Easy Summer Activities for Children

Looking for some fun ways to keep the kids busy this summer? If your part of the world is like mine, summer camps are mostly canceled. Fortunately there are plenty of easy summer activities for kids that you can enjoy at home! Looking for educational activities? Try this list of 10 days of hands on learning activities for children.

All too often, children love summer while adults dread it. But that doesn’t have to be true! Keep the kids happy, learning, and making memories with these easy summer activities.

Fun Summer Activities in Nature

Summer is a wonderful time for children to spend time in nature! Take the kids on a hike or just a neighborhood walk where they get to choose the route. A lot of our local open spaces have been closed this summer, but my kids still enjoying searching for beautiful flowers around the neighborhood.

Use those beautiful flowers and other examples of diversity in nature to emphasize the importance and value of diversity in humans, too.

Collect leaves, twigs, or shells if you are lucky enough to be at the beach. Take them home (so long as you are allowed – some locations have no carry out laws) and use them to create nature collections.

Nature is also a wonderful place to try out some outdoor math activities.

There are so many amazing ways to learn in and about nature.

Summer Arts and Crafts Learning Opportunities

Long summer days provide many opportunities for children to experiment with new creative activities, and arts and crafts are wonderful for exploring world culture.

Take a virtual journey around the world, looking up the local artwork and handicrafts for each location. Try out a new craft for each destination.

Science in the Summertime

Exploring weather around the world opens up another global education themed summer learning opportunity. Children are astounded the first time they discover that hot summer weather in one part of the world is balanced by cold summer weather in another part of the world.

If you live in the northern hemisphere, summer is an excellent time to try making some sun-upcycled crayons. You’ll likely need to file this away for winter if you live in the southern hemisphere.

Summer Reading Inspiration

We all love a good summer book! These multicultural board books deserve a spot in every home library.

We’ve also got a fantastic list of multicultural books for older children.

Challenge your children – and yourself – to read a book featuring someone who doesn’t look like them for every book they read about someone who does look like them. Read books written by authors from all over the world. You’ll discover so many wonderful authors and characters! Our library is still closed, but our librarians are available to create reading lists for ebooks based on criteria like this. Check to see if your library offers a similar service.

What are your favorite easy summer activities for children?

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MaryAnne

MaryAnne was raised in the United States, Guatemala, France, Bolivia, and Austria. Her first daughter was born in Scotland, and she now lives with her husband and their four children in Silicon Valley, California. You can find MaryAnne writing about parenting, crafts, and education at Mama Smiles – Joyful Parenting.

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