Written by Amy Thomas, MT-BC, LCAT

Who needs summer ideas for your children and family? In this blog you will find fun, creative, and simple
ideas for the summer months.

Keeping it simple
We’re aware that simple for one person may not be simple for another. For this reason, we are sharing many
types of activities that can be done in multiple ways. This should allow you to feel comfortable doing one, two or
more of these fun summer activity ideas with your families.

Let your creativity flow
Many would answer the question, “Are you a creative person?” with a strong “no!”. Unfortunately, our
attitude of lacking creativity holds us back from exploring ideas and activities. Perhaps this comes from a
place of fear that you won’t be good at creating. We hear you and are committed to guiding you through those feelings and thoughts.

Here are three things to remember when it comes to creativity:

• Don’t feel like a failure if you need to follow someone else’s idea. Once you have that idea feel free to
  make it yours. Here is an example. You hear a song, but you cannot sing those notes or remember
  all the words. Here is a great hack! Use your own melody or a tune you already know that you can
  easily remember and shorten the lyrics, so they repeat and are fun for your children to sing along.
• If a creative spark doesn’t come naturally to you, choose something that you enjoy doing. Instead of forcing yourself to do arts and crafts (do those words make you cringe), but you love to paint – start there. Add a fun twist by incorporating different materials, such as a wood. If you love to walk in the wilderness, incorporate that into your summer activities. We have fun ideas below for our nature loving readers! By doing activities you enjoy, you’ll have a vested interest in creating with your child.
• Creativity has nothing to do with perfection! The need to have things perfect will stop you from creating with your child. If this is a problem for you, the best way to address it is pushing through those thoughts and feelings. Instead of your children hearing you say, “I’m not good at this,” or “That turned out awful,” demonstrate the joy of creating by saying, “That was fun to try.” or “I learned so much doing that today.” It’s about the process not always the product.

Activities for all ages

Some of you may be thinking that it’s challenging to come up with activities for all your children to do due to their ages and developmental skills. There are some wonderful ways of handling this. One way is creating roles for each person in the activity. All children like to know their part. Even children as young as 3 years old can be assigned a small part in an activity. As the others cheer them on while they take their turn, your children will be gifted with the opportunity of team building. Another way is break down activities so that a younger child only completes the project up to step 3 but the older child does all 6 steps. Both children did the activity according to their developmental ability.

Extra Note: The adult does not need to finish the younger child’s project. When a child sees an adult fixing or adding to their activity it can create a belief that their creation was not good enough, so we caution parents to only help if a child asks you to support them on a step.

Now what you’ve all been waiting for, (Drum Roll Please), the summer ideas list!

Nature Ideas:

• I Spy Nature – Hide things in a wooded area so that at least part of them can be seen. For the older children ask them to I Spy something that is more challenging to see from where you are standing or sitting together and more obvious items for the younger child.
• Nature Scavenger Hunt – Create a word list or picture list of things that each child or team will look for. Once they have all their items, they return to the start location. If you choose, use these items to create a nature piece. The parent can have pictures and steps of things that can be made with the nature items or let the child create their own masterpiece. Rubber bands, glue, tape, and paper are additional supplies that can be used along with the nature items. Use this link to see some wonderful ideas -> https://www.weareteachers.com/nature-crafts/

Music Ideas:

• Instrument Making – Kids love the simplicity of making things from recycled items. The adults love the ease and low cost of using these supplies. Begin to put away paper towel and toilet rolls, clear tubs, and containers from food where the labels can come off easy. Rice, pastas, mash potato flakes, dry beans, are great fillers for shakers. Additional items to have on hand are paper plates, colored tape, rubber bands, and anything else the child can
  use to decorate their instruments. Use this link to get more ideas -> https://zinginstruments.com/homemade-musical-instruments/
• Parades – All children love parades and in every good parade there is music, people, floats and snack or candy throwing!! Let your children’s creativity go as they decide what and who they would like in their parade. They can use wagons, their instruments that they made, a speaker to play music, a karaoke for the announcer, chairs on the sides with dolls or stuffed animals to throw candy to. Your kids will LOVE this activity and will want to play it multiple times over the summer.

Art Ideas:

• Tissue Paper Art: This offers the opportunity for all ages to create a colorful object. There is no right or wrong way to lay out colored pieces of tissue paper so create away. The children can make an abstract piece on plain paper simply sticking it to glue or use modge podge (like this one) to brush over it or place the pieces on contact paper. Colored tissue paper can be purchased in shapes, in sheets and torn, or cut to size and shape by the child. Tissue paper art can make a great piece to hang in a window for your child to enjoy all summer long. Use the link to see the simplicity of making this cute jelly fish! https://www.iheartartsncrafts.com/suncatcher-jellyfish-kids-craft/
• Popsicle Stick Creations: From the youngest to the oldest in the family everyone will enjoy these activities. Here are just a few: sorting colored sticks, laying them out to create family members names or words, putting them into a hopscotch board, tic tac toe with two different kinds of pastas, or use them for making a project. If you want colored popsicle sticks, you can purchase them or paint them yourselves. The ideas are endless! Use this link for simple art projects ->  https://www.playideas.com/25-summertime-popsicle-stick-crafts-preschoolers/

Let your creativity flow and have a wonderful summer with your children!