Summer Activities for Preschool and Elementary Aged Kids

Summer is long with young children and if you’re looking to avoid excess screen time, here are some summer activities to keep your preschool and elementary-age kids busy and creatively engaged.

A disclaimer: I must confess that I am not some sort of Pinterest Mom extraordinaire. Creatively inclined? Yes. Somewhat organized? Yes. Tired and forgetful and tired? Also yes. I’ve tried to simplify our summer creative plans in a way that makes sense for my kids’ interests, doesn’t cost a lot (if any) money, and is somewhat easy to execute. 

I like to toe the line between “things that are enjoyable for me” and “things that will excite and delight my children.” This means I keep it very simple. We play, we read, we craft. There’s a little pre-planning on my part (see below) and mostly the execution lies at the time of the event.

As a mom of three, I simply cannot be held to the impossible standards social media can hold us to. 

A summer activity solution: I did, however, want to find some ways to fill in the gaps of lazy summer days and trips and day camps with activities that would be enjoyable, and of course, not too much work. The idea of themes was appealing as that’s how my brain works, not because I intend to create a homeschool at my kitchen table (although seriously, props to those of you who do!) 

Here’s what we’re doing:

Summer Activities #1: Create theme weeks based on my kid’s’ interests 

I have a four-year-old daughter and a six-year-old son (my six-month-old baby is not in the equation for obvious reasons). After brainstorming a few things they’re interested in and looking at how many weeks I wanted to fill based on our summer schedule, I made plans for our summer activities. 

• I came up with two themes per child: space and dinosaurs, and mermaids/under the sea/rainbows and princesses and unicorns. (Yours do not need to be so gender-specific; this just happens to be exactly what my kids are into at the moment).
• Next, I looked at my calendar and wrote in our theme weeks so I wouldn’t forget.
• In addition to this, I continue to remind myself that kids at this age are so very easily pleased so there is no need to do anything complicated.

Summer Activities Tip #2: Pick activities, books, and outings — and be realistic!

I know myself and I know that if I have too many things planned, I won’t do any of it. Thus, I found 2-3 (simple) crafty things to do for each week using things we already have at home (recycled cardboard, empty toilet paper rolls, art supplies, stickers, toys, etc). Additionally, I saved ideas to a dedicated Pinterest board to keep it easy on myself for recall.

Moreover, I figured finding books “on theme” would be a good way to fill a day, and a good excuse to get to our public library. So I made Mondays our library day to find books for each theme. I did not have many, if any, titles in mind but simply picked books off the shelves that looked good. And don’t worry about holding school — most of the books I choose are fiction picture books.

If there is a relevant outing for the week, I also penciled that in as well.

Your themes and relevant crafts/activities may look different but here are some ideas to get you started.

Click the ‘+’ below for a few of our theme ideas with theme week activity inspiration.