5 Ideas for Summer Fun for Kids

My five-year-old boy will be starting Kindergarten this fall. He just completed pre-Kindergarten and since preschool follows the same school calendar as the public schools, that means that for the first time ever he has an actual summer off, just like all school-aged kids. This also means that he’ll be spending a lot of time at home and we need to figure out ways to keep him and his older sister busy. Neither of them tend to sit still for too long, plus we like a balance of fun and learning over the summer so they don’t lose those skills they acquired over the school year.

If you need a few ideas for summer fun for the kids, try these activities to help keep them busy, entertained, and having fun!

5 Ideas for Summer Fun for Kids

1. Summer Reading Program

Most local libraries have a summer reading program for kids to keep up with their reading while out of school. They provide a reading list, a calendar or reading log for kids to mark off what they’ve they read, and a goody bag at the end of the program in exchange for a full reading log. This always works great in our house and makes it easy for us to pick out books over the summer!

2. Museums

 

Photo: elvissa

Some local museums offer free admission on certain days throughout the summer. I need to check if any of our local Tampa area museums have such an offer, but I know that some Orlando museums used to do this and have heard this is common in several areas throughout the nation. A visit to a museum is great for a) getting the kids out of the house, b) expanding their minds, and c) providing conversational topics.

3. Summer Day Camps

Photo: aarongilson

Most preschools host a summer day camp full of activities, weekly field trips, and often times, for rising Kindergarteners, it includes a review of the pre-K curriculum they just completed. In the past, we’ve enrolled our oldest for a couple of weeks of summer day camp and it’s worked out wonderfully. The YMCA usually also hosts a summer day camp with field trips, as well, so that may be something you can look into!

4. Free Bowling or Other Recreational Activities

You may have already heard that AMF is offering free games of bowling for kids this summer, as do many other bowling alleys! I plan to take advantage of this offer a few times throughout the summer, even if my kids aren’t expert bowlers. They’ll have tons of fun, plus it’s an indoor activity – something that’s super important here in Central Florida with the summer thunderstorms we experience!

Something else you can check out and that is also indoors is that many movie theaters have certain days of the week where they offer free or discounted movies for kids!

5. Swim Lessons

Our kids need a refresher on their swimming skills, so this summer, we plan to enroll them (again) in swimming lessons. Hopefully between the lessons and frequent visits to our community pool, we can have a lot of pool fun this summer!

Summer is sure to go by fast and though we’ll have these planned activities, we’ll also have times of unplanned fun, free days to relax, outside time in the backyard, beach days, and just time to play with toys in the house, amongst other things. We really do try to have a balanced summer of learning, fun, and activities to keep the kids busy! After all, before we know it, it’ll be my baby boy’s first day of Kindergarten!

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How do you plan to keep your kids busy this summer?