BJU Press Blog

summer activities

Beat the Heat Summer Activities for Kids

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summer activities for kids
Summer is a time to get outside and enjoy the warm weather and sunshine. But what about those days when it’s just too hot or illness forces you to stay indoors? Here are some awesome indoor and outdoor summer activities for kids that help you beat the heat.

Mentos Geyser

This one is perfect for the backyard! All you need is a bottle of Diet Coke and some Mentos (at least half a pack). You can also use a geyser tube, which improves the effect, but it’s optional. Best of all, you are actually teaching about chemical reactions with this explosive activity! Find all the instructions for this experiment right here. And, if the kids get all messy in the explosion, you can have fun hosing everyone off.

Frozen Paint Cubes

Use an old ice tray to freeze diluted watercolors, and then let your kids have fun painting with the ice cubes as they melt! This summer activity is also great for the backyard. All you need is the ice tray and watercolors, and a large roll of craft paper to spread over the grass or patio.

Bikes and Bubbles

Maybe your kids are reluctant riders, but they won’t be any more with this summer activity! Purchase a bubble blower or use your own bubble-blowing expertise to create a haze of bubbles across a quiet neighborhood street or bike path. Your kids will enjoy riding through the bubbles over and over! For even more fun, angle a sprinkler across the path so your kids can ride their bikes through it and stay cool.

Indoor Scavenger Hunt

Design a scavenger hunt that will keep your kids busy all morning—or at least for an hour. You can use objects readily available in your home, or plant certain items for the kids to find. Create a scavenger hunt list, maybe with creative clues for them to decipher. This idea is very flexible, and setup can be adapted to fit the time and energy you have.

Indoor Laser Maze

Do you have a hallway in your home? Use painter’s tape and string or yarn to create a laser maze zigzagging across the length of it! Your kids will have fun trying to get through the maze without touching or pulling down the string “lasers.” The best part is that you can tweak the design over and over to make it more challenging and keep their interest.

Paper Plate Skating

Got hardwood or vinyl floors? Use dryer sheets or paper plates as “skates,” and let the kids skate around on them. Add interest with a little music in the background and an obstacle course to skate around. Or turn off the lights and mark out a path with glow sticks!

With a little imagination and these cool summer activities, you can beat the heat anytime!

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Rebecca is a work-at-home freelance writer, novelist, wife, and the mom of two bright-eyed little ones. She credits her success in writing and her love of books to her own mom, who homeschooled three kids from pre-K through high school.

Science and Water Play Ideas for Summer

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water play
Water—besides its obvious benefits for cooling off during those hot summer days—is a wonderful sensory experience. It’s perfect for splashing, stirring, pouring, and squirting . . . and it offers an ideal opportunity to teach science concepts too! Here are some science and water play ideas for summer, doable with simple supplies that you have around the house.

Science Play and Volume Measurement

Perhaps you have a pool in your backyard, your neighborhood, or your local YMCA or recreation center. If not, an inflatable pool or a large tub filled with water works just as well for cooling off! Offer your kids a selection of measuring cups, plastic beakers, eye droppers, and water bottles with measurements marked on them.

How many smaller cups of water does it take to fill a larger one? When you place an object into a bowl that’s already full of water, what happens? Explore the idea that the volume of the displaced water equals the volume of the object you put in.

Introduce a scale into the mix, and let your kids weigh the water! They’ll be practicing math and measurement skills, all while enjoying water play outdoors.

Physics and Water Play

If you know of a stream or creek near where you live, you can teach your children a lot about physics, including concepts such as flow and motion. However, you can engage in similar science play using a hose or sprinkler in your backyard!

Ask your kids questions like these:

  • Why does the water arc downward when you hold up the hose?
  • How many minutes does it take to fill up a bucket?
  • When you swirl your hand around and around in the water in a bucket or tub, what happens? Why does the water keep moving even when you take your hand out?

Younger kids will simply be fascinated with the way water gushes, drips, sprays, and ripples. Older children may be able to grasp some of the scientific reasoning behind these summer activities.

Biology and the World of Water

Do you have a lake or pond nearby? Perhaps there’s a creek in a neighborhood near you, or a lake within a reasonable driving distance. On a hot summer’s day, take a picnic along and visit your favorite freshwater spot.

Ask your kids to look for life in, on, and around the water. What do they see? Water skater insects, ducks, minnows, larger fish, tadpoles, turtles? Explain a few basics about the lake or pond biome, using a BJU Press science text or biology book.

What does each creature eat? How is its life cycle linked to those of the other living things in the water? Older children may be interested in learning about the different zones of the lake, including the littoral, limnetic, and profundal zones.

When your kids get their hands and feet into the water, they won’t just be cooling off— they’ll be learning too!

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Rebecca is a work-at-home freelance writer, novelist, wife, and the mom of two bright-eyed little ones. She credits her success in writing and her love of books to her own mom, who homeschooled three kids from pre-K through high school.

Educational Summer Activities Your Kids Will Love

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educational summer activities
It’s finally summer break! Your kids are thrilled, but you may already be looking for ways to keep them occupied once the novelty of their freedom wears off. Plus, you’re eager to engage them in learning so they keep their minds fresh for the upcoming school year. Fight the summer slump by planning educational summer activities your kids will love!

Visit a Children’s Museum

Across the country, children’s museums offer kids space to learn, explore, and play. Exhibits often educate children about basic physics or biology concepts as well as other topics including architecture, geology, health, and recycling. From climbing walls to demonstrations, children’s museums are the perfect spot to spend a hot summer day. You may have one in your city; if not, there’s probably one within easy driving distance.

Take a Hike

Nature walks or hikes provide you with plenty of opportunities to reinforce what your children learned throughout the homeschool year. They can bring along notebooks to record what they see and small bags to collect specimens and interesting finds. Your little artists can sketch objects in nature or take photos, while your analytical children may enjoy measuring leaves or weighing rocks. In addition to the beneficial exercise, the kids can practice writing, math and measurement, making observations, and drawing conclusions.

Plan a Day Trip to a Local Landmark

Do you live near the site of a battlefield from the Revolutionary, Civil, or Mexican-American War? Maybe the house of a famous author or the birthplace of a renowned inventor is somewhere near your home. Visits to sites of historical significance make fun, educational summer activities—and often admission is cheap or free! Many of these locations also feature small museums with artifacts, activities, or presentations to enjoy.

More Educational Summer Activities

Looking for additional enjoyable and educational summer activities? Bug-catching is a great way to help your kids brush up on their insect knowledge. A STEM activity like kite-making challenges your children to experiment with shapes and structures to figure out which designs fly best in the summer breeze, while growing flowers or vegetables helps children understand growth cycles and plant life more deeply.

Visit the library and let the kids stock up on DVDs, books, and music CDs. To keep last year’s learning fresh in their minds, assign a couple pages each day from BJU Press Vacation Stations review books. With these activities, plus plenty of time to amuse themselves, your children are sure to have an exciting and educational summer!

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Rebecca is a work-at-home freelance writer, novelist, wife, and the mom of two bright-eyed little ones. She credits her success in writing and her love of books to her own mom, who homeschooled three kids from pre-K through high school.