77 Screen-Free Summer Activities for Kids

Looking for some fun activities to do with your kids this summer? I’ve enjoyed 22 summers with kids (and counting!), so I certainly have a few ideas to share! (Subscribe here so you won’t miss out!) Today’s post includes: 77 Screen-Free Summer Activities for Kids

List of Screen-Free Activities for Summer Fun

You might remember seeing this list a couple summers ago. It is huge and wonderful, and therefore well worth posting again! Get ready to be inspired as you see all of these great screen-free activity ideas!

Ready to get lots of ideas of ways to spend time with your kids and their friends while staying away from screens? Here we go!

Read, Read Read!

We’ve already talked about all the good books to read! (Did you see this list?) First and foremost, cooling off under the fan with a good book is a perfect screen free option this summer. Look over our list of great book suggestions. Join our Summer Reading Party. Read, read, read!

Have a Board Games Tournament

Select any of the following, making adjustments depending on your kids’ ages. If your kids are old enough, enjoying any of these games in tournament form could be a blast! Even if your kids are “too old” for little kid games, sometimes it’s fun to pull them out and have a “Throw Back Game Day!”

1. UNO
2. Skip Bo
3. Rummikub
4. Chutes and Ladders
5. Farkle
6. Checkers
7. Monopoly
8. Scrabble
9. Bananagrams
10. Rummikub
11. Headbanz

Have Fun With Bubbles

1. Have Bubble Races – Hold your bubble on your wand and see who can go the farthest.
2. Set up a Bubble Obstacle Course – Create an obstacle course and try to get through it without your bubble popping.
3. Hold a Bubble Contest – Compete for who has the biggest bubble, smallest bubble, one that flies the highest, one that lasts the longest…
4. Make Big Bubbles – Use lids from different sized cottage cheese, yogurt, or sour cream containers to cut into fun bubble rings. Dip the the rings into the tubs of homemade bubbles, made as directed below. This makes great big bubbles!
5. Check out these Bubble Guns for an extra level of fun!

Need a Homemade Bubble Recipe?

Use Sidewalk Chalk in a Fun New Way

1. Use Water – Dip your sidewalk chalk in water and see how that changes the color and consistency of the art.
2. Have Sidewalk Chalk Contests – Compete for who can draw the silliest, biggest, smallest, brightest, largest, most accurate, etc.
3. Use Sidewalk Chalk to Decorate Rocks – It is like dyeing Easter eggs, only with chalk and rocks!
4. Spread the Love – Write a message of love, encouragement or fun on a neighbor’s sidewalk. Leave a Welcome Home message on a vacationing family’s driveway.

Enjoy Outdoor and Backyard Games

1. Ladder Ball
2. Bocce Ball
3. Kubb
4. Lawn darts
5. Soccer
6. Water Balloons
7. Hopscotch
8. Jacks
9. Four Square
10. Obstacle course / Outdoor Olympics
11. Hold jump rope contests, hula-hoop contests, or roller skating contests
12. Leaf, bug and flower collections or tree identification game
13. Cloud identification and imagination game

Set up Some Water Games

1. Jump on the trampoline with sprinkler underneath
2. Use a fun sprinkler to add fun to the play
3. Slip and Slide
4. Fill a kiddie pool with ice cubes and water

Set up Sand Box Fun

1. Use the sand to draw pictures
2. Bury small toys in the sand box and let the kids hunt for them
3. Add water to build castles and other creations
4. New sand toys and shovels are always fun
5. This dump truck won’t rust if left out in the rain
6. Durable watering can, shovel and rake

Go on New Adventures

1. Park Hop – Go from one park to another in your town and surrounding areas, take a friend, have a picnic
2. Have a Progressive Dinner – Start with salad at one house, hors d’oeuvres at a second, main course at another and end up with dessert at a final house
3. Go Geocaching – With a smart phone and some hiking shoes, you can make this happen. Don’t have a smart phone? Try a handheld GPS.  You will have to scout your locations in advance and bring a list.
4. Go on a Treasure Hunt or Scavenger Hunt – Create a series of clues and a treasure at the end.
5. Go a New Way – Have a destination to which you like to bike or walk? Try taking a different route.
6. Look Online – Use the internet to find new, fun, free things to do in your area
7. Camp out in the backyard – If you can’t do over night, then pitch the tent in the yard for an instant playhouse/fort/hideaway

Set up Creative Indoor Play

1. Sensory Bins with Rice, Beans, or Salt – Let kids play in containers of rice, beans or salt. They can draw letters, shapes and pictures.
2. Play with and draw in Shaving Cream
3. Make Homemade Playdough (Mix 2 cups baking soda, 1 cup cornstarch and 1.5 cups warm water. Stir all together and bring to a boil over medium heat. Pour into something to cool. Once it is cool, knead it and you can play away. If you want to add color, put food coloring in the water before boiling the mixture.
4. Paint with Water Colors – Cover the dining room table with large sheets of paper and let the kids paint away
5. Make a Selfie – Take a large sheet of paper and trace the child’s whole body. Let them decorate and draw the shape to resemble themselves.
6. Hold a Talent Show – Do Mom and Dad have talent? What about the kids? Show it off! Don’t forget the video camera!
7. Get out Simple Art Supplies – Use pine cones, pipe cleaners and googly eyes to create a miniature family
8. Have a Lego Contest
9. Hold a Coloring Contest

Cook Together

1. Make Popsicles
2. Hold a Chili Cook-Off
3. Make a Picnic
4. Hold a Cooking Contest (i.e. Who makes the best cookies?)
5. Take advantage of this time to Teach Your Kids to Cook

Fun Kid Friendly Recipes

1. Download a FREE Kid-Friendly Snacks page here.
2. Homemade Tootsie Rolls
3. Strawberry Cheesecake Parfait
4. Crustless Pizza Pie
5. Easy Guacamole
6. Cream Cheese Salsa Dip
7. Chewy Granola Bars
8. Pudding Pops
9. Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats
10. Cool Pineapple Cream Dessert
11. 5-Minute Frozen Yogurt Cups
12. Easy Blue Raspberry Salad

Here’s to a great summer of fun with our kids! Here are other ideas we’ve shared so far:

• Make Donuts!
• Have a Reading Party!
• Make Smoothies, Milkshakes, and Popsicles
• Go Apple, Berry, or Peach Picking
• Create Blessings for Father’s Day
• Find Ways to Serve Together
• Plan and Host a Party