Fun summer activities for kids: ideas you’ll want to try in childcare and at home
In the hot summer, children spend more time indoors both at daycare and at home.
For those wondering, “What can we play indoors with the kids?”, here are some perfect summer activities.
Games using water and ice are especially popular this season.
Cool sensations and hands-on activities are exciting for children.
It’s also a great experience to help them feel connected to nature or to incorporate traditional summer events—these memories really stay with kids.
Try these ideas at home, in daycare, or in kindergarten.
Through summertime activities, let’s help children create lots of fun memories!
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Fun summer activities for kids: Ideas you’ll want to try at preschool and at home (111–120)
Let’s make colorful shaved ice
When it comes to hot summers, you can’t help but crave shaved ice! Shaved ice is a favorite among kids and is perfect as a recreational activity, too.
Instead of just eating it plain, try using a variety of syrups to make shaved ice that looks beautiful as well.
Colorful shaved ice tastes even better and makes for great photos, too.
Making jelly soap
Let’s try making a jelly soap that feels squishy and bouncy when you touch it, like a squeeze toy.
Since it’s jelly-like, it gives a cool vibe for summer handwashing.
All you need is gelatin, liquid hand soap, and hot water.
Mix them together, pour into a container of your choice, and chill in the refrigerator to set.
If you want to add color, mix in food coloring at the very end after combining all the ingredients.
Once it sets, you’ll have a mysterious soap that feels like wobbly, squishy jelly—just like a squeeze toy! Even with food coloring, it still works perfectly for washing your hands.
With this, you’ll be all set for thorough handwashing in the summer!
Rafting
If you’re looking for a way to enjoy nature, rafting is a great choice.
Rafting is a summer activity where you ride down a river in a large inflatable boat, and it’s become popular recently with both kids and adults.
Children will be thrilled, of course, and it’s a lot of fun for adults too, so give it a try together as a parent and child.
Water play with a vacuum/compression bag
Introducing a cool summer activity using vacuum storage bags for futons and clothes! All you need to do is fill the bag with water—just enough so it doesn’t get overstuffed.
When you touch the water-filled bag, you’ll enjoy a squishy, bouncy sensation, and standing on it barefoot feels great thanks to the coolness of the water.
Lie down on it and it feels even better! Vacuum storage bags are stronger than regular plastic bags, so it’s fine for kids to hop on them.
If you draw some fish and slip the drawings inside before adding water, it’ll feel like you’re playing with fish—as if you’re in the ocean or a river!
Collecting creatures in rivers and ponds
Kids love playing in nature! These days, there’s hardly any greenery left in urban areas, but how about using the summer vacation to visit a place rich in nature and try collecting living creatures? Especially rivers and ponds don’t require going too far from the city, so they’re easy to visit even when you’re busy.
It’s also perfect as a topic for an independent research project.
Factory tour
In summer, kids are on vacation, so they can get bored staying at home all the time.
Many people look for places to go out at times like that, so how about taking a factory tour? Recently, there have been more factory tour programs that children can enjoy, making them perfect for creating memories.
It might also be a good idea to use it as a topic for a summer research project.
mud play
Kids love getting all muddy when they play, don’t they? Since it’s summer, how about trying some mud play when you’re outside? Tidal flats where people go clamming have plenty of natural mud, so it might be nice to enjoy some mud play with the family while you’re at the beach.
And if everyone gets covered in mud, taking a group photo will make for a lifelong memory.