Easy No Prep Free Summer Activities

Summer is upon us.  For me, I am at home with my four kids and playing, (trying) to stay on top of the laundry, feeding constantly hungry mouths, planning hikes and park visits, scheduling play dates, visiting the library, and trying to keep this little blog business afloat.  The kids do a great job of unstructured free play and come up with some pretty wild imaginative ideas.  They are playing school, cops, library, and pirates on almost a daily basis.  Then there is the daily coloring and TV tag in the yard that keeps the kids creating and moving.  We also find ourselves pulling our hair out with bickering kids, whining, and boredom.  A little inspiration in EASY and basically free activities for the kids is needed sometimes.  Use this list of essentially Free Summer Fun Activities for those times when the kids need a little encouragement to create, play, and get along.  Because we all know that sometimes distraction can change a sour attitude into smiling happy kids!

You’ll also be interested in our new Summer Occupational Therapy Activities Packet. It’s a collection of 14 items that guide summer programming at home, at school, and in therapy sessions. The summer activities bundle covers handwriting, visual perceptual skills and visual motor skills, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, regulation, and more.

You’ll find ideas to use in virtual therapy sessions and to send home as home activities that build skills and power development with a fun, summer theme. Kids will love the Summer Spot It! game, the puzzles, handouts, and movement activities. Therapists will love the teletherapy slide deck and the easy, ready-to-go activities to slot into OT sessions. The packet is only $10.00 and can be used over and over again for every student/client!

Grab the Spring Occupational Therapy Activities Packet HERE.

summer occupational therapy activities for kids

 

Basically free summer activities for kids and families this summer. Creative play is inspired play!
 
 
 

 

 

Free Summer Activities for Kids

 
Use what you’ve got in the house with these activities:
Create with recycled materials and make arts, crafts, and activities.
Pull plastic ware out of the cupboards and sort the lids onto the containers.
Mix colors with food coloring in water.
Blow bubbles
Jump rope
Play Kickball
Throw a book picnic: grab snacks, a blanket, and a pile of books and head outside.
Dress up with old fancy dresses and clothes from mom’s closet (then throw them in a bag and donate!)
Bake
Poke holes in a cardboard box and push pipe cleaners through the holes
Bowl with recycled plastic waterbottles
Act out a favorite nursery rhyme
Play Pizza Tag: one person is “it” and chases the others.  Players run from “it” and can stay safe from being tagged by naming pizza toppings and touching the ground.
Put dollhouses or play sets into a bin of shredded paper.
Play hide and seek
Climb trees
Watch and draw clouds
Tell stories where one person starts a story and each person adds a sentence to continue the story.  Write it down and illustrate your story!
Make and deliver lemonade to neighbors
Go birdwatching
Make creative firefly catchers and then catch the fireflies that night.
Play charades
Act out a favorite book
Create with finger paints (make your own with flour, water, and food coloring or washable paint!)
Sing songs
Turn on music and dance
Pick flowers and give them to neighbors
Make crafts. Have an art show and invite friends.
 
Creative play
 
Whatever you do this summer, enjoy every minute and have fun!
 
More creative fun you may enjoy this summer:
 

 

Want to take summer play to the next level? Be sure to grab your copy of the Summer OT Activities Bundle!

Summer activities for kids

Frozen Fruit Kabobs Snack

Have you seen our cooking with kids A-Z posts? We’re cooking our way through the alphabet along with a few other kids’ activity bloggers.  We’re up to K for Kiwi and sharing our favorite summer recipe: Frozen Fruit Kabobs!  These are always a hit in our house, but especially during the hot summer months, the kids love these frozen fruity treats that are a healthy alternative to popsicles.  This is definitely a recipe that younger kids can make.  My preschooler was able to do most of the prep and all of the spearing on her own.  The hardest part of this recipe is waiting for the fruit to freeze!

Frozen Fruit Kabob treat.  Kids love to make and eat these frozen treats! So much healthier than sugary popsicles. Perfect for summer snacks and cooking with kids!
 

 

 

CHECK THE SUMMER ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS OF ALL AGES LISTED BELOW!

You’ll also be interested in our new Summer Occupational Therapy Activities Packet. It’s a collection of 14 items that guide summer programming at home, at school, and in therapy sessions. The summer activities bundle covers handwriting, visual perceptual skills and visual motor skills, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, regulation, and more.

You’ll find ideas to use in virtual therapy sessions and to send home as home activities that build skills and power development with a fun, summer theme. Kids will love the Summer Spot It! game, the puzzles, handouts, and movement activities. Therapists will love the teletherapy slide deck and the easy, ready-to-go activities to slot into OT sessions. The packet is only $10.00 and can be used over and over again for every student/client!

Grab the Spring Occupational Therapy Activities Packet HERE.

summer occupational therapy activities for kids

Summer Healthy Treat for Kids: Frozen Fruit Kabobs!

 
{This post contains affiliate links.  This allows us to buy stuff like fruit.  And popsicle sticks.}
 
Frozen Fruit Kabob treat.  Kids love to make and eat these frozen treats! So much healthier than sugary popsicles. Perfect for summer snacks and cooking with kids!

Kiwi Fruit Kabobs

These fruit kabobs are beyond easy.  Grab a handful of craft sticks
and your favorite
kid-friendly knife.  You’ll want to use fresh fruit that your child loves, but also try a few new fruits.  It’s a great way to introduce something new.  In our case, my older kids have had kiwi before–and my three year old has too, but could totally not recall ever eating it.  Other fun new fruits to try may be star fruit, mango, or pineapple.

Frozen Fruit Kabob treat.  Kids love to make and eat these frozen treats! So much healthier than sugary popsicles. Perfect for summer snacks and cooking with kids!

Slice and wash the fruit.  The kiwi are a little harder to peel and slice, but ours were not extremely soft.

Frozen Fruit Kabob treat.  Kids love to make and eat these frozen treats! So much healthier than sugary popsicles. Perfect for summer snacks and cooking with kids!

Start pressing the fruit onto the craft sticks.  We used craft sticks for the child-friendly safety factor.  You could definitely use
kabob skewers
for a snack created for adult or teens, but because we were making a popsicle-like treat for kids, we went with the safer version.



For easy skewering of the fruit with the craft sticks, we found that if we put the strawberry and kiwi slices flat on the cutting board and poked the craft stick down into each slice, they went on the stick much easier.

Frozen Fruit Kabob treat.  Kids love to make and eat these frozen treats! So much healthier than sugary popsicles. Perfect for summer snacks and cooking with kids!

Have the kids arrange their fruit kabobs however they like.  It was fun to hear each kids’ take on their fruit kabobs.  We had a rocketship and strawberry hats among our fruit kabobs.

Frozen Fruit Kabob treat.  Kids love to make and eat these frozen treats! So much healthier than sugary popsicles. Perfect for summer snacks and cooking with kids!

Frozen Fruit Kabob treat.  Kids love to make and eat these frozen treats! So much healthier than sugary popsicles. Perfect for summer snacks and cooking with kids!

 

Place the fruit kabobs in a flat container.  We used our  snap and stack containers for a shallow kabob holder while in the freezer.  Place the lid over the fruit and wait for them to freeze.
 
Frozen Fruit Kabob treat.  Kids love to make and eat these frozen treats! So much healthier than sugary popsicles. Perfect for summer snacks and cooking with kids!
 
Once they are frozen, enjoy!  The kids will love the frozen fruit treats that they made and mom will love the healthy alternative to popsicles!

 

Frozen Fruit Kabob treat.  Kids love to make and eat these frozen treats! So much healthier than sugary popsicles. Perfect for summer snacks and cooking with kids!
 
Be sure to stop by and see what the other Cooking With Kids A-Z team have created using kiwi:
 
Stop by and see the rest of our cooking with kids A-Z posts!

 

Want to take summer play to the next level? Be sure to grab your copy of the Summer OT Activities Bundle!

Summer activities for kids