While COVID precautions have led to concerts, camps and trips being cancelled, you can’t cancel summer. It just might look a little different this year, especially if you have children. So, when you’ve watched all the movies on Disney+ and you’ve run out of sidewalk to chalk, we hope these fun activities offer a little unique inspiration to keep you and your family busy. Our team at Corken + Company has compiled a list of summer activities to promote positivity, exercise, and stimulation all while spending some invaluable quality time together!
- DIY Slip n Slide – Splish splash in the summer heat on a backyard water slide. All you need is a hose, a vinyl tarp, and a running start!
- Plant a garden – This is great time to test out your green thumb and pass on some tips to your youngsters. Planting vegetables or even flowers will give you and your family a sort of routine when it comes to watering, weeding, etc. It will also give you all something to look forward to, whether that be colorful blooms or fresh fruits and vegetables.
- Learn a new language – Set aside some time each day or each week to take online classes as a family. You can all test your skills on each other and create neat challenges, for example have a family dinner where everyone can only use the foreign language to communicate.
- Cook – This is one of our favorite summer activities! The kitchen is always a great place to get creative and cooking is an invaluable skill to teach your children.
- Visit the zoo – No, not in person but online! Zoos across the country are offering virtual tours for a minimal fee. Many museums and other fun tourist destinations are doing this as well including Yellowstone, the Lourve, and even Mars!
- Read a book – This seems obvious but sometimes we forget that a family read aloud is a great way to spend quality time together. Or you can all read the same book separately and come together for mini book club meetings to discuss.
- Do a science experiment – There are tons of online resources for this if you start googling or take a quick peek at Pinterest. It’s a great way to learn and have a blast as a family.
- Train the dog – There has been a huge increase in animal adoptions. If you’re one of these lucky families with a new pooch, now is a great time to have your kids learn the dedication and consistency it takes to train them. Or, even if you’ve had your pup for a while, they say old dogs can’t learn new tricks. Prove em’ wrong!
- Have a dance party – All kids love to dance and it is great exercise. Blast your own tunes or find some kid friendly live DJ sets to join on Facebook or Instagram. Disney even recently posted a celebrity sing-a-log available on YouTube.
- Make a fort – Using cardboard from the recycling or pillows from the den make a cozy fort for the whole family to play games in and watch movies.
- Interview each other – This is sort of an odd ball suggestion but comes with a lot of great benefits. It will help teach your kids interviewing skills and if you google some compelling questions it may incite some exciting conversations that wouldn’t otherwise have been had.
- Learn a new instrument – Like learning a new language you have lots of time and probably much less distraction right now to help your son or daughter focus on learning this new skill set.
- Try meditation – There are lots of videos and resources online to guide you and your family through a mediation that may be much needed right now when anxiety tends to pervade our everyday lives and we don’t have many outlets for our stress and concerns. Being mindful and finding grounding will help keep your home a sane and happy place!
- Set up an obstacle course – In your backyard (or even inside in a large open space in your home if the weather is bad) set up various stations and games and have your family all compete. It can even be as simple as a wheelbarrow race or an egg toss. Get those exercise endorphins flowing while having a blast!
- Make a grateful board – It’s like a vision board but using cut up magazines or drawings the board can represent all of the things you and your children are grateful for. It will help you focus on all things positive!
We wish you all well on this “new normal” kind of summer vacation. Trust us, you’ll survive. We just hope this fun list of summer activities helps you and your family thrive!
