The Ultimate Guide to Fun Summer Ideas with Kids

(This post contains affiliate links. This means that if you purchase through these links I receive a small commission at no cost to you. For more information see our disclosure policy here)

Are you ready for some fun summer ideas with kids? Summer is a time for fun, relaxation, and making memories with our kids, and also a little crazy sometimes too! However, it can also be a challenging time for moms who need to balance their kids’ energy and free time with maintaining a structured and peaceful home environment. Here are some tips to help you create an enjoyable summer for both you and your kids, filled with a mix of fun activities, productive chores, quiet time, and effective incentives.

Plan Exciting Activities

First, Planning exciting activities for kids can help alleviate the long summer days! This year our fun activities will probably happen first thing in the morning. With a napping baby, I want to be home for the afternoon. We’re planning to have some quiet time in the afternoons, while he naps! So we’re hoping to have some fun in the morning and be home for nap time!

I love exploring our city during the summer! Try googling things to do in your city. I’m always amazed at how long I have lived in Utah and how many things I haven’t done. Whether you’re looking for free, or inexpensive things, I’m always surprised at everything available! Below are some fun summer ideas for exciting activities outside of home and inside of home.

Outdoor Adventures:

Nature Walks and Hikes: Explore local parks and nature reserves. Teach your kids about different plants and animals. We love spending time in the mountains, there are lots of kid friendly hikes around us. It’s always good to get some fresh air and some exercise! Or check out this Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt if you’re wanting to just walk around the neighborhood.
Beach Days: Spend a day building sandcastles, playing beach volleyball, or having a picnic by the sea. We spend one week a summer by the beach and it’s always fun to get by the water and in the sun!
Bike Rides: Discover new trails or just ride around your neighborhood.

Creative Projects:

DIY Crafts: Set up a craft station with supplies like paper, glue, markers, and recycled materials. Pinterest is a great source for craft ideas! We have a desk that has all our craft supplies accessible to the kids (at least the ones they are allowed to use!) As a result they know that I’ll let the mess stay out longer there if they’re working on a multiple day project!
Gardening: Start a small garden. Kids can plant seeds, water plants, and watch them grow. We love our fairy and rock gardens!
Cooking Together: Let your kids help in the kitchen. Simple recipes like homemade pizzas or baking cookies can be a fun and educational activity. My kids all love being in the kitchen, we spend a lot of time baking goodies that was share with friends and neighbors.

Learning and Exploring:

Library Visits: Encourage a love for reading by visiting the library regularly. Participate in summer reading programs, there are tons of summer reading programs from libraries, to businesses!
Science Experiments: Conduct simple at-home experiments like making slime or baking soda volcanoes, just be prepared for a mess, but I’m sure this will top every kids fun summer ideas list!
Museums and Zoos: Plan trips to local museums, zoos, or aquariums. Our city has a pass you can buy that allows you to visit multiple places. Check to see if your city has a discounted pass if you’re wanting to try out lots of museums.

Incorporate Productive Chores

Nothing says it’s summer faster than the messy house, sink full of dishes, and endless wrappers! If I don’t keep on the chore train, summer gets out of my hands SOO fast! A messy house is definitely not one of my fun summer ideas! One of the best things we do it start the day with our chores. Whatever way works for your family, I love to get the chore done fast and then head out to a fun activity.

The best part is, if my kids are helping to maintain our home everyday, it only takes a few minutes of everyone’s time to get it looking nice again! We have a few different things we’ve used around here, chore charts, incentive charts, and I feel like we have to shift gears when things stop working! Don’t get discouraged if after a few weeks of something working great it stops working! Because it will happen! Then just shift your direction and change things up a little! You’ll thank yourself for starting good chore habits with your kids this summer! Everyone is happier in a clean house, include you!

Daily Responsibilities:

Chore Charts: Create a chore chart to give kids a sense of responsibility. Tasks can include making their bed, tidying up their room, and feeding pets. I have a free chore chart in the freebie zone for subscribers, if you haven’t signed up yet, you can here.
Gardening Tasks: Watering plants, weeding, and harvesting vegetables can be enjoyable and rewarding chores. In addition to helping with the yard, my kids each have a large pot in the backyard that they get to take care of. My girls have fairy gardens, and my son keeps it low maintenance with a rock garden.
Recycling Projects: Teach kids about recycling by having them sort recyclables or create new items from recycled materials.
Set Realistic Expectations: Kids do best when they know what is expected of them and what priveleges they get for following through. Be sure they’re aware of those expectations before summer begins. You can use these Summer Printables to help you keep your days organized and your expectations voiced!

Fun and Engaging:

Cleaning Games: Turn cleaning into a game. See who can pick up the most toys in five minutes or who can dust the most surfaces. Our latest game has been having my kids take their age and that’s how many small tasks they need to do that day. They get to choose what they do, and it’s been awesome for them to look around and see what needs to be done, and do it! You can read more about some of our chore ideas here.
Cleaning Playlists: We love playing music through the house as we clean. We have a few cleaning playlists. One is our Saturday Playlist, it’s hours long and has lots of fun upbeat kids songs. It keeps everyone listening while they work on Saturday chores. Then we have a few shorter ones that we play when we need a quick pickup, 3-4 songs usually, and everyone gets to help until they’re over! Either way works great for engaging our kids as they clean!

Encourage Quiet Time

When my kids are in school, I spend a lot of the day working! So summer can be extremely hard to keep a business running. We have built in quiet time each day, sometimes thats reading, sometimes its watching a movie. Either way, it gives me the time I need to keep my business running, work on self-care, or take a much needed summer nap.

The kids need the quiet time too, it helps them when they have downtime! Rather than constantly being on the go, they look forward to the time they have on their own to settle down and chill. At first glance it’s not their on the top of their list of fun summer ideas, but they end up loving it! Then everyone gets a little break from each other every day too.

Reading Nooks:

Set Up Cozy Spaces: Create comfortable reading nooks with pillows and blankets. Encourage quiet reading time daily. We’ve worked really hard to get our kids up to reading level, so reading isn’t optional for us! We make sure to take plenty of trips to the library and have lots of spaces and books for reading! There are free bookmarks in the freebie zone. I also have some cute reading charts for summer here.
Book Clubs: Start a family book club where everyone reads the same book and discusses it together. Or listen to audiobooks while you’re driving to your activities!

Mindfulness Activities:

Yoga and Meditation: Introduce kids to yoga and meditation to help them relax and focus. For example I was amazed at how much yoga my 6- year old had learned at school. She led a whole 10 minute routine with me the other day. She even knew how to deep breath, it was so fun to do yoga with her. There are tons of cute Youtube yoga videos for kids.
Drawing and Coloring: Provide coloring books and drawing materials for quiet creative time. Whether they’re drawing on their own or coloring in a fun book, this is great downtime for any age.

Independent Play:

Puzzles and Board Games: Encourage independent play with puzzles and board games that stimulate the mind. We have a table downstairs that we have left a puzzle on for weeks. This gives my kids the opportunity to sit down when they have some free time without feeling like its a big ordeal. If you have the space, designate a game or puzzle area of your home for the summer.
Quiet Toys: Invest in quiet toys like building blocks, dolls, or action figures for solo play. When our toys are all put away I feel like the kids don’t play with them as often. Sometimes just having them out and accessible invites play. So while I love a clean home, sometimes I let some toys stay out for a few days to encourage play.

Use Incentives Effectively

Who doesn’t love a good incentive? Kids are no different. They LOVE when they get rewarded for their good behaviors.

In my experience positive reinforcement actually works far better than negative reinforcement. This week after dinner we have told our kids that as soon as dinner is cleaned up we will play a game. They have been incredibly helpful knowing the reward is playing a family game. This one has been our favorite lately. Try out positive rewards and incentives as one of your fun summer ideas!

Reward Systems:

Sticker Charts: Create a sticker chart to track completed chores and good behavior. Then offer rewards for filling the chart. These work well for younger children! I have a free incentive chart available in my freebie zone for newsletter subscribers!
Treasure Box: Have a treasure box with small toys, books, or treats. Let kids pick a reward after earning a certain number of points. We’ve also done this as a store where they earn “money” and get to spend it at the family store at the end of each week.

Special Privileges:

Movie Nights: Reward good behavior with a special movie night, complete with popcorn and snacks.
Outings: Plan special outings like a trip to the amusement park or a favorite restaurant as a reward for reaching larger goals.
Special time with Mom and Dad: I love when we get to reward our child with one on one time with mom and dad. Especially when we do it after the other kids go to bed so they get a special late night too!

Positive Reinforcement:

Praise and Encouragement: Always acknowledge and praise your child’s efforts and achievements. Positive reinforcement goes a long way.
Quality Time: Sometimes the best reward is spending quality time together, whether it’s playing a game as a family, reading a book, or just talking.

With a little planning and creativity, you can make this summer memorable and enjoyable for both you and your kids. Balance fun activities with productive chores, ensure there’s time for quiet and relaxation, and use incentives to keep motivation high. But most importantly, enjoy this time together and make the most of the summer break!

Ultimately, I’m realizing how fast my kids are growing up, all of the sudden it feels like the time I get to have them in our home is quickly passing. So regardless of how your spend your time, whether the chores get done, or they dont. Or you spend the summer indoors or out. Just enjoy the precious time you get to spend with your kids being their mama. You’ve got this, I hope you have a fantastic summer with these fun summer ideas for kids!