Summer may be the ultimate time of year to a time to relax and get away, but tell that to kids who are bouncing off the walls. Or espousing the dreaded I’m bored eighteen hundred times a day.
As parents, we want each summer to be more memorable than the next but its often hard to come up with ideas for activities that are family-focused, sensory-prone, yet fresh and new each year. Ideas that are both fun and frugal too. Especially if your child is too young to for ye ole’ summer camp this season.
It’s also important to remember that there are only eighteen summers that we as parents can take advantage of the course of our children’s lives. So we need to be able to make the most of each and every bright sunny day and warm summer nights each week with our children.
So with this in mind, I’d like to share with you 101 free fun family-focused ideas for the summer:
- Go to the Library: Most libraries around the country offer free summer reading programs that encourage kids of all ages to read, and often host other activities like, parties, storytelling events, children’s book clubs, and puppet shows. Check out libraries in neighboring towns too – they might offer something your regular branch doesn’t. Click here to find local libraries.
- Tour a Local Business: Local restaurants are often open to giving kids a behind-the-scenes look at a working kitchen during slow times if you stay for lunch. Many factories offer tours, which can come with freebies to take home. Call ahead to find out this summer!
- Free Museum Passes: Many museums and cultural institutions, like botanical gardens, children’s museums, zoos, and aquariums, that offer free programs to children, parents, and educators (and homeschoolers) before noon weekdays. But even the ones that charge admission often offer free or reduced-rate days or hours weekly or monthly. Also, check Children’s Science and Art Museum calendars for special summer activities – many offer classes, concerts, and tours just for kids. Bank of America offers such free passes too!
- IKEA: Ikea has supervised playrooms for potty-trained kids. Take turns with other moms shopping while the kiddos get a play date on the cheap!
- Home Depot: Home Depot runs free weekend project workshops for kids ages 5-12 for Home Depot every third Saturday of the month. Book your free project today!
- Michaels: Micheals holds free and $2.00 project demos and classes that will keep creative kids happy, ages are craft-specific.
- Apple stores: Apple Stores run free 3-day Apple Camp where kids ages 8-12 learn how to make films. Check out these programs here.
- Whole Foods: Whole Foods offers free in-store kid’s summer cooking classes; check your local store for details.
- Barnes & Noble: Barnes & Noble offer free storytime. Check with stores in your area to see what they have planned here.
- Visit a Farm: Check with farms in your area to see if they offer tours for your pint-size volunteer.
- Volunteer: Develop the spirit of service in your kiddos by plugging you both into a great non-profit or volunteer opportunity this summer. Whether it’s cleaning up a local park, walking dogs at an animal shelter, or visiting residents at a nursing home, summer is a great time to introduce children to the joys of giving back. Search for opportunities in your area here.
- Catch a Movie: Beat the heat this summer with a free movie from your local library. Or if your willing to pay a little, Regal Cinemas’ Summer Movie Express offers $1.00 movies on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings each summer, and Cinemark Summer Movie Clubhouse movies are only $0.50 per movie, per child. Check theaters in your area for similar deals.
- Take a Hike: The great outdoors is always open and waiting for little explorers with REI’s free Kids’ Adventure Journal, where young hikers (ages 6-12) can log notes and draw pictures about their experiences.
- Tour National Parks: Each national holiday, America’s National Parks offer free or reduced admittance to families all summer long. Click here to check out dates for parks in your area.
- Geocaching: Allow your pint-sized anthropologist to explore, find and log adventures this summer with geocaching. Your only one app and a car ride away from finding your family’s next hidden treasure. Click here to find out more today!
- Bake cookies: Celebrate National Ice Cream Cookie day by baking your own cookies and making ice cream at home this coming August 2nd!
- Volunteer at a nature center: Invest your kiddos talents and skills to make a difference in helping wildlife this summer by volunteering at a local nature center. Contact your state’s forestry department for opportunities for your family this season!
- Make a family yearbook: Get a jump-start on holiday year-in-review cards by going to Canva to create free family yearbook e-cards for friends and family this coming holiday season!
- Have a luau in the backyard: Learn about Hawaiian and Polynesian culture this summer by throwing your own luau this summer. The Dollar Tree also hosts plenty of low-cost items to get you started.
- Visit the beach and collect shells: Connect a day at the beach with prehistoric history with just a few seashells and free worksheets for kids! Click here for more details.
- Make a fort out of cardboard boxes: Explorer early American westward expansion and the Oregon Trail by making your own cardboard forts. Click here to learn more.
- Visit a farmer’s market: Give your kiddos a true appreciation for the unsung heroes that are local farmers with a trip to your local Farmer’s Market this summer!
- Stage a neighborhood scavenger hunt: Develop your kiddos sense of awareness with a DIY neighborhood scavenger hunt. Click here for free idea sheets!
- Pick berries: Check with your local co-op to find local organic berry picking dates in your area. Keep the fun going by introducing kids to the skills needed for zero-waste canning.
- Pack a picnic: Pack a zero-waste picnic with nothing more than mason jars and great treats. Then head out with your kiddos for a free summer playdate at the park!
- Sit under a tree: Nothing beats sitting under the shade of a tree in summer. Especially while listening to free e-books for kids from Guttenburg Press!
- Learn a language: Introduce the kiddos to foreign languages with the free Dualingo app for kids this summer. Available for both ios and Android.
- Go canoeing at a local lake: Many public lakes offer free canoeing days for kids each summer. Check your local parks and recreation department for dates and times in your area.
- Build sandcastles: Head out to the beach and practice your engineering skills while building sand castles this summer. Also, see if your area hosts professional sandcastle building festivals to give kiddos inspiration for future beach builds too!
- Write and illustrate your own book: Check out Mystorybook.com and have your kiddo publish their own free e-book this summer.
- Campout at home: Create a campsite in your back yard. Cook outdoors. Sleep under the stars. All without leaving working toilets behind!
- Clean up trash at a local park: Contact your local parks and recreation department for kid-specific trash pick-up days and help your kids develop a sense of civic pride this summer!
- S’more competition: Create a backyard smores competition. See who in your family can create the most imaginative smores recipe this summer!
- Make homemade pizza: Create homemade pizzas at home with the kiddos while learning about Neopolitan pizza history this summer. Click here for ideas.
- Create summer collages: Go for a walk and then make a collage from nature objects you find along the way. Click here for ideas.
- Wetland Conservation: Head to a creek and look at the ducks. Explore wetlands and learn about wetland conservation too. Click here for more ideas.
- Set up a lemonade stand: Teach proprietary skills and a strong worth ethic by helping your kiddos set up and run a lemonade stand this summer. Click here for more ideas!
- Teach Multiculturalism: Introduce issues of multiculturalism, ethnicity, worker’s rights, human rights, and compassion from the Education for Students video series on Youtube!
- Practice your origami skills: Pick up origami paper at the Dollar Tree and create DIY origami installations while learning about Japanese origami culture at home. Click here for an awesome video series to get you started!
- Go biking on a trail: Learn useful navigational skills while biking with your kiddos this summer. Click here to find trails in your neck of the woods!
- Learn your family history: Interview an older relative about what life was like when they were young. Take this information and create a family tree.
- Mini-Chef Monday’s: Get your kiddos into the kitchen with you developing kitchen skills while watching other littles and their parents online too! Click here for more information!
- Create a summer reading list: Print out a list of children’s books that have won Caldecott Medals. Visit the local library and read as many of these titles as you can this summer.
- Create salad spinner art: Learn about basic physics, prisms, and modern art all with just a salad spinner, tempera paint, and paper this summer. Click here for more information!
- Create shadow puppets: Create a shadow puppet theater and then put on a show with your characters with items sitting around your home.
- Plant a garden of herbs and veggies: Teach kids about germination and photosynthesis by planting an at-home kids garden at home. Click here to request free seed packets by mail!
- Make a sidewalk chalk mural: Learn about Amerian mural art by making your own sidewalk murals at home. Click here for lesson sheets.
- Learn about engineering: Teach your kids about engineering with free games, articles, worksheets, movies, apps, and activities on Engineering.com.
- Free kids learning classes: Keep the school year going on a budget with free summer school learning classes from Khan Academy online.
- Teach your kids typing: Teach your kids valuable typing and computer science skills online for free from NitroType.com this summer! Teach your kids f
- Teach your kids how to budget: Start your children on the part of debt-free living early in life by creating a kids-friendly budget this summer. Click here for more ideas!
- Visit a fish hatchery: Teach kids about fish and water safety with a free trip to a fish hatchery. Contact your state forestry department for locations.
- Plant a butterfly garden: Teach kids about metamorphosis up close and personal by planting a butterfly garden at home.
- Pretend to be pirates for a day: Dress up in costumes, plan a treasure hunt, and challenge your kiddos to walk the plank. Then learn about the real Blackbeard, colonialism, and Carribean pirate culture here. Later you can recreate your summer fun on September 16th this year for Pirate Day at your local Krispy Kreme, where when you dress up like a pirate you get a free doughnut!
- Cow Appreciation Day: Raid your closets and play chests for your best DIY cow costumes. Then mosey on over to your local Chick-Fil-A restaurants on July 11th for a free meal on Cow Appreciation Day!
- Free Behind-the-Scenes Tours: Make communication and multimedia come alive this summer by contacting your local tv station to set up a free kid-friendly tour this summer!
- Microsoft Youth Camps: Check your local Microsoft Store for free in-store Youth Spirit kids computer science camps this summer!
- Free Bowling: Strike up two free games of bowling every day of the summer with free bowling pass coupons from KidsBowlFree.com.
- Reward your kids for reading: Reward your kids reading this summer by enrolling them in the Pizza Hut Book-It Summer Reading Program!
- Go to college: Many colleges and universities hold free overnight, week-long dorm-style summer learning camps for middle-school aged kids each year. Camps designed to prepare tweens for college live. Contact schools in your area to find participating institutions this summer.
- Free Camps for Military Families: Click here to see listings for free all-expenses-paid camps for children of active military and veterans this summer.
- Tour historic homes: Check with your state’s historic league to find free historic home tour dates in your area this summer.
- Kids Skate Free: Treat your kiddos to a day of free skating this summer at participating Kids Skate Free rinks. Click here for more information.
- Free AMF Bowling: Register your kids for the Summer Games program at AMF so they can enjoy free bowling every weekday this summer from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. and weekends from until 4 p.m. The Summer Games program runs May 22nd through September 4th. Click here for more information.
- Scholastic Summer Challenge: From May 8th to September 8th, kids can log their minutes spent reading and unlock online activities, earn rewards, and even enter to win books from Scholastic online. Click here for more information.
- TD Bank Summer Reading Program: By reading 10 books and recording them in the TD Summer Reading Form, your kiddos can earn $10.00, which is deposited into a Young Saver account. Kids in kindergarten through 5th grade are eligible for this program.
- Pottery Barn Kids Book Club: Every Tuesday from 11 a.m. – 11:30 a.m., join other local parents and kiddos at Pottery Barn for free story time sessions this summer! In addition, kids will receive a special free gift after attending five sessions. Click here for more information!
- Free App Friday’s: SmartAppsForKids lists free educational and art learning apps for kids, for both ios and Android, each Friday at 8 am EST. Also, check out their list of the 100 best free apps for toddlers, preschoolers, multilingual, and special needs students too!
- Youtube Videos: Check out this list of the best YouTube family-friendly children’s learning channels!
- Kindle e-Books: Check out this list of awesome free Kindle e-books, learning games, videos, and learning software this summer!
- Lego Magazine: Click here to score a free 2-year subscription to LEGO Club or LEGO Club Jr. Magazine for your child!
- Turn the backyard into a carnival: Create a carnival at some with DIY face painting and DIY Palette games.
- Create Totem Poles: Create DIY Totem Poles and introduce your kiddos this summer to awesome Native American history!
- Perform Shakespearean Play: Learn about Shakespeare, the Globe, and all things Elizabethan and then put on your own kid’s Globe-style play! Click here for more information!
- Learn about Bollywood: Check out this list of some of the best Bollywood family-friendly movies for kids. Also, check out this Bollywood dance routine video for kids and then create your own Bollywood-style dance number at home this summer!
- Learn about the Hispanic Culture: Learn about the Hispanic culture, music, art, language, and cuisine this summer at home! Click here for free lesson plans!
- Learn about the African American Experience: Teach your kids about the rich cultural heritage of the African-American experience, created by several renounced African-American professors, and NPR and PBS personalities this summer with resources found here.
- Learn Riverdance: Teach your kiddos about Irish Culture and then try your hand at traditional Irish Riverdance this summer at home!
- Introduce your kids to Opera: Introduce your kids to opera, learn about famous composers such as Verdi, and then watch Hansel and Gretel the Opera!
- Stargazing: Learn about stargazing and identify as many constellations as possible. See if there are any local astronomy groups for kids in your local homeschool co-op or public school central offices.
- Learn with Starwars: Bring the Force into your home this summer with free, fun Star Wars-themed learning materials online here.
- Puppeteering: Teach your kids how to create and mastering puppeteering at home this summer. Click here for more information!
- Kabuki Theatre: Learn about Kabuki Theatre history and then throw your own performance at home this summer!
- Learn about Aesop Tales: Teach your children valuable moral tales by learning about Aesop this summer!
- Norse Mythology: Teach your children about Norse mythology, culture, religion, and history. Click here for free online lesson plans!
- Free Piano Lessons: Receive free online piano lessons for kids from the Hoffman Academy of Music, here.
- Splash Pad Fun: Check your local parks and recreation department for times and dates of free summer splash pad activities this summer.
- Free Cooking Lessons: Cook with your kiddos this summer with free interactive online cooking lessons from the Chop Chop Cooking Club!
- Free Vocal Lessons: Receive free beginner vocal lessons for kids online from the Pitch Perfect Media.
- Learn about baseball: Teach your kids the history of America’s best-loved sport and then break out your baseball gloves and start a game, Sandlot style.
- Go fossil hunting: Bring out your inner archeologist and try your hand at a public archeological dig in your area this summer.
- Learn about Women’s History: Teach your kiddos about women’s history this summer with these free online lesson plans.
- Learn Civics: Schedule a tour of your local courthouse and municipal building to teach your kiddos hands-on examples of civics and local politics this summer!
- Visit a fire station: Help your kiddos learn about fire safety by scheduling a tour of your local firehouse. Then reward your local firefighters by bringing them a homemade meal you and your kids make at home!
- Game night: Take in a family game night at home or challenge other families online on the Hasbro Family Game Night site!
- Online Family Talent Show: Bring the whole family online with Google Hangouts, Skype, or Facetime. Then have each family member perform a 2-minute skill or talent. Take turns enjoying the fun with friends and family far and near for free this summer!
- Visit a police station: Visit a police station. Familiarize your family with your neighborhood precinct. Also, learn at home about ways to prevent police brutality, racism, and create dialogues for positive cultural tolerance for others in your own community. Then create a family police interaction strategy with your family this summer.
- Teach kids about voting: Teach your kids about voting and create your own mock-family election at home!
- Host a debate: Teach your kids about open dialogue and positive communication skills by learning about the history of the Lincoln-Douglas debates and then throwing your own debate at home this summer!
- Make a comic: Click here to learn basic comic book drawing techniques for kids and then have your kiddos try their hand at making a comic book this summer!
- Become an Olympiad: Teach your kids all about the Olympic games and they have your hand at creating a DIY Olympic games at home with your kids this summer!
So those are my 101 suggestions for free, fun, and frugal family-friendly summer activities for kids! I hope this list will inspire you to think outside the box when it comes to planning fun and frugal activities for your kiddos this summer at home! So now, I have to ask, how do you and your kiddos plan to have fun this summer? I’d love to hear about it below!
