Crafting with Kids: Summertime Fun!

We love summer but, we don’t always love the hot and muggy weather that comes with it. Hot and muggy weather doesn’t have to keep you inside though. There is still plenty summertime fun to be had. Those days when staying inside is very tempting, head outside and play in the water. There are so many water play activities for your kids to do.

I have 2 kids: one is 2 ½ and the other is 7 ½ . They love when I pull out the water activities and let them go. The toughest part is making sure they do not get bored with the same old water activities, which happens pretty fast.

It is so easy to fall into a rut. You get stuck doing the same activities over and over because they are easy. Take a few extra minutes to switch it up a bit.

If switching it up isn’t your style you can also try something that is considered “out of the box”.

How do I switch it up?

I love to keep it easy. The options can be endless, just be creative.

The typical water play includes: water balloons, squirt guns, pools and sprinklers. I tend to try to mix each of these up a bit.

Adding a new challenge or level to your typical things makes for longer fun before the kids are done with the activity.

Water Balloons

With water balloons you can place a small toy or action figure in it and then fill it up until they are the size of a baseball. Place in the freezer and allow to freeze completely. Once frozen the kids can remove the balloon and work on thawing the ice ball to get the toy.

Sprinklers

Sprinklers can be kind of tricky to switch it up but, this is where creativity comes into play. Set up an obstacle course around the sprinkler. Things like: trying to crawl under the stream, try to jump over it, jump into it and try to get all of your body wet at the same time, see how many jumping jacks can be done before the stream comes back to you. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just enough to keep them interested.

Pools

Pools themselves are great and don’t tend to get boring too fast but, if they do: You can find things like floating puzzles or basketball games to add to the fun. If your kids are older you can also add new diving rings or provide safe challenges for them to try.

Squirt Guns

Squirt guns are hard to change. I try to offer several different types of squirt guns to be used I also  offer different sized buckets of water to fill them with. The varying squirt gun sizes allows for different ranges while shooting towards others who are playing.

Out of the box Ideas

These are things you wouldn’t normally think of when it comes to playing outside. This can include things like:

1. Chipping things out of an ice block

Get a few small toys and freeze them in a huge block of ice. Whichever kid chips the toys out keeps the toy.

1. Frozen T-Shirts

Soak a t-shirt in water. Place it in a bag and put it in the freezer. Once fully frozen, give each kid 1 shirt. First kid to get the shirt on wins.

2. Water obstacle course

3. Slip and slide

What about the younger kids?

While the above ideas may be better for older kids you can still mix things up for your tiny ones too. Freeze colored water into cubes and you can add the cubes to a tub of water. As they melt the water will change colors.

They will also enjoy chipping things out of ice but, I would recommend doing it on a smaller scale for them.  Littler ones are also able to do squirt guns. This makes it easy for your older ones and younger ones to play together.

 

These are just a few of the things we do to keep busy when it is hot and muggy outside. Be creative with it and your kids will have a blast. Plus, everyone stays cool.

 

What are your favorite water activities with your kids? Tell us in the comments below!

 

 

 

Meet Stephanie! She’s a 24 year old stay at home Mom, who couldn’t ask for a better blessing than to be home with her daughter!! Their favorite things to do together is working on art projects and they enjoy sharing them with people at Crafting with Bug!! In her free time she enjoys reading and scrapbooking!! Check out all of Crafting with Kids article here!