Has summer already flown by for you and your kiddos? I know it has for us. With my oldest heading off to full day first grade this year (Is it just me or is this a really hard adjustment for other moms too?), I wanted to make our summer extra special. I am always inspired by one of my favorite mom bloggers, Katherine Maries, so I decided to start there for inspiration. She makes me want to be a better mom, and wow her photography is just gorgeous!
After looking at her site and getting some ideas, I also decided that some field trips were in order since they were some of the things I loved most as a child. We found some friends in our town who wanted to join us, so I made a few calls and got everything scheduled. You would be surprised just how excited your local post office, grocery store, bakery and florist are to host your kids and teach them about what it means to be in that profession.
With this list, you can make the last long days of summer even more memorable. While some of the suggestions take more time and planning, most are things that can be done pretty quickly. You can even do a few of them in one day, like going on a picnic and feeding the ducks. This is just a starting list. I’d love to hear what things you would add that have been fun for your family.
50 Fun things to do with your kids before school starts
1. Spread the Smile Day (See, Katherine Maries ideas are so cute right?)
2. Have a campout in the backyard
3. Go on a picnic
4. Feed the ducks
5. Host a lemonade stand and bake sale for a local charity
6. Play water balloon baseball and the pass-the-water game
7. Do a backwards dinner starting with dessert and ending with appetizers
8. Have a shaving cream fight
9. Go on a treasure hunt
10. Go camping
11. Visit a local museum
12. Make snow cones
13. Visit a national park or monument
14. Go on a hike
15. Go to a rodeo or demolition derby
16. Go to a garage sale
17. Make an outdoor library
18. Attend a library story time
19. Have a spa day
20. Make homemade ice cream
21. Pick fresh berries
22. Visit your local farmers’ market
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23. Make Strawberry shortcake
24. Dance in the rain
25. Go on a grocery store tour
26. Have an ice cream tasting night
27. Go on a family bike ride
28. Make mud pies
29. Learn what it means to be a florist, visit your local flower shop
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30. Make homemade pretzels
31. Read one chapter book as a family
32. Bake a fresh berry pie or cobbler
34. Go to the nearest beach or lake and swim
35. Tour your local post office
36. Visit a planetarium
37. Make an ice block treasure (Like this one from Random Handprints)
38. Play glow stick ring toss (Momma Did It shows you how)
39. Make cupcakes in ice cream cones (Like these from Gluten Free Frenzy)
40. Have a tea party
41. Play night games with your neighbors
42. Make sock puppets
43. Do a puppet show
44. Visit your local bakery & get a behind the scenes tour
45. Build models using toothpicks and gumdrops
46. Decorate a cardboard box to make it a hide out
47. Make a table cloth playhouse (I love this one from Centsational Girl)
48. Do face painting
49. Take your favorite book and make a themed party around it (We did the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie book series & made the treats to go along with the books)
50. Have a book dinner (Using books like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs or Dragons Love Tacos, etc.)
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