Fun & Easy Summer Activities To Keep Creativity Flowing this Summer

Everyone needs a break from “learning”, even homeschoolers. By “learning”, I mean written curriculum, online work – whatever your yearly learning looks like. However, homeschool families know that you never really stop learning. 

While summer is the perfect time for your kids to get a well-deserved break, learning is a year-round process that doesn’t have to interfere with summertime fun. There are plenty of fun activities that make learning simple, fun, and interesting – and they won’t even realize they’re learning!

Keeping your kids engaged and their minds working over the summer can also help when it’s time to start school back up again.

While there are the tried-and-true day trips to the zoo and museums, we’ve come up with some activities that are easily done at home or on a summer road trip.

Experiment with Science
Science projects are a great way to keep your kids interested in learning how things work. Here are some quick and easy ideas that have been summer hits in our home:

• Paper Airplanes: We get some colored art paper and briefly discuss aerodynamics while making paper airplanes. The older kids even look up some ideas online. They spend their time designing, decorating, and putting on the finishing touches to their planes and then all go into the backyard for a contest to see who’s can go the furthest and the highest.

• Ice Cream in a Bag: Who doesn’t love ice cream on a hot summer day? Show your kids how to make ice cream in a bag, discuss how it works, and let them make their own!

• Watch a Summer Meteor Shower: There are many times during the summer to see meteor showers. Whether you need to drive out into the country without city lights, or you camp in your backyard to enjoy the show, there’s a great opportunity to talk about the vastness of space.

• Tin Foil Boats: The only thing better than a summer rain shower is a boat race afterward! When it looks like rain, we take out the aluminum foil and make boats in anticipation of when the rain stops. As soon as it stops, the kids rush out to the street and put their boats in the flowing gutter to race boats down the street in the water. 

Take a Hike
One of the beautiful things about Colorado is that there are nature walks and hikes everywhere. Take a fun hike – as easy as you like – and discover local plants and wildlife. Learn some bird calls, how important each part of nature is to the overall balance, and why we need to make sure we take care of our environment. 

Play in the Dirt
Gardening is full of physical, mental, and educational benefits. Whether you have a big garden or give your kids a spot of their own, let them plant their own seeds or small starter planes and give them the responsibility to water them and watch them grow. 

Turn Reading into Fun
Our local library district offers a summer reading program for kids of all ages. Reading fosters creativity and imagination. Check out the summer programs at PPLD as well where there are read-aloud and other fun activities for the kids.

Explore Audio Books
If the kids don’t normally use audiobooks in their yearly learning, let them explore audiobooks this summer. They are wonderful tools, especially if you are traveling, and allow kids to listen to stories and learn about topics that interest them.

Subscribe to Podcasts
Podcasts are a great tool to use for both learning and entertainment. There are many podcasts out there for cool science, history, and even folklore. We use history podcasts during the school year, such as Real Cool History for Kids by Angie O’Dell but for fun, my kids love to listen to history and science podcasts learning those little interesting tidbits that you don’t learn in the mainstream curriculum. They’ve come up with many interesting facts that have kept us busy discussing on long trips! Other great podcasts include: Filter it Through a Brain Cell, EQ Gangster Podcast, and All the Things with Kristen Schindler.

My Homeschool Hub is a resource for like-minded homeschool parents to benefit from a homeschool community to get support, resources, and tools for successfully homeschooling their children. Have questions or concerns? Our Mentor Moms can help! We can alleviate your worries and help you so that this journey is enjoyable for the entire family.