Looking for ideas to keep your Little Angels or Big Heroes busy on hot summer days? Look no further!
Whether your children attend nursery or school holiday club through the summer months or you’re at home together we all know that the heat can get to us all! We also know that finding lots of fun things to do to soon takes it’s toll on our pockets.
So, we’ve put our heads together and come up with some fantastic but effective ideas to keep you and the children busy this summer. Whether it’s the days they aren’t at nursery or the longs stretch of the 6 week holiday.
1. Superheroes beanbag game:
Children can practice their hand and eye co-ordination with these fun superhero characters.
Method:
A cardboard box, paints, or crayons to design and decorate your character’s.
Then use beanbags or balls to throw into the superheroes’ mouths.
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2. Jellyfish suncatchers:
Children can explore different materials, colours and textures to make these eye catching suncatchers to display in the windows at home.
Method:
Cut out a jellyfish shape using black card or paper, next cut out inner part of the jelly fish, and stick a clear poly pocket in the middle.Then use pva glue, sticky tape or a glue stick to add tissue paper or cellophane and then add different coloured strands of ribbon.
3. Rainbow fruit skewers
These vitamin-packed fruit skewers are a simple, colourful, and fun way to get children to eat fruit. They'll love helping to make them too.
Method:
Encourage you children to cut fruit into pieces and place them on wooden skewers.
4. Healthy banana smoothies
A deliciously healthy way to start the day, this smoothie is full of bananas, honey, yoghurt that makes it more-ish. It's breakfast in a glass and a great way to have a meal on the run.
Method:
Add 1 banana, ½ orange peeled and quartered, 1/3 cup of Greek yoghurt, ¼ cup of water or milk {dairy or non-dairy option}1 to 2 teaspoons of honey, optional
5. Colourful water gun painting
Water gun painting can be a colourful way to get your children to have fun during summertime.
Method:
Place some sheets of paper on an easel in your garden or on the floor.
Fill your water guns with liquid watercolours or paint mixed with water.
Get the painting fun started.
6. Scavenger hunt in nature
Let the children explore the beauty of the nature by letting them hunt for things around your garden or in the woods.
Method:
Prepare scavenger hunt sheets with names and pictures of natural things they can find in the garden or in the woods. (or if your pushed for time you could print this one: https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/scavenger-hunt-activity-sheets-t-tp-2549619
7. Wash a car
It is a fun, bonding activity that can keep your child engaged and active.
Let them join in on your routine car wash time and make fun memories.
8. Bubble Painting
Children love blowing bubbles. Here is one way to make it more creative and fun.
Method:
Mix paint in the soap water and blow them.
Catch the bubbles on a paper and see funny shades of colours and patterns caught on your paper.
9. Ice Cream Maths:
This is a simple and fun activity to do with your child during summertime.
Method:
Cut ten to fifteen small triangles out of brown construction paper.
Write the numbers 1 to 15 on the triangles.
Pick a variety of pom poms and place them into a tray.
Use small tweezers to pick up the pom poms from the tray and match them with the number that is shown in the cone.
10. Making Slime:
Why not have some fun getting messy making some slime?
Method:
2 {4- ounce} bottles of washable glue
1 to 2 drops of food colouring
2 to 3 tablespoons contact lens solution.
11. Trip to local library:
At our local library they are doing a reading challenge for the summer, its free to sign up.
Of course you have the pick of books when your visit the library and sharing book s is such as great way to bond with your little one (no matter how big they are getting). Put the fun into reading by giving the main characters different voices or associate a sound or actions with each character, when you find that character in the book make the sound or do the action together with your child.
12. Spanish lessons:
Why not learn a new language together, we have some links for learning a song, numbers, days of the week and colours.
Head, shoulders, knees, and toes song
Numbers 1-10
Days of the week
Colours
13. Shadow puppets
Explore light and dark with some light source; the sun, a torch or a lamp. You can create puppets of different objects and use them to create a narrative and play with big or small shadows.
14. Explore rhythm and tempo
Using your child’s favourite nursery rhyme or song introduce the idea of rhythm. Explain what rhythm is; simply tap on your legs, clap your hands or use a musical instrument. We can also introduce a change in tempo(speed), tapping/shaking the rhythm faster or slower to engage the children into their favourite songs using their bodies and sense of rhythm.
15. Fruity ice lollies
All you need is an ice lolly mould (or a cup and some lolly sticks) go freestyle, use your favourite fruit juices and fruit to make a delicious healthy and refreshing snack!
We’d love to see which of these activities you get up to this summer, send us some pictures!