Photo by John Morgan; used under Creative Commons Attribution license.
With swim lessons over, summer camps a distant memory and the specter of school still several weeks distant, cries of “There’s nothing to do!” are becoming more and more frequent. We at GeekDad sympathize — that’s why we’ve come up with a list of 21 low/no-cost activities that will engage your kids quicker than they can say “I’m bored!”
1. Pick a series of books and read them all.
2. Direct a stop action movie starring Legos or action figures.
3. Make your own slushie drinks.
4. Have a neighborhood-wide water balloon/water gun fight.
5. Go camping in the backyard — complete with S’mores and ghost stories.
6. Spend an entire day at the pool – from open to close.
7. Escape the heat at a local children’s museum.
8. Become an expert on a summer topic like bugs, air conditioning or ice cream.
9. Put a spin on the lemonade stand by creating a unique selling proposition.
10. Choose a series of movies and hold an all-day movie festival, watching them all.
11. Lace every pair of shoes in the house a different way.
12. Write your own book and publish it.
13. Pick a new game to learn and play it every day until you’ve mastered it.
14. Spend a week or more honing an important skill.
15. Go to a river or lake and have a rock skipping contest.
16. Learn how to fold a new paper airplane. See what type flies farthest.
17. Take something apart. Now put it back together, making sure it works better than before.
18. Create your own board game. The loser has to do the dishes.
19. Tie-dye some shirts. Now don’t take a bath for a week and protest the mom keeping you down. Make Jello, not war.
20. Hold an Olympic decathlon at home with events like the street-to-garage relay race, water balloon shot put, etc.
21. Mold some beautiful (and easy-to-make) ice candles.
Those are our 21 ideas for getting your kids through the rest of the summer. Know any more? Add them in the comments below.
[This post was originally published on GeekDad in July of 2008.]
