Summer Fun Ideas

It's almost August! Ahhh! Where has the summer gone???

I know that it is a little bit late for this tip, but I thought that I would share anyway. If nothing else, you could file it away for next summer. :)

In June, I made a "Summer Fun Ideas" jar. I had bookmarked TONS of boredom busters that I found online and cut out lots of activities from Family Fun magazine. I complied them all into a list and printed them off. Then I cut them out and folded them up. I put them into a jar that I bought at Walmart and decorated with scrapbook paper.

Clayton has LOVES his summer fun jar. Whenever there is a lull in the day, he brings in to me and asks if we can do an activity. It has been a lifesaver (er, uh... sanity saver!). He said the other day, "I can't wait to see what is in my "Fall Fun" jar. Ha ha! Silly boy...

Our Jar

Here are the activities in our jar:

• Read A Book
• Do 25 Jumping Jacks
• Make Cookies with Mom
• Play with Sidewalk Chalk
• Make Popcorn and Watch a Movie
• Make a Rock Creature with Paint and Glue
• Blow “The Unpoppable Bubble” (Family Fun Magazine)
  
• Make a Craft with Mom
• Draw a Picture
• Write a Letter to a Grandparent
• Run through the Sprinklers
• Play Hide & Seek
• Play a Board Game
• Color in a Coloring Book
• Look at an Old Family Album
• Decorate an Old T-shirt
• Make a Sock Puppet
• Interview a Family Member
• Make a list of your favorite things
• Play a Wii Game
• Eat a popsicle
• Do a kind deed
• Play Hopscotch
• Play Frisbee
• Find 5 facts about the President
• Learn a Magic Trick
• Build a “Mighty Fortress” Psalm 18:2 (Mustard Seeds Blog)
  
• Practice Writing Letters in Sugar on a Cookie Sheet
• Make a Finger Painting
• Mark everywhere that you have visited on a US Map
• Potato Stamping
• String Together a Noodle or Cereal Necklace
• Fingerpaint using Shaving Cream on the Picnic Table
• Make Playdough
• Make Gak
• Make a Collage from Magazine Pictures of Words you can Read
• Take a Bubble Bath in Mommy’s Tub
• Make Your Own Bath Paints (The Idea Room)
• Make Scratch Art (Color a picture with crayons, paint over it with black acrylic, after it dries, etch a picture)
• 
• Make a Corn Syrup Painting
• Make “Marbled Paper” – Shaving Cream & Food Coloring (Family Fun Magazine)

• Standing in the Exact Same Place on the Driveway, Trace your Shadow every Hour
• Make Your Own Phone Book with Notecards and Digital Pictures of Family & Friends
• Make Homemade Ice Cream (Ziploc Bag Method)
• Make A Shape Lunch (Everything is a Circle, Triangle, Square, Cylinder, Cube, etc.)
• Make Sidewalk Chalk (The Idea Room)
  
• Go to the Library and Check out a Book
• Make a “Foamerator” – Family Fun Magazine
• Make a Paper Mache Mask
• Make a Spring Snow Globe (Colored Water, Baby Oil, Sand, Shells in a Recycled Bottle) Family Fun Magazine Thanks, Leigh Ann for that idea!
  
• Make a Marshmallow Gun (The Idea Room)
  
• Make a “Foam Flyer” (Family Fun Magazine)
• Make a Boomerang (Family Fun Magazine)
• Make Sidewalk Paint (Family Fun Magazine)
• Go on a Bug Hunt and dress up in safari gear
• See how far you can throw and/or kick a ball and measure
• Look through your scrapbooks.
• Finger Paint with Pudding
• Put paint drops on paper plates and blow with straws
• Make secret messages with white crayons, then use watercolors to decode it.
• Make paper airplanes and fly them from the top of the banister
• Write a story then illustrate it.
• Make rainbow pudding pops. (Secrets of a Super Mommy)
  
• Make homemade slushies/slurpees. (The Idea Room)
  
• Make homemade puffy paint.
• Make Solar S'mores (Family Fun)
  

• Go on a nature walk and make a nature bracelet (Place a strip of masking tape (sticky side out) around their wrist, so they can stick flowers or leaves to it.) - From Angie's blog
  

I tried to limit the activities to things that we could do at home (in case Drew was napping) and with ingredients that I keep on hand.

I hope that helps beat the end of summer boredom blues. As Leah says, "Us Mamas gotta stick together!" :)