Putting an End to the Summer Doldrums

We hear all about how the kids can’t wait to get out of school and start having fun during the summer, but lots of parents can’t find enough activities to keep them busy and don’t want them watching tv or playing video games all summer.

That’s why we decided to put together these fun summer activity ideas to keep your kids happy and you sane for the remainder of the summer.

Are Your Kids Artistic?

There are several different creative projects you can do with your kids or that they can work on independently.

Here are a couple of fun summer ideas for your family:

Reading and writing – some kids actually enjoy reading and writing, and what better time to encourage them to improve their skills than summer?

  1. Create a book club – Have your kids and about five of their friends each pick a different book that they’ve never read before and get together for a slumber party at the end of the week to talk about each book. They’ll have a blast reading something new and maybe planning their slumber parties around the theme of the story.
  2. Start a blog – Create a blog for your kids to share with their friends and family members about what they’re doing during summer vacation. This is a lot like an electronic journal and can be fun because they’re sharing it.
  3. Write a comic strip – Everyone can get involved, and it can include funny stories about the family pet, the time grandpa dropped his ice cream, or the family movie night when no one could decide on a movie. This is a fun and creative way for the kids to use their imaginations.

Arts and crafts – we all have at least one person in our families who is good with a hammer, glitter glue, or sidewalk chalk, and the list of activities they can do is endless.

  1. Games – These can be a lot more fun than they sound, especially if you create your own! Cut out about twenty 2-inch squares and have your kids draw fun shapes or pictures on ten of the squares. Then, have them draw a picture or shape to match the original pictures. Place them facedown, mix them up, and then have the kids turn one over two at a time until they get a matching set.
  2. Create art projects – One fun project is creating a puppet theater. To make the backdrop, find a large cardboard box and cut out a square for the performance area. You can have the kids color the box with a themed background (such as a snowy hillside like in the movie Frozen, or an ocean with dolphins jumping around a boat and some seagulls flying overhead). Have the kids perform a puppet show for the family at the end of each day. The shows don’t have to be longer than a few minutes, but the planning and the creativity will keep them busy for hours if not days!
  3. Forts – The sky’s the limit here, and it can be an indoor or outdoor fort. A fort can be as elaborate as a full-blown tree house that gets the parents to participate, or just a few sheets in the corner of a room using a table and a few chairs. Kids love forts and can go on all sorts of adventures using their imaginations.

For the More Adventurous Spirit

Some kids just can’t sit still long enough to tie their shoes, let alone create an entire puppet theater. What they really need is to get outside this summer to burn off some of that excess energy!

Here are a few links that have something for the kids to do every day:

  1. Win Kids – this was created by a man named Coach Mike, intending to have a location for children of all ages to go and learn different sports, music, and other activities that keep busybodies busy.
  2. Indoor Safari Park – a wonderful location (with one of our favorite themes) where kids attend summer camps, science workshops, field trips, birthday parties, or just go hang out for the day having fun with other kids.
  3. LEGOLAND® Discovery Center – complete with 4D cinema, LEGO rides, MINILAND®, and so much more, everyone will stay busy for hours.
  4. Sea Life Aquarium – an amazing undersea adventure with a 360-degree underwater ocean tunnel, thirty different displays, and more than five thousand sea creatures, you’re sure to discover something new here.

A Healthy Mouth Is a Happy Mouth!

~Dr. Duffy

 

No comments yet.

Leave a Reply

Our office was hit hard by water damage from a burst pipe. We're working hard on getting our services back online ASAP. We'll be contacting families next week to schedule appointments.
This is default text for notification bar