Archive: summer activities

Summer Activities for Kids

With warm weather finally here, it’s time to get outside! Kids do best with a little direction and encouragement for their imagination so Mom Trusted put together a list of fun summer activities for kids. Don’t forget the sunscreen!

Decorate the town with chalk.

Chalk is a summer classic that never gets old. Grab a fresh box and let your little ones go crazy. It’ll probably only be a matter or minutes before your fresh sticks of chalk start to snap, but don’t panic. Invest in a giant Tupperware container that can hang out in the garage and be a home to old, used chalk chunks every summer. This will also allow for a collection of colors!

Play catch with water balloons and slippery hands.

Fill up a bucket with water balloons and head to the back yard. Then, grease up with something like vegetable oil, lotion or good, old-fashioned soap. See how long you can play catch with the balloons sliding around through slippery hands.

Float ice boats.

Make ice cube boats by freezing a tray of cubes with a drop of food coloring in each. Have your kids help you decorate little triangle pieces of paper as flags for each boat. Then, glue the flags to toothpicks and stick one per cube before freezing the colorful ice cubes. Fill up a cheap, plastic pool in your yard and let your kids splash around and float their boats.

Have a bubble party.

Fill a plastic kiddie pool with dish soap and water. Then, get creative with different bubble makers. Hunt through your garage. Use hula-hoops, bend wire into fun shapes and dig around in your kitchen to pull out a strainer with extra big holes.

Go on a water balloon hunt.

It works like an Easter egg hunt except you’re using very full water balloons. Because they tend to burst when they hit the ground or are squeezed too tightly, the goal is to see who can fill their basket with the most full balloons. Then, have a water balloon war with your new-found treasures.

Make your own sprinklers.

Raid your recycling for the biggest plastic bottles you can find. Then, drill holes in them and give them to your kids next time they’re playing in the outdoor pool or running through the hose and sprinkler. Voila! Mini sprinklers!

Sources:

-Pinterest: Summer Activities with Kids: http://pinterest.com/melissa_taylor2/summer-activities-with-kids/

-“Water Balloon Games for Kids” Fantastic Fun and Learning: http://www.fantasticfunandlearning.com/water-balloon-games-for-kids.html

-“Summer Activities for Kids: Ice Boats” Spanglish Baby: http://spanglishbaby.com/finds/summer-activity-for-kids-ice-boats-water-play/

-“Tutorial: The Human Bubble and More” U Create: http://www.ucreatewithkids.com/search/label/bubbles

-“30 Summer Activities for Kids” Lil Luna: http://lilluna.com/30-summer-activities-for-kids/

-Photo courtesy of chrisroll/freedigitalphotos.net

Bug Crafts for Kids

Express some critter creativity with this bug crafts for kids:

Fuzzy caterpillars

Glue different colored and sized pompoms to a popsicle stick. Then, glue on two googly eyes and one pipe cleaner smiley mouth. You’ll have a herd of fuzzy friends in no time.

Paper inchworms

Cut green construction paper into three-inch strips. Tape the end to a sheet of paper and loop it around the first 1/5 of the paper strip (almost like a paper chain). With the remaining 4/5 of the paper, bunch it up, making waves and gluing the paper down at the bottom of each curve. Stick on two googly eyes and two pipe cleaner antennas. Draw on a smile and you’re good to go.

Painted butterflies

Grab some gigantic, white sheets of paper and a variety of paint colors. Have your children go to town. Show them how if you place a blob of paint on a piece of paper and fold it in half, it can come out looking like an abstract butterfly.

Styrofoam spiders

Take a three-inch Styrofoam ball and paint it black. Stick three pipe cleaners out of each side for the legs. Paint on a red smile and stick on two googly eyeballs. We’ll bet these little guys turn out to be the friendliest spiders you’ve ever seen.

Paper plate ladybugs

Staple two paper plates together, creating a small pouch. Paint it black. Next, take a third paper plate and cut a pie-slice-shaped chunk out of it, the remaining portion will be the wings. Paint the plate with the missing piece red with black spots and staple it onto the black pouch body. Cut legs and a round head out of construction paper and glue or paint on eyeballs and a smile.

Sources:

-“Bugs and Insect Activities for Kids” Pinterest

-“Kids Bug Crafts” All Kids Network

-Photo courtesy of Salvatore Vuono/freedigitalphotos.net

Fun Fourth of July Activities for Kids

Looking for fun Fourth of July activities for kids? Look no farther. Mom Trusted knows that, while ooing and ahhing at fireworks is a blast, you’ve got a whole day to fill before hand. We’re here to help you plan your day. That’s why we’ve put together this creativity-packed list of fun Fourth of July activities for kids:

Giant Tic-Tac-Toe

Buy a painter’s drop cloth and use red or blue colored duct-tape to create a tic-tac-toe board on it. Then, either make or buy red and blue colored beanbag sacks. Make by sewing three sides of two 5-inch by 5-inch pieces of fabric. Then fill with uncooked beans and sew up the final edge. Kids can spend all afternoon playing their new, life-sized tic-tac-toe game.

Finger paint a flag

Invest in a giant piece of white poster board. Then, set up camp outside with some red and blue finger paint. Have your children craft their own version of the American flag. Creative and patriotic!

Have a watermelon-spitting contest

Kids are always fans of this summertime game. Buy a couple big watermelons with plenty of big, black seeds. Then take turns seeing who can spit them the farthest. Little ones aren’t usually encouraged to spit out their food so this game is a fun way to break the rules a bit.

Get out the glow sticks

Leave the dangerous fireworks to the adults. Remember, even sparklers can burn little fingers. Instead, break out the glow sticks when the sun goes down. Purchase packs of bracelets, necklaces and wands in a wide variety of colors. Snap them to get them glowing and let the kids go wild.

Sources:

-“Go for the Glory” Parents.com: http://www.parents.com/parents-magazine/tic-tac-toe-toss/

-“July Fourth Extravaganza” Parents.com: http://www.parents.com/parents-magazine/pin-to-win-july-fourth-extravaganza/#page=1

-“Fourth of July Kids’ Activities” Martha Stewart: http://www.marthastewart.com/359178/fourth-july-kids-activities

-Photo courtesy of bulldogza/freedigitalphotos.net