can record a fun video
- Sidewalk chalk
- Draw roads to drive toy cars on
- Free draw
- Instead of drawing with the chalk, use it to create the outlines for games like hopscotch and 4 square
- Bubbles
- Fubbles cup is the best no-spill bubble container
- Bubble wands are fun
- Chase bubbles from a bubble machine
- Roller skate
- Through your neighborhood
- On a bike/walking trail
- Go to a skating rink
- Teamwork move-the-ball game
- 2 kids grab each other’s elbow, face each other, and place a ball on top of their joined arms. After that, they have to walk, without dropping the ball, to a predetermined finish line.
- This is easiest with a large ball like a beach ball, on the other hand it is more difficult with a small ball like a golf ball.
- Challenge your kids to make up their own move-the-ball game
- Jump rope
- Jump with two feet, one foot, or alternating feet
- Next, try running jump rope races.
- Challenge: jump rope hopscotch!
- Paint with water outside!
- Just get some paint brushes and a cup or bucket of water (depending on the size of item they are painting) and let the kids “paint” their playhouse, fence, swingset, flower pots, etc. with water.
- Likewise, “splatter paint” each other with the water
- Use different sizes of brushes and observe the paint lines from each brush. Comparatively, which one dries first? Why?
- Stomp Rocket
- What makes the rocket fly higher or lower?
- Aim the rocket at a target.
- Engineering time! Make your own rocket to fly using the stomp rocket base.
Summer boredom busters that require planning and preparation:
- Make slime
- Try different recipes. Which one is the best?
- Additionally, you can make slime in multiple colors
- Moms: hide little treasures (sequins, beads, coins, etc.) in the slime, and then have your kids find and recover the treasure.
- Build a model house or car
- Make sure your kit is age appropriate; some of them are HARD!
- Ask your child critical thinking questions about the process and what they think each part is for
- Furthermore, find a place to display their hard work!
- Canvas handprint craft
- Handprint flower 💙
- Handprint fish 💚
- Thumbprint family tree 🧡
- Make mudpies
- Let the kids use old kitchen utensils and pie pans.
- Encourage them to add other natural items to their recipe.
- By the same token, ask them how they can make their concoctions more solid or more soupy
- Plant a fairy or gnome garden
- Go to the garden center and let your kids pick out a few flowers
- Get those hands dirty and plant those flowers
- Finally, add cute fairy or gnome trinkets
- Agility drills with hoola-hoops
- Get multiple hoops and lay them flat on the ground.
- Only one foot can be in a hoop at a time.
- Likewise, use this as part of an obstacle course
- Beach ball bowling
- Use toy bowling pins or even cylindrical water squirters for the pins.
- After that, roll a beach ball and see how many pins you can knock down.
- As a matter of fact, you can make this an academic activity by writing letters or numbers on each pin with a permanent marker. Have your child read the letters or numbers on the pins they knocked down.
- Slip ‘n slide
- Use a store bought kit or even a tarp with a sprinkler
- Although store bought slip ‘n slides have a hose attachment and sprinkles water, we’ve found it works best to have another sprinkler as well. This is only possible if you have two water spickets.
- Covering the slide area with soap helps kids slide down faster, but use caution. The soap can easily get in and burn little eyes.
- Make your own bubble solution.
- Recipe here: https://www.verywellfamily.com/homemade-bubbles-2764571
- Use your bubble solution in a bubble machine
- Then experiment by trying to make bubble with kitchen items like slotted spoons and colanders.
- Grab household items and make up a game.
- Tongs and cotton balls- use the tongs to put the cotton balls into a bucket.
- Connect paper clips to make a design.
- In addition, have your child connect paper towel and toilet paper tubes to make a ramp for marbles or small balls.
- Camp in the backyard!
- Even if you don’t sleep outside, the kids will love having a hideout for the day in their tent.
- At dusk, use flashlights and read books in the tent, because it’s a fun little twist on reading bedtime stories.
- Plus, you should certainly build a campfire and make s’mores!
- Creek stomping (see the Summer Bucket List post for more information)
- Wear water shoes, old tennis shoes, or sandals with a backstrap
- Find mud, sand, rocks, logs, etc.
- Have a mud fight, of course!
- Ball pit blowup or in a swimming pool
- Kids love hanging out in a ball pit!
- If you are using a swimming pool, you can add some water for extra fun.
- Moreover, can the kids sort the balls by color?
- Water balloons
- We use these; they are quick and easy to fill
- There are also these magnetic ones that our friends have used with success
- If the children don’t like getting hit with the water balloons, you can draw a target on the ground with sidewalk chalk. This way the kids aim for the target and not each other.
- Nature collages
- Go on a nature hike and collect natural materials (think leaves, flower petals, twigs, etc.). Then glue them on paper to make a design.
- Additionally, you can even spell your child’s name.
- Not to mention, use the items to make a picture of nature (glue them on in the design of a tree or flower).
