Summer Vacation Coming Up: 10 Ideas to Keep Your Child Busy

The summer holidays are here, and with that comes the challenge of making sure your children aren’t bored. Summer vacations can be fun parents and children but can get harrowing if the kids get bored easily. Some of the fun ways to make sure that your kids are having fun in summer vacations, and learning something along the way, with these summer activities. See what you can do with Playdoh, cooking, board games, and more.

Tips to Keep Your Child Busy in Their Summer Vacations 

Luckily, Swapna Nair tells us some fun ways to keep your children engaged during the summer holidays:

1. Weekly/monthly planner: Use chart paper and either jointly make a timetable or get your kids to make a colorful timetable for the holidays. Ask them to mark out the activities they’d like to do; guide them and add to their list
2. Board games: Teach your children how to make their own board games. For example, you can cut out squares from the newspaper and create Snakes & Ladders or Scrabble. If the squares are big enough, children can hop on to the squares and move up and down themselves!
3. Pajama Party: This can be organized within the family or with friends, once or twice during the holidays. Start in the evening and make sure you always have a fun theme, like ‘recycling’ or ‘star gazing’— it’s always fun to have a midnight snack party beneath a full moon.

How to Keep Smaller Kids Busy this Vacations 

You could have a ‘playdoh’ party, a ‘glitter’ party, or a ‘turtle party’!  Cover the dining table with large bedsheets—this becomes a turtle tent. Provide them snacks and juice inside the tent, and paste glow stickers beneath the table to make it more interesting.

1. Book clubs: Get the little bookworms together and let them take turns reading out. Play a vocabulary-building game at the end of the reading session, or have a storytelling session/role play using the book
2. Public monuments: A visit to the local public library, museum, park or a monument can be fun if combined with a picnic or a dinner out
3. Cooking: A fantastic and interesting way to get children to make delicious short eats is cooking (without fire, of course). Create varied yogurt bowls using fruits or veggies, or make yogurt smoothies.
   A recent fun-filled evening I had at home was when I asked the children to make colorful ice cubes. One made a juice out of carrot, ginger, and gooseberry, froze them, and then added them to a glass of water. It was fun and yummy
4. Water fun: The best way to cool off is by jumping into the pool. This has to be supervised by an adult. Have a pool game or water aerobics for children, or simply buy a small inflatable pool so they can play away
5. Bird feeders: Make simple bird feeders and water troughs for birds. Ask your child to keep a journal on the various birds, and maybe make a photo album too. Along with this gift them a couple of plants to take care of during summer
6. Make your own move: Children love to use their phones or tablets. Ask them to make a movie on their vacation/family/friends. Children love role play, so encourage them to write their own script and direct the movie. It is a wonderful family/neighborhood activity
7. Movie-themed party: Screen a movie with popcorn and fresh juice for children at home. Ask the children to wear an accessory or costumes according to the movie theme

Above all, don’t forget that when children complain of being bored, leave them alone for some time, because out of boredom comes creativity. You may just be amazed at the games they invent.

How are you keeping your children entertained this summer? We’d love to know! Do tell us in the comments below!