Whether you are a working woman or a busy mom at home, when summer vacations begin it gets tough. Parents get more agitated when they fall short of finding exciting summer activities for their kids. Children, who follow a set routine all year round — waking up early in the morning, having breakfast and getting dressed up for school — are suddenly on their own during summertime.
Being a parent means having sleepless nights and days packed with action. During summer vacations, those sleepless nights and action-packed days become a full-time job; and a full-time job can be quite stressful. Naturally, parents are left asking the following questions:
- What are the best summer activities for kids?
- How to make kids happy without spending a fortune?
- What are the ways to enhance your child’s mental capabilities during summer break?
- What are the activities to do in summer vacation for a 5-year old?
- How to keep kids busy in summer holidays?
Summer Activities For Kids
In this blog we will answer all these questions and help you find a way to make summer vacations a memorable time both for you and your kids. Let’s get started.
Boredom is good
As strange as this sounds, boredom is actually healthy for children. It triggers in them the need to find fun activities on their own instead of relying too much on television. The more time your child spends on a gadget or in front of a television, the less creative he becomes. Don’ allow your child to keep watching TV for unlimited hours. They will throw a tantrum or two, but then they will find an alternative to kill their boredom.
Leaf Hunt
When your kids are asleep, sneak out and find different leaves/flowers in your garden or in a nearby park. Now hand over the leaves and flowers to your child. Ask them to explore the garden or park and match the leaf they were given. When they have successfully accomplished their task, you can then inform them in detail about the plant or tree that leaf/flower belonged to. This way they will retain the information and learn new things.
Use of Chalk on Walls
A likely scenario: You hand your kids with some paints and paper and expect them to sit down and paint using brushes. You turn to the kitchen to sort out the dishes that have piled up. And lo and behold! Your kids have splattered water colours all over your newly painted wall. It is most likely that your child will do what you dread the most. How about giving them the wall in your living room? Instead of paints, hand them some coloured chalk. This will create a nice colourful art wall for them and you can always wash your wall and it will come out clean.
Crafty Placemats
As summer holidays have fallen during the blessed month of Ramadan, you can involve your kids in making different placemats for iftar and Sehri table. This can be an interesting summer activity for kids. Take an A4 paper, write everyday duas, especially the duas recited at the time of Iftar and Sehri. Explain the meaning of the dua to your kid. Ask your child to decorate the placemat as he pleases. You can get this laminated to preserve their creativity for a long period.
STEM based toys
One of the best activities for kids in summer vacations can be to involve your kids in STEM based games. Parents ask what are STEM toys? These are basically toys that enhance a child’s learning, curiosity and education. STEM toys are Science, Technology, Engineering and Math based toys. These toys build up intelligence and creativity. Children can also learn how to make robots, cars, airplanes and other inventions. You can buy them from a store or participate in summer camps that offer a course based on STEM.
Tour the world through a globe
To involve your kids in a fun activity in summers, explore different countries of the world with the help of a globe. Each day ask your child to take you to a different city in Pakistan. Let them use their imagination. When they mark the city on the globe, you can give them as much information about the city as they can retain. You can continue with this activity for different countries around the world. Also, make them understand what equator, latitude and longitude is, by helping them go through an atlas and globe with you.
Develop entrepreneurial abilities
Summer vacation is a good time to make your kid responsible. A fun summer activity for kids: involve them in small entrepreneurial tasks. Perhaps you can ask them to collect different shaped stones and paint a face on it. Let them draw or make eid cards and hold an exhibition displaying their works of art at home. Invite your family over. Encourage your kid to sell the cards and stone paintings for a small amount. Develop negotiation and bargaining skills. Collect the savings and put them in a money box. When the child has earned enough money, you can buy them their favourite puzzle game or a bicycle – whatever makes them happy.
A good deed box
Developing your kids’ language skills and sharpening their minds to do math calculations is necessary. However, building their character is equally important. A break from the academic session is a good time period to make them a better human being. Keep a box. Whenever your child does any good deed, put some money along with the good deed written on a sticky note. Simple acts of love like sharing his favourite cookie, playing with younger siblings and offering a glass of water to elder people should all be noted down. Once the jar is full, you can encourage your child to give the money in charity.
Clear the clutter race
When kids are at home, you shouldn’t fuss a lot about house cleanliness. It is bound to get dirty. The more you understand and accept this fact, the less agitated you will be. Instead of yelling at your child, give them a competition, especially if you have two or more children. This can turn into a fun activity in summer vacations. Whoever de-clutters the space first wins a prize. This will help you in your daily chores and instill in them a habit of cleaning after themselves. You can also check out more tips on how to declutter your home in a weekend.
Scavenger Hunt
One of the best activities for children in summers is to involve them in your day-to-day chores. Keep a scavenger hunt box. Ask them to fill it up with objects that they find from A-Z. So, for instance, they can gather a needle, thread, button from your sewing box. Or an apple from the fridge – covering the letters N, T, B and A. Keep doing the activity until all the letters are done.
These are some of the summer activities for kids during the holidays. For more updates on how well you can utilize your summer vacations stay tuned to Zameen’s blog – a leading lifestyle blog in Pakistan
