10 Fun Summer Activities for Kids

With the kids home from school, the days can get pretty hectic and LOUD! I have been trying to find ways to make their summer fun and memorable, without breaking the bank. Here are 10 fun summer activities for families.

1. Water balloon fights! Who doesn’t love getting whacked off the back with a water balloon? Well, me for one…but the kids seem to enjoy it!
2. Building elaborate forts in their bedrooms. It keeps them occupied for hours, and then cleaning up keeps them occupied even longer, especially when you calculate  in time for whining and complaining about it.
3. Research! While this may not entertain all kids, it keeps my son very busy! His head is so full of useless facts that we should have named his Cliff Claven. He loves to share the information with us once he learns it. Did you know that the fourth funnel on the Titanic was a fake in order to make it look more Royal? True story. He’s got about 1000 more Titanic facts. If you would like to know them, I can hook you up.
4. Swimming at Grandpa’s house! Okay, this may not be something everyone can do, but it’s been working out great for us.
5. Singing and dancing! We rock some Justin Bieber in this house. I have a bunch of cute dancing three year old videos but none are uploaded to YouTube yet. I promise to share them later!
6. Rock Band! Not the video game. I send the kids upstairs (this is very important because you don’t want this game happening right in front of you) where they can bang the drums, shake the maracas, rock out the kids piano, play the recorder and blow the harmonica. The guitar has no strings right now, so that’s the best we can do. They love it. I put in some ear plugs.
7. Freezies! This isn’t an activity, but it’s a big part of all of our days. We have already gone through two huge boxes of freezies, but I don’t mind. Buy the sugar free variety, and it’s a great snack to cool off some hot kids and a cheap treat to share with all of the neighbourhood kids.
8. The splash pad! If your community has a free splash pad, I highly recommend taking advantage of it. My kids love the splash pad and it cools everyone off…and people don’t usually mind when a hot (as in temperature) mom goes wandering through the sprayers…
9. And the last two are things we haven’t done yet this year, but they are on my list…. The Drive In! I love movies, and my kids do too. The Drive In is such a fun and affordable way to take all of the kids to the movies. And if there’s a good movie playing after the family feature, the kids can go to sleep and the grown ups can enjoy the second feature!
10. Camping! It’s cheap, it’s fun and it’s away from the television and computer. I’ve had some of my best mommy moments while camping, and I’m looking forward to going again this year.

What fun summer activities does your family participate in?