7 Fun Summer Activities for Kids

Thinking about things to do with kids this summer? With warmer weather and quality time spent playing outdoors, the summer holidays present an excellent opportunity to explore fun summer activities for children. Below are 7 free summer activities for kids.

1. Summer Activities for Children: Colour Scavenger Hunt

Come rain or shine, scavenger hunts are the perfect activity as they can take place indoors or outdoors. Create your own scavenger hunt or download this Colour Scavenger Hunt free printable from our Free Resources Hub. Children find objects that match the different colours on the worksheet. Choose items from the house, garden or maybe head to a forest or beach to see what treasures you can find! This is an excellent way to help children learn about colours using real life objects.

2. Summer Craft Ideas: Holiday Scrapbook

Get crafty with scrapbooking! Children can write, draw and collect mementos from their summer holiday activities. This a fantastic way of documenting memories, whilst encouraging learning. Using safety scissors and washable glue, children can develop motor skills when cutting and sticking. Moreover, writing about their fun summer activities helps children to practice handwriting, improve their pencil grip and further develop motor skills. Why not try these easy grip crayons for toddlers or chunky colouring pencils for older children. Children can decorate the scrapbook pages with watercolours and poster paints.

3. Summer Activities for Kids: Paddling Pool 

When it’s sunny, paddling pools are an enjoyable way to cool down. Plus, splash time can provide heaps of fun in the sun. Work on scientific thinking skills with paddling pool investigations – children can consider how the sun affects the pool temperature or how the water level rises depending on the number of people in the pool. For paddling pool summer activities for toddlers, you can recreate the ocean in your back garden with sustainable play toys like these submarines, seaplanes and car ferry boats made from recycled plastic. Add sea creature toys or Slide and Splash Spouts to the pool for summer activities for preschoolers to support the development of imaginative thinking and scientific reasoning skills.

4. Fun Summer Activities: Yoga

Yoga is a calming mind/body practice that improves confidence, concentration, strength and flexibility. You can practice yoga inside or outside, alone or in groups. Kids can follow along with likeable yoga videos for kids like Cosmic Kids or try brilliant flashcard kits like Yoga Pretzels. Comprised of engaging step-by-step cards with beautiful illustrations, children (and adults!) can copy the poses and visualizations with Yoga Pretzels. Yoga is a wonderful example of free summer activities for kids that encourage healthy habits and promote self-awareness.

5. Summer Craft Activities: Nature Printing 

Kids who love summer craft activities will enjoy nature printing! Explore the outdoors to gather flowers, leaves, rocks, pinecones and twigs. First, cover a table with newspaper or a waterproof sheet, then grab some paper and poster paints. Next, using a paintbrush (or fingers for messy play), paint one side of your object and press firmly onto the paper. Summer craft ideas such as nature printing create beautiful pieces of art that encourage children to interact with the outdoors. Children can further develop their knowledge of nature with charming reads such as The Woodland Book and A First Book of Nature.

6. Summer Holiday Activities: Obstacle Course

One of the fun things to do with kids this summer is to design and build your very own obstacle course. Use toys and objects around the house and garden to create hours of entertainment. The beauty of this activity is that kids can use their imagination to produce rules and games for the obstacle course. Perhaps include stepping stone foot marks, bean bag seesaws and wobble boards. Children may also like to use digital timers to time themselves whilst working on telling the time. Suitable for all ages, obstacle courses are brilliant summer activities for toddlers and older children.

7. Summer Activities for Preschoolers: Tea Party Picnic

You are cordially invited to a tea party picnic! Little ones who like pretend play will delight in summer holiday activities like a picnic in the garden. There are many eco sustainable play toys that are ideal for a pretend tea party. Environmentally friendly dinner sets made from sugarcane provide the cutlery, cups and plates for role play, whilst colourful cupcakes made from recycled plastic are great for little bakers whipping up a batch of sweet treats. Pretend play enables children to develop social, emotional and practical life skills.

We hope you found some inspiration from these ideas. You can also discover more fun summer activities for kids here.