Got great summer activity ideas? Share ‘em!
Posted by dwalsh on 10 June, 2009
13 people left some feedback
This item was filed under [ Health and Fitness, News ]
Did you know that kids’ television viewing increases 150% during the summer months? There is nothing wrong with some summer entertainment, but kids also need to get outside, use their imaginations, and explore the world ‘unplugged.’ Last week we launched our MediaWise Summer Guide with tons of ideas for how to combat the summer surge in screen time. Since then, we’ve heard some great ideas about the fun ways families fill the summer hours.
We want to hear from you! What are your top 3 favorite summer activity ideas? Post a comment below to share your ideas or share them on Twitter – @MediaFamily.
Check back to see other parents’ ideas!
13 people left feedback on “Got great summer activity ideas? Share ‘em!”
Biking with family to different ice cream shops around the cities.
Attending different semi pro baseball games like the St Paul Saints, and Minnetonka Lakers,and Edina Crosstown Traffic (MBA Minnesota Semi Pro Baseball).
My top three favorite summertime activities are:
Kayaking on one of the Great Lakes.
Reading in the hammock under the maples.
Gardening
I enjoy any activity that takes advantage of the ease of being outside (especially living in the Midwest!). Three favorites include: collecting insects, hiking (or making your own trail), and any activity involving water. During the summer, there are so many wonderful ways to appreciate and interact with the outside world.
Our neighborhood created Wild Wednesdays at our local park. Every Wednesday, from 11:00 to whenever, all interested kids and caregiver meet to play. There is no fee, no registration. Each week is a different theme, for example; sidewalk chalk drawing, sand castle building contest, kick the can, water gun fights and near the 4th of July we'll decorate bikes together. We top the day off with a picnic lunch each family brings. NO need for TV. One Mom created a flyer and passed it out at the end of school.
We bike on one of the many park bike trails in the Twin Cities. When the weather is inclimate, we pull out the family video tapes. So often, we tape live events, but we rarely go back to watch them. It's amazing how fast the time goes once you push start on the tape deck!
Board games–such great fun!
Collecting insects–explore nature.
“slip 'n slide”
My five year old son and I have been having a blast playing our own backyard ball game that is big on fun activity and light on rules. I can be a little too hung up on rules and doing things “the right way,” and this has been a good way to help a Dad lighten up and just play. We take a medium-sized ball (one of those from the big end-display tower racks at the toy stores) and volley it back and forth across the yard and driveway. We each have a “bat” (actually foam-wrapped wooden dowel light sabers I made and finished with fluorescent duct tape) and can either hit the ball with the bat, or kick it. Sometimes we try to score goals on each other, and sometimes just try to get a good volley going. It's extra fun time when one of us hits it up on the roof, and then we have to figure out where it will bounce off.
• Feed the birds
• Wash the dog
• Read together on a blanket under the tree
• Build a fort
• Make a picnic
• Go fishing
• Paint on an easel,
• Use chalk on the sidewalk,
• Plant flowers
• Go camping
• Swim
• Plant a window garden
• Blow bubbles
• Take a ride or bus to the park
• Pick up litter
• Watch birds
• Go to the library then read outside on a blanket
• Watch ants with a magnifying glass
• Make a compost pile or a worm bin
• Plan a nature scavenger hunt,
• Collect bugs the identify them with a library book on bugs
• Wash the car or your bikes
• Plant a family garden
• Repot a plant
Myself, my family, and my children love WATER activities. You have to work with what H2O sources are available
1. the BEACH as much as possilbe
2. Do you have a CREEK or STREAM FOR EXPLORING nearby? If so, you can spend hours. Invest in a small and/or large net. On a stick, pole, or just staple some netting material between two sticks and voila! You and your kids will be amazed at what you can catch. Take a magnifying glass and a bucket to hold interesting things. Swimsuits are a great idea. An innertube or flotation device will be a big hit. From now on your kids will be begging like we begged my dad “please, can we go to the creek?” I even write down places that look interesting to come back to while driving around.
and 3. Collect a bucket or bag of flat rocks and head to any body of water. Teaching the kids to
SKIP ROCKS is a blast from the past. I took the kids to our “secret skipping place” last week. We went through a bucket of “super-skippers” and found a hundred good candidates while there. Wathched the sun set over the water. A can of your favorite mosquito repellant is a good idea. Plus, watch out if you have children under say 6 or seven who haven't quite learned to throw “in front” of themselves yet. My wife caugth a nice flat rock in the chest while standing behind our five year old son.
Now, have at it and let me know what you think.
Check out the City of Minneapolis Mosaic publication- it is full of great ideas for everyone!
Also, check out some of the great city, state and national parks for hiking, picnicing, throwing the frisbee or playing hacky sack. Minnesota is a beautiful state!
We love to set up the croquet set in the backyard and play in the evenings when it cools down a bit in the summertime.
Here are two of our favorite summer activities:
1. Geocaching
This is a high tech treasure hunt that gets my kids onto hiking trails and in public park areas. It does require the use of a GPS to plug in coordinates to find the location, but a little “cache” of treasures awaits on the other end once you've successfully navigated with your GPS. Take a bunch of little prizes (happy meal toys, etc.) to replenish what your children take out of the cache. Go to http//www.geocaching.com for more details to see what caches are in your area.
2. Neighborhood Skits
We invite neighborhood kids to come together in groups to create, design stage and costumes for, and act out their favorite scenes from movies or original skits. At the end of the week, we have an “audience” of parents and older siblings for whom the plays are performed. An ice cream social can follow!
Finding a new destination in and around our city and then biking to it.
When we walk the dog, take a different route 5 days in a row.
One new museum per month to explore.
What a useful post here. Very informative for me..TQ friends…
Cheers,
backyard gardening