100 summer boredom busters for kids

It’s summer and the kids are out of school for 10(ish) weeks!

Wait.

TEN weeks?

Summer is a wonderful time to be free of your sometimes chaotic schedules and to enjoy unstructured time with the kids. But it’s only natural that there might be times when you need an idea or two for how to spend a day. We’ve got a few of those.

100 activities to keep your kids busy, active, and happy this summer:

1. Break out the hula hoops and try various games
2. Go geocaching
3. Create and play a fun game of Sidewalk Chalk Twister
4. Go for a bike ride with a fun destination 
5. Have a water bucket relay at the beach
6. Spend an afternoon on a DIY slip and slide
7. Go for a hike and play some fun hiking games
8. Go camping at a camp site or at home
9. Try an Indigenous game
10. Fly kites
11. Plan an Olympics day
12. Tackle an obstacle course in your own backyard
13. Have a scavenger hunt in your neighbourhood or your backyard
14. Find a new playground
15. Go plogging
16. Go birdwatching 
17. Make a super-long hopscotch maze with chalk
18. Blow bubbles
19. Play some active Lego games
20. Have an egg and spoon race
21. Go berry picking 
22. Play ultimate Frisbee
23. Go swimming 
24. Collect rocks and make a stone sculpture 
25. Play games in the sprinkler
26. Jump rope
27. Visit a splash pad
28. Make paper airplanes and see how far they can be flown
29. Write and perform a show
30. Dig for worms
31. Go puddle jumping 
32. Learn to juggle
33. Skip stones at a local pond or lake 
34. Build a sandcastle in your own sandbox
35. Splash up some fun with a water table
36. Collect nature pieces and do rubbings
37. Make your own stilts
38. Pull out the sponges and have a car wash (with bikes, trikes, scooters)
39. Paint the fence with water—use sponges, rollers, and brushes
40. Make your own balance beam and walk forwards and back, or make and perform a routine 
41. Use squirt guns to push beach balls
42. Try some cheerleading moves and make up your own routines
43. Play balloon tennis with fly swatters or pool noodles
44. Get together with friends and learn a game from another country
45. Pull out the tunes and have a dance party
46. Make paper boats and float them in a kiddie pool, pond, creek, or lake
47. Put together a parade 
48. Paint large pieces of paper with fly swatters (use a swatter to flick the paint or rub it across the paper)
49. Have a bike parade  
50. Play charades 
51. Visit a local farm
52. Try some yoga moves
53. Play tag with wet sponges
54. Catapults!
55. Make a piñata from an empty cereal box and fill it with fun pencils, toy cars, hair elastics, stickers, etc. 
56. Practice some yo-yo tricks
57. Create a mini-golf course or go mini-golfing at a local course
58. Play croquet 
59. Use sidewalk chalk to write inspirational messages around the neighbourhood 
60. Play hide and seek with walkie-talkies
61. Play pickleball
62. Learn to Zumba with some online videos and create your own Zumba routine 
63. Go skateboarding—it’s not just for teens!
64. Go camping in your own backyard 
65. Search out the perfect tree (or trees) and climb!
66. Play tug of rope 
67. Play Follow the Leader
68. Chalk bodies! Lie on the ground and trace around each other’s bodies. Colour them in or label body parts
69. Tag, you’re it! Play different twists on the classic game
70. Bowling—find an alley or make your own 
71. Use a soccer ball to play a bunch of games other than soccer
72. Check out the latest Guinness Book of World Records and see if you can aim to beat one (can you balance more than 79 spoons on your body?)
73. Build a racetrack for your toy cars and get racing! (Use pool noodles cut in half or pieces of cardboard, lean them against a porch or tree, and voilà! Instant racetrack)
74. Make a bird feeder
75. Have fun with a play parachute 
76. How many items can you balance on your head as you walk from one point to another? Beanbags? Books?
77. Bucket ball (can you bounce a tennis ball or playground ball and get it into a garbage can or a storage container?)
78. Learn to dribble a basketball between your legs or spin a basketball on one finger. Are there other tricks you can do with a basketball?
79. Create a ball pit with a kiddie pool and balls—jump in or hide small toys to dig through to find
80. Wash your (or your neighbours’) dog
81. Make a robot costume out of cardboard boxes
82. Break out the hacky sacks
83. Find a local museum or science centre. Many have options that blend movement and learning
84. Make your own suncatchers and hang them around your yard 
85. Bring out your inner leprechaun and search for four leaf clovers 
86. Flashlight tag—inside a dark room or play outside in the dark!
87. Download a plant and flower identification app, take it on walks, and keep a list of the vegetation you spot
88. Roll down hills 
89. Shadow games! Can your shadow… wave, jump up and down, fist bump with another shadow?
90. Plant flowers
91. Play Pooh Sticks (a game played by Winnie the Pooh) at a local stream or river
92. Have your own fashion show 
93. Draw a neighbourhood map—walk through your area and add features like schools, cool trees, friends’ houses
94. Be archaeologists—hide a number of small toys in a sandbox and send your kids a-diggin’!
95. Jump waves at a local beach 
96. Have a colour themed day—wear clothes of that colour, eat foods of that colour, or go for a walk and find items of that colour
97. Make your own toy parachutes and find different places to throw them from
98. Play “mud restaurant” with meals prepared from sticks, mud and other items from a park or backyard
99. Have a water gun fight
100. Start a collection of pinecones, feathers, shells, etc. How many pinecones can you collect before heading back to school?

Ten weeks presents a number of opportunities for you and your children to make memories to last a lifetime! 

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Check out these other summer activity ideas:

• 25 camping activities to keep kids happy, active, and engaged
• A printable list of easy ideas for an active summer
• 15 retro activities for a fun-filled summer