Beat End-of-Summer Boredom
Here are some great free activities to beat summer boredom (or boredom any time of year)!
Visit a Washington State Park for a day or overnight trip. Foster and kinship families can visit for free! Ask a forest ranger for a Junior Ranger Program activity booklet. When completed, your child can earn a Junior Ranger pin and other fun collectibles. For more information on Junior Ranger programs, see here.
Set up a tent or shelter in your backyard or living room, grab blankets and pillows, check out some books from the library, and enjoy a relaxing backyard/living room campout. Add my son’s favorite raw s’mores for the perfect “camping” experience!
Explore a favorite trail or park near you with an Adventure Pack from your local library.
Visit a Seattle museum during one of their First Thursdays (first Thursdays of each month), then have a homemade picnic on the Seattle waterfront. For information on Seattle First Thursdays, see here.
Ride a Washington State Ferry or Link Light Rail to a new destination. Kids ride free!
Explore a local museum, garden, or zoo you’ve never visited before. Most offer discounted or free membership to foster and kinship families.
Take a virtual museum tour to explore the latest exhibits and get an inside look at twelve famous museums with free virtual video tours.
Walk a nearby walking trail and create different goals or challenges (e.g., walk from one end to another one mile at a time).
Have your child choose a sticker (or two or three) and place them on a piece of paper. They can then dictate or write a Sticker Story based on the stickers on the page.
Complete a Build a Bridge Challenge by gathering simple materials like straws, popsicle sticks, index cards, and tape. Challenge your child to build a bridge between two chairs that can hold a small toy.
Find flat stones and paint them with simple symbols, animals, colors, or pictures to create your own Story Rocks. Once the rocks are dry, use them as story-starters, e.g., “Draw three rocks from the bag and make up a story using those three pictures.”
Go for a neighborhood walk. Spice it up with:
- Scavenger hunt: Create a list of things for kids to find in the neighborhood and let them check them off (with a pen, stamp, or sticker) as they go.
- Bird-watching: Use the free Merlin Bird IDapp to identify the birds you see or hear.
- Play I Spy as you go.
Find ten flat stones, paint “X” on half and “O” on the other half and use them to play Tic Tac Toe with sidewalk chalk, sand, or dirt.
Make DIY sensory kinetic sand by mixing 5 cups of play sand, 1.25 cups of cornstarch, and 1 cup of soapy water.
Tape red yarn or crepe paper streamers across a hallway at different heights and angles to create a “laser maze.” Get to the other side without touching the “lasers.” Bonus points if you ask your child(ren) to create a laser maze for you!
Instead of just going to the park, make it a mission with a themed park crawl. Create a simple checklist for three local parks over a week, e.g., Find the park with the tallest slide, the park with the tire swing, and the park with the purple climbing wall.
Freeze small plastic toys (dinosaurs, coins, or rings) inside a large container or bowl of water for a fun ice melt excavation. Give your child tools like a spray bottle of warm water, a salt shaker, and a plastic spoon to slowly “excavate” the toys.
Visit Washington’s Giant Wooden Trolls. For information on where these five free public art installations are located, see here.
Have a dance freeze party by playing music on a radio or singing, then stopping suddenly and telling everyone to freeze.
Create painter’s tape tracks on the floor to make roads for toy cars, a hopscotch grid, or a balance beam line.
Arrange pillows, chairs, and blankets in an obstacle course for kids to jump over, crawl under, and run around. Or, let them create a course for you!
Bluey fans might recognize this one! Play Keepy Uppy by keeping a balloon off the ground. Make each round more challenging by adding balloons, moving rooms, or using different body parts. See how long you can keep it in the air!
Create cardboard box towns by turning old delivery boxes into cars, houses, or robot suits using markers, scissors, stickers, and any other craft materials you have on hand.
Build the ultimate paper airplane by checking out Fold‘NFly’s website for dozens of free step-by-step paper airplane tutorials.
Gather old clothes, hats, and scarves for a dress-up fashion show. Give them different themes to think about (e.g., by color, by season, etc.).
Learn to draw some popular characters with these free video tutorials from the Art for Kids Hub.
Have your child put on a play, complete with scripts and costumes (Halloween costumes work great for this). Have them perform it for you.
Play restaurant by having your child design a pretend menu, write down orders on scrap paper, and “serve” play food.
Make a pillow and chair fort by draping heavy blankets over chairs and tables to make a secret indoor reading clubhouse. Bonus points: let your child camp out in it overnight!
Use old mail catalogs, junk paper, safety scissors, and glue sticks to make magazine art collages.
Roll out several feet of butcher paper, tape it to the floor, and let your child create a floor mural. Give them prompts of what to draw, or let them come up with an idea on their own!
Watch the International Space Station (ISS) pass by. Sign up for alerts to find out when the International Space Station is passing by, and go outside to see it!
Play Simon Says.
Have your child create a journal by stapling together pieces of paper. Encourage them to spend 10–15 minutes a day writing or doodling about a topic of their choice. They can keep it private or share it with you.
Watch Stories Read by Astronauts in Space with Story Time from Space.
Go on a Virtual Field Trip with Discovery Education and learn more about the manufacturing of robots, visit polar bears and blast into outer space.
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