One summer when I was 8 years old, my friend Betsy and I organized an outdoor theater performance in our backyard. (Just one example of simple ways to have fun at home this summer.)
Our play was called The Lemonade Stand. We practiced in the shade of a tree for weeks leading up to the big performance complete with lawn chairs set up for the audience. And ice-cold glasses of lemonade, of course.
Another summer, my Dad got a group of families got together to build a playhouse out of plywood. We built it, painted it, and even added curtains to the cut-out windows. Each year, that playhouse moved to a different neighbor’s backyard for continued fun.
Do you recall special summer moments from your childhood?
When time seems to stand still and you’re lost in the moment, filled with an expansive sense of freedom and simple joy?
These are what Kim John Payne, author of Simplicity Parenting, calls “Golden Moments” ~ when we feel sweet connections with each other and ourselves.
My team and I have put together a list of 108 old-fashioned and simple activities to do with children of all ages ~ right at home. So you can create some golden moments of your own.
This does not have to be a boring summer! It can be fun and wholesome.
Peruse through this list of indoor, yard, and neighborhood activities… Choose some to take into your summer for simple ways to have fun at home.
And, if you create a rhythm for your summer days, it will support your children to know what to expect while supporting you to pace yourself and schedule in your own needs, too. Rhythm always soothes the chaos!
Here we go, let’s take a look at:
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Simple Ways to Have Fun at Home This Summer
Fun Indoors
- Make up a dance to a song
- Create plays or little dramatic scenes
- Make music
- Read great books
- Make a tin can telephone
- Make a blanket fort
- Play Simon Says
- Play red light green light
- Play musical chairs
- Make a cardboard box fort
- Check out some wholesome media choices (movies, shows, stories, and podcasts)
- Create homemade marble runs with tubes and tape on a wall
- Do a word search or puzzle
- Play board games and have a family game night
- Paint with watercolors or draw pictures
- Make woven potholders with a little loom
- Weave friendship bracelets
- Create a fundraiser, volunteer, or donate food
- Take bubble baths
- Mix up some watermelon-lime-mint slushies (so refreshing!)
- Make homemade ice cream
- Make rainbow popsicles
- Play jacks
- Paint pet rocks and glue on googly eyes
- Make homemade paper
- Join the summer reading program at your local library
- Join this online reading program: Traveling Through the Pages Summer Reading Adventure
- Make frozen dinosaur or frog eggs
- Make honey popcorn for Friday Family Movie Night
- Join an online art class (this one is so sweet!)
- Join an online music program (love these for flute and piano)
- Put on a shadow puppet show
- Make sun prints with special paper from a Sunprint Kit
- Make a bird mobile
- Listen to Sparkle Stories (here’s one called Animal Day Camp)
- Make this rhubarb dream treat with fresh strawberries on top
- Dye yarn or silk with onion skins
- Learn to juggle with this video
- Draw mandalas
- Make sock puppets
In the Yard
- Set up a tent and sleep out in the backyard
- Play kick the can
- Cook dinner over a campfire (and roast marshmallows!)
- Set up an obstacle course or relay race
- Build a simple treehouse
- Braid weeds
- Make a dandelion crown
- Make a wreath out of vines
- Make mud pies
- Catch bugs
- Create a caterpillar habitat
- Grow food in your yard or in containers on your patio
- Play frisbee
- Play in the sprinkler or kiddie pool
- Fill up a sandbox
- Hang up some hammocks and nap in the shade
- Play hide and seek
- Make a slip-and-slide
- Make stilts
- Dig holes in the dirt
- Have a water balloon fight
- Play hopscotch
- Learn to hula hoop
- Have a picnic
- Sign up for Camp Tinkergarten (8 weeks of free fun activities!)
- Play tag
- Make a rope or tire swing
- Add water to the sandbox to create drip castles, ponds, or construction sites
- Water the plants outside
- Collect rainwater into buckets from the roof
- Wash the car, bikes, or scooters with soap, sponges, and the hose
- Create an earth oven to bake bread and pizzas in
- Plant a sunflower house
- Freeze blocks of ice and chisel them outdoors
- Create potions with baking soda, vinegar, and food coloring
- Blow giant bubbles
- Make ice boats
- Make bottle rockets
- Make herbal salve with herbs from your yard
- Trace each other with sidewalk chalk on the driveway or pavement and decorate
- Make a worm jar
- Press flowers and leaves, laminate, and cut into bookmarks
- Eat breakfast outside
- Build a birdhouse out of scrap wood
- Build a bug hotel
- Have a movie night in your backyard
- Build a teepee out of bamboo sticks
- Make an outdoor book nook for cozy reading
- Host a garden party
- Set up a mud kitchen in your backyard
- Do some Earth Learning projects
- Play tug of war
- Get a big refrigerator box to play with
Around the Neighborhood
- Have a yard sale
- Make a lemonade stand
- Have a bake sale
- Go for an early morning or nighttime walk
- Go for a scavenger hunt
- Ride bikes, scooters, or roller skates
- Climb trees
- Pick fruit or flowers
- Hunt for rocks
- Make and fly a kite
- Visit neighbors (bring gifts!)
- Roll or cardboard-slide down a hill
- Play hopscotch with chalk on the driveway or sidewalk
- Pick up garbage with a trash picker and a bucket
- Play in the rain!
Ah. So there you have it! Simple ways to have fun at home this summer.
Are you beginning to imagine some fun nourishing times?
I sure hope so. Your family deserves it!
☀️
If you’d like a homeschooling reset + guidance planning out a joyful summer, join me for the 4-Day Summer Reset 2024 here.
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