We are always looking for ideas for family fun activities. Sometimes when you’re on the spot, your mind just goes blank and you can’t think of anything to do. At least we can’t. So here are 100+ ways to have fun this summer!
Now, just to clarify some of these ideas are super simple and really don’t take any preplanning. There are free ideas here. There are a few that take some planning ahead or gathering of materials too, our rule is never to complicate our summer. This is a time for rest, relaxation, and fun for us and we sure don’t want to add stress to it!
150+ Ways to Have Fun This Summer
I think we’ve added something for everyone here. There are crafts, outings, activities, and so much more to choose from. Browse through the list and start deciding which ones you want to choose in your own “summer fun library”.
Most summers, we post a series here on Creative Cynchronicity called Summer Fun Fridays and this is the kickoff for it. Every Friday, you can come back here to find fun crafts and activities for your kids to keep them busy and having fun all summer long.
Disclosure: Some of the links in the post below are affiliate links provided for your convenience. This means that if you purchase something through one of these links, I get a small commission at no added cost to you.
FREEBIE ALERT: To celebrate the kickoff of Summer Fun Fridays, we have got an AMAZING free gift for you. Just sign up for our email newsletters and we’ll send out a summer activity book packed with word searches, drawing sheets, dot to dots, coloring pages, I Spy games, and much, much more. Over 50 pages of fun for your kids! Put together into a book for them or just print off the specific sheets you want to use.
Sign up for our email newsletter here: SUMMER FUN ACTIVITIES BOOK FOR KIDS
Activities 1-10
Go stargazing. – Simple Backyard Stargazing for Beginners
Have a yard sale.
Go to the library to browse for books or to attend one of their events like storytime, movie showings, puppet shows, and more. Check out your local library to see what they offer.
Play a board game.
Explore a local neighbourhood or drive to a nearby town to check it out.
Make sidewalk chalk art. You can even make your own sidewalk chalk.
Go for a bike ride.
Run through the sprinkler.
Grab a bucket of water and some paintbrushes and “paint” the fence or shed.
Play on the swings and climbing equipment at the local playground.
Activities 11-20
Go to Vacation Bible school or day camp.
Do some volunteer work.
Go hiking at a local provincial, state, or national park.
Check out your local farmer’s market.
Go bobbing for apples. After all, a hot summer day is a great time to get all wet bobbing for apples!
Spend a day at the beach – 30 Fun Things to Do at the Beach
Go on a scavenger hunt. – Beach Scavenger Hunt Bingo
Make a toilet paper tube scrapbook.
Create a toilet paper tube pinata.
Make toilet paper tube flower vase bookends.
Activities 21-30
Use water bottles to make bracelets
Recycle your old magazines and make bowls out of them
Go swimming or head to a wading pool.
Head out on a picnic – Picnic Basket Essentials
Go camping – even if only in your backyard. – Simple but Awesome Camping Tips
Check out your local flea market.
Play firefly tag – You need to play this game after dark. Each person needs a flashlight. Pair up in partners and decide ahead of time what your flashlight signal will be. This is how fireflies communicate. Try to come up with something unique so no one else will have the same signal. After dark, head outside and spread out. Now, you and your partner will use the signal you decided on. To win, you have to be the first two people to come together using ONLY the flashlight signals.
Make a family scrapbook/journal – make entries every day or so about what you’ve been doing, add things you’ve collected along the way, do some drawings, glue in some photos – whatever you’d like to do to document your summer!
Have a watermelon seed spitting contest. Or a watermelon eating contest: everyone puts their hands behind their backs and attempts to eat a slice of watermelon hands-free.
Gather a bunch of items and a bucket, water table, or backyard pool so you can do some sink or float experiments. You could even track this on a chart to further the learning activity.
Activities 31-40
Go to a movie. Or have a movie night at home. In our area, we can even order popcorn and other treats from our local theater and have it delivered by UberEats.
Teach the kids how to make paper airplanes. Decorate them and experiment with them to see which ones fly the furthest.
Make popsicle stick poppers. They are lots of fun to play with! When you drop it, it will fly apart as it hits the ground. Like I said, fun!
Use saved tin cans or paper lunch bags to create luminarias. You can pick up battery operated tealights to put inside.
Tie dye some shirts. Or aprons, socks, or anything you’d like! Summer is a great time of year to do this messy activity outside!
Create a woven mug rug. Or make an even bigger one to use as a placemat.
Sun printing is so much fun. You can buy sun printing paper, but we have often done this with cheap construction paper from the dollar store.
Go geocaching or letterboxing.
Play croquet in your backyard. Or how about ladder golf? Ring toss, horseshoes, corn hole or any other backyard games are great alternatives.
Go play a round of miniature golf.
Activities 41-50
Make your own backyard golf course. Use cardboard boxes and tin cans to create tunnels and hazards. If you don’t have a child’s golf set, a stick and small ball will work. Here are some more ideas for making your golf course.
Or how about making a Frisbee golf course for something a little bit different?
Go on a penny toss walk. Or if you live in Canada, use a nickel. Go for a walk. When you get to a landmark of some sort – a cross-street, a tree, and so on – flip a coin to see which direction to go next. Heads is right, tails is left. Be sure you keep track of where you’re going so you can find your way back home. Don’t rely on your phone GPS to get you back as you might lose signal!
Play board games. You can even make your own board game. Use a file folder or a cereal box as the board and draw on your design. Make something up or base it on your life, a family vacation you took, or some other fun event.
Go fishing. Grab your fishing gear and head out to a local lake. Canada and the US both offer some free fishing days where you can go out and fish without a license to give you a chance to try it. You can find the free fishing days for your US state here and in Ontario, Canada here. If you live in a different Canadian province, Google free fishing and the name of your province to find out if they offer the same.
Play Mancala. You can create a game board on the beach but scooping out 12 shallow holes. Or you can make it with an egg carton or 2 6-section muffin tins placed end to end. Use dried beans, small sea shells, pebbles, beads or other small items as counters.
Make a gingerbread beach cottage. Or campsite. Sure, it’s summer but who says you can’t make a summer-themed gingerbread house?
Have a backyard campfire if you’re allowed to in your city. Tell stories (ghost stories if your family likes those but any stories will do. Tell family stories. Start a progressive story where one person starts and then passes it to the next person to add to it.
Blow bubbles! Make your own crazy bubble wants from fly swatters, a bundle of straws rubber banded together, and so on. It’s fun to experiment and see what happens.
Make some colorful whirligigs to decorate your backyard.. Get the instructions here.
Activities 51-60
Have fun playing music in your musical spray band. Attach some noise making items to a fence, tree, hedge, or other suitable surface (tie them on!). Metal pie pans, colanders, inflated beach balls, empty pop cans, and so on will all work. Now, turn on the hose and create music by spraying the different objects.
Make ice cream in a bag. Each person can make their own portion and flavor it with their own choices of syrups and toppings. Here’s how to make ice cream in a bag (you can also make it in tin cans – a smaller one inside of a large coffee can).
Go to a lavender farm. Or sunflower farm. Or whatever you have in your area. We even have an emu farm that allows visitors. It can be so much fun!
Watch the Perseids meteor shower. You might be able to see anytime from about mid-July to late August, but it peaks around August 11-12 this year.
Attend a Renaissance fair.
Find a unique tour in your local area to go on. In my area we have a Tree Trunk Tour where tree trunks have been carved into amazing pieces of art. We also have have a barn quilt tour which I have always wanted to take.
Make banana boats or cast iron skillet coffee cake over a grill or campfire.
Go to the park to feed the ducks and the geese. Don’t feed them bread though. It can harm them. Some good options include: grapes cut in half, thawed (from frozen) peas or corn, or duck food pellets from a farm supply store.
Go bowling. Or set up tin can bowling in the backyard.
Have a water balloon fight. Or you can use sponge balls instead.
Activities 61-70
Put together a time capsule and bury it in your backyard.
Watch old beach movies like those with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello.
Attend a play. Some cities offer “Shakespeare in the Park” or similar outdoor plays.
Make sand castles. You can obviously do this at the beach or in your own backyard sandbox. If you don’t have one, even something as simple as a plastic bin, dish pan, or underbed storage bin filled with sand will work.
Look for free local workshops. Michaels and Home Depot often offer these for both children and adults.
Create a backyard movie theater!
Teach your kids how to play hopscotch.
Use outdoor furniture to create a fort in your backyard (or if it’s a rainy day, make one inside)
Have a pillow fight.
Make and eat homemade popsicles.
Activities 71-80
Learn how to do cartwheels. Or hula hoop.
Make birdfeeders for your yard.
Play with soothing play dough specifically made for water use in the bathtub or wading pool.
After a rainy day (or create your own rain with the hose), make mud pies.
Search for fireflies after dark.
Plant a garden. Or just a small container garden.
Go roller skating.
Set up a lemonade stand.
Lie in a hammock and read a book.
Activities 81-90
Wash the car together.
Go bird watching.
Make a fairy house. Or even a whole fairy garden.
Go to a “pick your own” farm.
Try out some fun new hairstyles.
Buy some Origami paper or cut some paper from around the house (even magazine pages) into squares and try out some Origami patterns.
Find an old-fashioned diner and eat a meal at the counter.
Drive around one Saturday morning looking for garage sales. Give the kids a budget and let them purchase a few small items.
Go to a car race or demolition derby.
Attend a county or state fair or carnival.
Activities 91-100
Go to a minor league or even little league baseball game.
Put together a large jigsaw puzzle.
Collect some rocks. Paint them and then put them out around the neighborhood for others to find.
Make or buy a kite and go fly a kite!
Using stuff you find around the house, maybe in your recycling bin, make musical instruments and put together a family band.
Make some homemade play dough and sculpt some fun figures out of it. If you want something more permanent, use air dry clay.
Buy some beads from the dollar store and string some bracelets and necklaces. Challenge the kids to create a pattern with their beads.
Make a tissue paper suncatcher.
Make or buy a water blob or slip ‘n’ slide.
Activities 101-110
Put together an obstacle course in your backyard.
Go roller skating or roller blading.
Show your kids how to skip stones.
Paint on an inflatable easel.
Go boating or canoeing.
Jump in a puddle. As Peppa Pig says, everyone likes jumping in muddy puddles.
Start composting. It can be really fun to do vermicomposting which is composting done with the help of earthworms. You can find out how to set up a worm composter here.
Do yoga together.
Look for shapes in the clouds.
Activities 111-120
Play catch. Try it with different types of balls like a tennis ball, beach ball, and so on. For more variety, use a Frisbee instead of a ball.
Make crayon rubbings. Try using fallen leaves, textured bricks and pavement, seashells, and other items you find around the house, yard, or beach.
Make a fun frog out of a toilet paper roll.
Go on a color hunt. Gather a box of crayons or a stack of paint chips or something else with a variety of colors and then go on a walk looking for items to match each color.
Play hide and seek.
Create your own catapult. How far can you launch things?
Go to a local museum. Or find some of your favorite items and set up your own museum display. Visit each other’s displays.
Make a crayon resist painting. Color with crayons (white crayons are especially fun) and then paint over with watercolor paints.
Experiment with different ingredients and make smoothies.
Make slime and play with it.
Activities 121-130
Play I Spy.
Make some adorable bird buddies out of clothespins.
Have a tea party. Or go to a local tea shop for high tea.
Near the end of July is National Moth Week so it’s the perfect time to hunt for moths in your backyard. If you’re looking for an evening activity, this post shows you how to attract moths with a sheet and some lights. You could take photos of the moths your find or make sketches of them.
Make a shoebox garage for your toy cars.
Learn how to juggle.
Make your own fire breathing dragon!
Celebrate Canada Day or the 4th of July – One fun activity we like to do that doesn’t take much time is to stomp or dance on bubble wrap! It’s a great way to make that popping sound without setting off any fireworks. SO much safer for kids – just be sure to use it with supervision as the plastic would obviously be a choking hazard.
National Avocado Day is July 31st. Plant an avocado pit and start your own avocado plants at home.
Play some old-fashioned games like Hot Potato, Freeze Tag, or Simon Says.
Activities 131-140
Make some seed bombs and have fun planting them! Or give them as gifts.
Play life-sized Operation. You’ll need some small items and a pair of tongs. Lie down on the floor and arrange the items on your legs and stomach. Let the kids try to remove them with the tongs or tweezers without touching you. It’s a great way to develop motor development!
Make milk carton boats and float them in a kiddie pool.
June 21st is #NationalSelfieDay so why not get in on the action? You could even use an app that allows the kids to pick some fun filters and accessories to add to the photos. I bet you all look fabulous with bunny ears and noses!
Jump rope together. Double Dutch anyone?
Create some squirt gun water paintings.
Fill a bin with craft supplies from the dollar store – things like pompoms, pipe cleaners, beads, and whatever else you would like to get. Pull it out and let the kids go wild making crafts. Or as my grandson likes, they can make some “inventions”.
Create some butterfly snack bags and enjoy your snack in the backyard while looking for real butterflies.
Make your own pirate map and go treasure hunting.
Activities 141-150
Make sun tea. Use a 2-quart container (I always have the best luck with glass containers) and fill with water. Add 4 tea bags. Place outside in the sun for about 3 hours.
Play with a rainbow spaghetti sensory bin.
Climb a tree.
Or turn a pool noodle into a racetrack.
Play parachute. You can buy one or just use a bed sheet.
Get up early and watch the sun rise.
Write letters to friends and family who live far away. Or to nursing home residents who might need a lift in their day.
Play summer reading bingo or summer fun bingo.
Celebrate a lesser known summer holiday like National Hot Dog Day on July 21st, National Watermelon Day on August 3, or National Marshmallow Toasting Day on August 30th. Or make up your own unique holiday to celebrate every year as a family.
We hope you have a fantastic summer!
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