Are your kids lamenting their boredom yet again as the hot summer continues? Do you feel like all you do is rush them around from one activity to the next? Or, are they getting too much screentime?
It might be time to take a step back and encourage your kids to do something “good” — learn something new, give back to the community or help the earth.
Did you know that volunteerism is down in America? If we all banded together and started our children volunteering young, we could turn that trend around.
Whether you’re looking for some activities to do with your own kids, neighbors, Scouts or another group, we’ve got you covered.
25 “Good” Things to Do With Your Kids This Summer
- Set up a service project
- Do a team building activity
- Hold a book challenge with friends or a group
- Develop performance skills by downloading a play script, rehearsing and performing
- Prevent the summer slide with a reading challenge
- Snag an idea from our list of 88 activities for kids, started during the COVID-19 lockdown.
- Volunteer in the community
- Learn a new song on any instrument
- Visit the library!
- Organize a family fun night
- Make fruit smoothie popsicles and share them with the group
- Create a “nature bingo” game and go on a hike to see who can find the most items
- Perform a Random Act of Kindness (RAOK)
- Organize a clean up of your local park
- Start a community garden
- Perfect a new medium such as acrylic or watercolor paints, and paint a picture for local seniors
- Cook a meal for the Ronald McDonald House (or find a busy family in need)
- Learn to sew and create dolls, animals or blankets for children in the local hospital
- Start a family history chart or use an online service like Ancestry
- Spend time with elderly relatives
- Create a fundraiser to help with a community need, like the local food pantry
- Go through old toys, books and clothes and donate them
- Plant trees!
- Create bird feeders, owl boxes or bat boxes and hang them around your town
- Offer to do chores or odd jobs for a neighbor who is sick or elderly
We can all use a little more good in our lives. Let’s inspire our children to be the good in this world, one activity at a time.