Can’t think of how in the world you are going to fill the next two and a half months? We’ve come up with some suggestions. This list is by no means exhaustive, and we’d love to hear your ideas for inexpensive family fun. Just email your suggestions to us, and if we add them to our web list, you’ll receive a small prize—like a DVD or book. Just send them to summer@parents-kids.com. Have a great Summer!
Play in the sprinkler
Visit a Farmers’ Market
Go to a park
Have a picnic
“Camp” in a homemade tent in the living room
Bake cookies
Make ice cream
Start a scrapbook
Let your kids prepare dinner (supervise if necessary)
Make your own puzzles out of cut up greeting cards, postcards, or other stiff paper
Have a family game night
Put on a puppet show or play
Go to the library
Tour the Capitol Building downtown
Attend Vacation Bible School
Go swimming
Create a family scavenger hunt
Learn about the stars and constellations—then stay up late to identify them
Build a fort
Visit the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science
Play in a refrigerator box
Press flowers
Make a treasure map of your yard and bury some treasure; then find it
Have a water balloon fight
Read a good book aloud to your kids, one chapter a night
Eat a watermelon outside; see who can spit the seeds the farthest
Have your own Olympics and invite neighborhood kids for the fun
Have a “no-reason” party
Go for a daily walk
Play Hide and Seek outside at dusk
Visit the Mississippi Museum of Art
Have a talent show
Blow bubbles. Try this outside right after it has rained, while the grass is still wet
Make and fly paper airplanes
Go for a bike ride
Visit a different area park each week; rate them as if you were a “park critic”
Plant a garden or even just a few potted plants
Make musical instruments from stuff found around the house; put on a concert or parade
No matter what you spend your summer doing, remember to have fun. (And wear your sunscreen!)
