Make smoothies after they’ve been playing outside! Here’s my dreamsickle smoothie recipe!
Play with water toys outside… even if that means a kid ends up camping out in a bucket of water! Lol… The dollar Tree store is a great place to get cheap water toys!
Make homemade pizzas! These I found at the Dollar Tree for a buck. Way cheaper than grocery stores, and the ingredients are actually healthier than many I’ve seen!
Teach them how to garden, or simply how to water yours! (or how to weed… 🙂 )
Play outside on the playground!
Have your older ones teach your younger ones a new skill!
Make homemade popcorn! If you don’t have an air popper, you can do so by putting 1/4 cup popcorn seeds in a paper bag, fold the top down, and microwave for 2-3 minutes, or until there is 1 to 2 seconds between pops. Flavor with melted butter, sugar and salt for kettle corn.
Watch a movie and eat your popcorn together! Make it a snuggle-fest!
Arrange with friends or family to be pen-pals! Have fun writing/sending packages and letters, and send books to your friends! Its a fun treat for the summer!
Ride bikes together!! (No the little one isn’t mine. 🙂 )
Go eat lunch with a sibling who is still in school for the year, or at some new location where you don’t normally eat. Go eat lunch with Daddy at work if you can!
Make edible fishing poles!
Go take pictures in silly places!!
Take them to church! Or, summer VBS programs are quite popular during July and August typically. See if your local church is doing one, and participate! The kids love it!
Make elegant treats to enjoy and to share with someone else!! CHocolate dipped strawberries are actually very easy to make, and here’s a tip: if you melt some Andes mints in with it, or drop a couple drops of peppermint oil in the chocolate, it takes them up a whole new measure!!
Enjoy a special treat you don’t get very often! Here, we were doing our donut for breakfast tradition when we have a birthday. But, you don’t need a birthday to celebrate with a donut! Find a holiday and make a fuss about it! Even, find what random holidays are happening that week, and cater your week to celebrate new things, and digging in to the history behind them and learn new stuff with fun random holidays!!
Have a pizza party! Invite some friends and make it a play date! In this case, we had fifty of our college kids over after a baptism. 🙂
After a graduation or special accomplishment, treat them to Dairy Queen. (also something we don’t often do. I’m seeing a trend of fun around food here, though… let’s switch it up.)
EXERCISE!! (work off all that food we just ate! Lol…) My boys love to ride bikes for exercise, go on walks, or play in the back yard. Anything works, just get moving! Dance party anyone??
Plant some salad! This is both my salad containers (there’s two stacked- only $1 at the Dollar Tree!) and salad seeds. Salad grows soooooo easily, and grows back so fast, I’m hoping to have a regular supply in my yard. The others are flowers I’m going to plant to hang in the front yard. But, have the kids help, and teach them a little about gardening on the way!
Go grocery shopping! 🙂 You heard me, take them to the store with you, but make it fun (like HEB is so good at helping with by providing racecar carts) and teach them about how to choose between brands based on quality, size, price, etc. Their wives (or husbands) will thank you. 🙂
Go to the GYM! If you have a gym membership, this is a great way to kill two birds with one stone! If you don’t, see if a local gym has childcare (mine has a great one!) and most gyms offer a week free… Enroll for a free week and enjoy a week of fun at no extra cost! (The above picture are the cool chairs in the gym lobby, and my son insists EVERY TIME on having me take pictures of him in every chair in the lobby. LOL!)
Play with Chalk! Have them write special messages for someone they love, or for each other!
Go see Grandma and Grandpa and give them some loooove!! 🙂
Play dress up!!
Do a photo shoot with the kids! They love this, especially if they know you’re making their photos fancy. AND, if you get some good ones, you can blow up the photos and turn them into wall art. This one is a particular favorite of mine, that I plan to do for the boy’s room when I redo it.
Remember our birthday donut tradition? This was a birthday celebration for SHiloh. Celebrate a birthday, or an UNbirthday!
Have them help you do dishes! 🙂
Take them somewhere they’ve never been. (perhaps its a theme for us, having foodie stuff, because I have all boys. Boys and food always make for a good time. 😉 )
Go play with your cousins… or your friends, in their pool. POOL TIME!!!
Play some board games. Connect Four is a great one for even little guys…
Teach them some household chores! Judah is learning to iron… well, actually, he already knew and was doing it when I turned around here, but hey, all that to make the point, they can totally learn this pretty young and can help you with chores earlier than we might think!
Take them to the local park! Makes for great fun! But do it when its maybe not so hot, like early morning or evening.
Dress up time!!
The bathtub can be a wonderful place for fun! Throw in some new water toys or bathtub toys or even kitchen utensils, and let them have fun!!
Take them to a local theme park. This one is “Gator Country” that is a trademark stop off for tourists visiting south east texas. They learned about all sorts of alligators and reptiles, and it made a good memory. 🙂
Do crafts!! Or rather, in this case, WEAR your crafts you made at church! LOL…
Play with the wagon… however your imagination permits!
Take a NAP!! Yesss…. Mommy’s favorite. 🙂
Cut their hair yourself! This was Shiloh’s first haircut. It was a wiggle fest but still turned out pretty good. 🙂
Let them garden with you, as stated before. Sorry, pictures got out of order here. But as you can see, they enjoy it. 🙂
Give them a good foot massage! This is a fuzzy chart, here‘s where I found it.
For MORE ideas to do with the kids, check out these two other posts that you will love. 🙂 Enjoy your summer, and enjoy your children!! Memories are such a sweet blessing we can give to our children!!
133 ideas for summer fun with the kiddos!
Summer schedule to keep it fun for them, and under-control for you!
Jenilee Samuel 
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