Summertime is such a great time to make memories! Today I am sharing ways to have fun with kids in the summer. We’re having a lot of fun with Brian + Grace these days, especially now that the weather is nice, being outside is HUGE. Grace is getting to be such a fun age, her personality is coming out in a big way, she’s hilarious and fun and the sweetest little thing, and Brian is (sadly) coming out of the toddler years and into the “little boy” years, CUE THE TEARS!!!! He’s so curious and is always asking questions.
So, on the weekends and at night when we’re all together, here are some ways we’ve been having fun together as a family…
LETTER HUNT
We’ve bought a few sets of these letters throughout the years, and because we have in them in the bath, we play with them pretty much every night. Brian loves anything to do with a “hunt”, so I started hiding these letters around the house and when it’s nice outside. I’ll usually designate a certain area and then yell out “find me the E!” and then I’ll count down from 10 and …he runs around trying to find the E. We make a big deal when he finds it and then move on to the next letter, he LOVES this game.
MAGNETIC TILES
Both Brian and Grace love to play with these tiles. We build castles, shapes, and Grace has lately been enjoying lining them up into long trains.
PLAY DOUGH
Never fails. One of these days I’ll get around to making it in my kitchen, but for now, I buy the tubs from Target. This is the one “toy” where they will actually sit and play by themselves ????
SCOOTER WALKS
Brian LOVES his scooter, and Grace as of late, loves it, too! We bought him this one for Christmas and he’s mastered it and just loves riding it down our driveway. We bought him a bike as well but he’s not nearly as into that as he is his scooter…We caught Grace bombing down our driveway on it sans-helmet so we decided she was ready for her own, and a cute helmet. I bought the radio flyer one but it doesn’t go nearly as fast as Brian’s so she’s over it ?
HIDE AND SEEK
This game never gets old, the kids just love getting “found” and love to see the surprise on our faces when we find them.
SPORTS
Brian Sr. is better at this one than I am, he is all about the sports with the kids. Playing catch, t-ball, soccer, basketball, all of it, and they both love it.
PUZZLES
Brian loves puzzles, as long as we do them together. We still haven’t really mastered the whole, you go do the puzzle and I’ll check on you thing yet, he likes to play with us and at times this can be hard, however I know there will come a day when the last thing he wants is to do a puzzle with his momma so I happily oblige.
SIMON SAYS
We just recently started this one and Brian totally gets it. Grace just likes to follow along and watch all of us do the same thing together, it’s so cute!!
PLAYGROUND
We just got this swing set and the kids are obsessed. It’s so nice to have something in our yard they can have so much fun on, it’s hours of entertainment. We also like to take them to other playgrounds in town to change things up.
POOL
Ahh, it’s finally time for the pool!! We belong to a local pool club which is HUGE, and we also bought this inflatable one for times we just want to stay home. We tried it out this past weekend and they had so much fun swimming around and throwing their play balls around in it. The water was freezing but they didn’t seem to notice. I envision lots of pool time happening this spring and summer!
Phew, that was a lot. What are some of your ways to have fun with kids in the summer? I’d love to hear ways you have fun with your littles, comment below and help a sister out 🙂 You can also checkout my tips for traveling with kids post here.
