Summer Activities for Kids – Fun cheap things to do!
We have been waiting a long time for summer and it is finally here! Now that summer has arrived, make the most of it by planning fun activities you can enjoy as a family throughout your summer days without breaking the bank. My kids love the show Phineas & Ferb which shows the adventure of two kids set on packing their summer break full of fun and crazy adventures. They spent their summer building a backyard roller coaster, becoming one-hit wonders, setting up a circus, carving their own Mount Rushmore and many more adventures. While their over-the-top summer plans aren’t really realistic there still are tons of ways you can make this year’s summer break memorable and have a blast without spending tons of money!
Summer Activities for Kids
Summer Movies – Most movie theaters offer a series of summer movies usually for $1-2 per movie! It’s a lot of fun to get out of the house and see a movie on the big screen. You can also visit your local library and pick up new releases and other great movies and books for free and watch them from the comfort of your own home.
Backyard Games – Get the kids to spend some time outside getting fresh air, exercise, and burning off some of their endless energy. Try classic favorites like make a hopscotch game with sidewalk chalk, create your own obstacle course, set up a game of croquet, or make a treasure hunt!
Cool off with Water – Blow up a kiddie pool which will provide hours of fun every day and cool off the kids, too. For more ways to cool off try running through the sprinklers, start a water fight, or wash the car (adult supervision recommended).
Staycation or Road Trip – Many of us like to head off on a family vacation during the summer months. You can make your summer travel more affordable by looking for great day trips to visit around your town. We’ve visited many of the local attractions around Phoenix and always love exploring and discovering more around our city. For a staycation, look for something within a few hour drive to avoid having to stay at a hotel over night. Or, plan a road trip to a nearby city or state. For road trips, look for somewhere around 4-8 hours drive from home.
More Fun Cheap Things to Do This Summer
- Hiking
- Go for a Bike Ride
- Red Light, Green Light
- Mother May I
- Create a board or card game
- Ring Around the Rosey
- Tag / Freeze Tag
- Build a sand castle
- Hide and go Seek
- Jump Rope
- Write a book or comic strip
- Blanket Fort
- Jumping Jacks
- Fly a kite
- Tie Dye a Shirt
- Plant a Garden
- Build a Box House
- Marbles & Jacks
- Bowling
- Miniature Golf
- Build a Bridge with toothpicks and glue
State Farm is hosting a ‘STATE OF SAVINGS’ series
across the blogging world all about ways to save.
There to help you. That’s getting to a better State.
What summer fun do you have planned this year?
Disclosure: Compensation was provided by State Farm via Glam Media.聽 The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of State Farm
I am hoping to be able to take my kids to see Crater Lake!
I remember spending my summers outside doing various activities with the boys of the neighborhood. I was the only girl out there and we all had so much fun racing each other around the block, playing street hockey, the boys teaching me how to skate board, etc. I will never forget those summers! Not a mom yet, but I cannot wait for the day when I get to plan summer activities! There will be lots of trips to the beach planned, hikes, and trips to the aquarium 馃檪
Love backwards days! WE make daily trips to the park, even if its just for 5 minutes, love being outside.
We frequent the local splash pad pretty often. It’s a public park with a water area for kids.
Great ideas – we used to love when a backwards day was declared – clothes on backward, calling each other by names said in reverse, playing board games to see who would get to the beginning first or who would be the “last winner”, eating dinner for breakfast and breakfast for dinner – great for a rainy day especially when I would declare and organize time rather than a free time period – always ended up with a better playroom!
Our favorite summer activity is camping and fishing .
Thank you for sharing some great ideas! We love camping too and going to the library. Just going on a nature walk is a great morning activity too
Great ideas. Another is join a summer reading program at a library.
Love these ideas. When I was little my grandma used to let us “play dishes” in the backyard with a ton of old dishes and the hose! We had a blast – great summer activity!
We are building a tree house this summer
Where I live right now we don’t have a yard and it’s really not safe to go outside, well off the steps. I live in the Ghettos.
But on the first of next month we are moving into a new safer place & we’ll actually have a yard! I’m so excited to go outside and play with my kids for once! Thanks for the great ideas 馃檪
The town I used to live in had lots of summer activities hosted by the library!
We love swimming and going for picnics at the lake!
We’ll be swimming in the creek and spending a lot of time at the farmers market!
This summer we will be spending it at the pool, and walking the tracks. But here in Houston its way to hott!!!
thanks ,my grandkids are always looking for fun things to do in the summer,they arent going anywhere this year so staycations are in order
My husband bought us a membership to the local museum, so when it’s just too hot to be outside, I can take my daughter there to blow off some steam!
We’re definitely doing a staycation, lots of crafts. water play and yes the movies!
I have a lot of ideas!! Thanks for yours!
Good ideas. We live in the country, so we like to have camp fires and roast hot dogs and marshmallows. We also project movies outside on a big screen like it is our own drive-in.
Wow, these are some great ideas! Thanks for sharing!
These are all things I would have wanted my mom to do with me! Can’t wait to do them with my kids!
I need to set up a treasure hunt for my son! What a fun backyard idea. 馃檪
I love it!!!! I”m all about the traditional classic ideas. Perfect, Janel!
Love these ideas. I’ll have to look in my area for theaters offering cheap movies. My kids would love that!
These are all great ideas and ones that I would definitely think of, but of course don’t remember to actually plan and make time for. The most important to me are the outside activities but I know you can only do those for so long here in California when you’re usually in the triple digits. Thank you for reminding me of all the great ideas! My son also loves phineas and ferb.
Thanks for the great ideas! My family will be spending a lot of time in the pool and going to movies this summer.
Thanks for all these great ideas. I pinned them to my pinterest. We just moved to Florida from IL and I love the idea of the staycation, because there are so many great things to do down here.
Love water games outside!!! Super soaker wars, too!
Those are all great ideas, Janel! It doesn’t cost a lot of money to have fun.
Thanks for sharing these ideas. I have two young ones that will be looking for things to do.
These are all great ideas!! We like to spend time at the playground, the beach, and our community pool. Also out community has free activities throughout the summer like movies in the park.
Love your tips.. they will come in handy next week once the kids will be out for the Summer….
Great tips Janel!! Like below, we are in school through June 21. We have a ways to go before summer fun starts!
Love these ideas! I am so happy it’s warming up, we’re looking forward to a great season! Only thing that stinks is that my son actually has school until late June.. totally crazy!
Great ideas! We have a lot of family events coming up this summer so there will be a lot of fun parties to attend.