As the summer days roll along, your kids may be getting a little bit restless. Whether you’re working from home or get to spend some time off together under the sun, it can be a bit of a challenge to consistently come up with fresh ideas for fun. That’s where DIY comes to the rescue! Spend the time together or give your kiddos the supplies they need to DIT—do it themselves. After all, there’s nothing like a little extra dose of kid empowerment when you’ve got your hands full.
Paper Garden
What You'll Need:
-
A medium sized piece of cardboard
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Markers
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Scissors
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Flowers (real, artificial, or crafted: think pipe cleaners and tissue paper)
Directions:
1. Lay the foundation
Draw your flower vase onto your piece of cardboard. Poke holes in the "opening" of the vase. Make sure they're far enough apart for each flower to have some room to bloom. Decorate your vase if you'd like!
2. Go flower picking
Gather flowers, from your own garden or the grocery store. If real flowers aren't an option, get some pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, or even straws. Get tissue paper, candy wrappers, or fabric and fashion these into flowers using tape or rubber bands.
3. Practice your florist skills
Place your flowers in the vase holes, and keep rearranging them up until you're happy with how your arrangement looks.
Variations:
- Berry Bush: Instead of a vase, draw a bush. Make all kinds of colorful berries to decorate it.
- Sweets Trees: Instead of a bush, draw a tree. Now's the time to let your kids imaginations run wild. Does their tree grow cupcakes? What about candy? Help them draw or craft their creations and place them on the tree.
Family Farmers Market
What You'll Need:
- An assortment of real or play produce (apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, tomatoes, carrots, etc.)
- Paper
- Makers or crayons
- Scissors
- Tape
- Play money (optional)
- Small baskets or bags (optional)
- Price tags or stickers
Directions
1. Set Up the Market:
Create a produce stand by arranging produce in baskets. Label them with names and price tags. Kids can draw pictures or create their own product labels for each item.
2. Create Shopping Lists:
Give each participant a piece of paper and markers or crayons. Ask them to draw or write down the items they want to "buy" from the market. For younger children, parents can assist with writing. Give everyone a budget, distribute play money, and let the shopping begin!
3. Assign Roles:
Decide who will be the shoppers and who will be the vendor. The vendor will answer questions, show shoppers where to find things, and handle the checkout counter.
4. Shopping Time:
Turn shopping time into a game by seeing who can find their items the fastest, in ABC order, or by color.
Variations:
- Cooking Class: After shopping, use some of the produce to prepare a simple recipe together, such as a fruit salad or veggie platter.
- Story Time: Read a book about farming, markets, or healthy eating to reinforce the themes of the activity.
- Produce Hunt: Hide some of the produce around the house or yard and create a scavenger hunt for the children to find specific items.
Car Bingo
What you'll need:- Gallon zipper bags
- Coloring sheets
- Dry erase markers in lots of colors
- Paper towels or small microfiber cloth
Directions:
1. Get Packed Up
Print off some bingo pages, or draw them on a sheet of paper. Make sure the items are things you'd usually see while you're in the car together. Place the pages inside a gallon zipper bag along with the dry-erase markers.
2. Get Out of the House
The next time you get in the car or have some downtime while out, take out the gallon zipper bag with the bingo sheets and markers.
3. Color and Play
Kids can use the dry-erase markers to check items off directly through the plastic zipper bag—promising easy cleanup and the ability to play over and over again.
Variations:
- Together Time: Print games like tic tac toe or connect the dots and work together to complete activities.
- An Artist's Bag of Tricks: For kids who like to draw, print a list of silly nouns and adjectives, and put them in a smaller bag. One by one, let them pick prompts and draw pictures including each word they pick. Careful—it can be easy for ink to get a little messy, so keep it simple.
Recycle City
What you'll need:
- Various recyclable materials (plastic bottles, cardboard boxes, paper rolls, egg cartons, etc.)
- Scissors
- Glue or tape
- Markers or crayons
- Paint (optional)
- Stickers or other decorative items (optional)
- Large piece of cardboard or a sturdy base
Directions:
1. Gather Materials:
Collect empty bottles, cartons, and bottles from the kitchen. Depending on how much there is, decide how you’ll decorate with tape, paint, stickers, pipe cleaners, and markers.
2. Plan Your City:
Use your cardboard base to decide the layout of your city. Work together to figure out what the buildings will be—think about including a school, houses, a grocery store, and any other places that make everyone happy!
3. Create the Buildings:
Use scissors to cut and shape the recyclable materials into the buildings you’ve picked out. Then, decorate them using markers, crayons, paint, and stickers. Add windows, doors, and any other details to make the buildings look realistic.
4. Assemble the City:
Use glue or tape your buildings into place on your cardboard base. Create roads and pathways using strips of paper or by drawing on the base with markers.
5. Add Final Touches:
Use smaller pieces of recycled materials to create additional city elements such as trees, cars, benches, and streetlights. Add action figures and dolls to give your city some life!
Once your Recycle City is complete, take some time to explore and play. You can create stories about the people living in your city, the activities happening in different buildings, and the adventures taking place.
Variation:
Life-sized City: Instead of making a doll-sized city, make it large enough for kids to interact with, even if they would technically be giants if it were to-scale.
Screen Writers
What you'll need:
- Your favorite show or movie
- A quick sense of humor and a healthy imagination
- The mute button
Directions:
1. Get the show started
Pick something to watch and get ready to act! Let everyone pick out a character, and mute your TV. Hit play whenever you’re ready!
2. Get into character
When your character appears on the screen, make up the words you think they’re saying. Go back and forth until it’s over!
3. Add some silly twists
Add extra sound effects, sing your own music, and improv lines from secondary characters to keep the story moving!
Variation:
Commercial Breaks: Watch TV like normal and wait for commercials to come on. Mute them and get creative!
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