5 Summer Crafts for You & Your Kids
Keep those kids off the iPad and in the summer air!
Summer with school-age children can be restless. They may not be in school, but unfortunately, most jobs don’t give summers off. If you don’t send your children to summer camp, or to grandmas or friends for a play date, it seems impossible to get your work done and simultaneously keep the kids entertained. Thankfully, summer is filled with many opportunities for good old-fashioned outdoor fun. Here are a few cheap and fun ideas to keep your child entertained during the day, or to do together as a family!
1. Eggshell Painting
This craft takes some time to set up, but it’s a lot of fun. All you need are a dozen eggs, paint, and a canvas.
Directions:
Poke thumb-sized holes in the top of the eggs and hold them upside down over a bowl to drain the contents
Bonus: make scrambled eggs for breakfast so the eggs don’t go to waste!
Fill each empty eggshells with a different color of paint
Place the eggs back into the carton for portability
Bring the eggs and canvas outside, and let your child throw the paint-filled eggs at the canvas!
2. Rock Painting
This one is simple and self-explanatory, but it’s still always fun! All you need are rocks, paint, and a place to be creative!
Bonus: write the date on the back and a sweet message. Go on a walk and leave the rocks throughout town for people to find!
3. Shaving Cream Fun
I know … it sounds odd. But my sister and I’s favorite activity when we were younger was to play with our grandfather's shaving cream. It’s not really a craft, but it’s outside to avoid a mess and involved colors, so I say it counts.
Directions:
Go to the dollar store and buy up as much shaving cream as you'd like (one can per child should be plenty)
If you don’t already have food dye, buy some of that as well!
Either use paper plates, a paper towel, or even a cutting board to squirt out the shaving cream onto.
Add the food dye to the shaving cream. You can either mix it in or have your kids play around with it and have them watch the color change!
Again, sounds weird. But I swear it will entertain them for at least a little while.
4. Natural Art Supplies!
When my sister and I were little we would play in the outskirts of the woods in the back of our house. We would find mushrooms, dandelions, and berries that we would use to make paint. We mashed up whatever we found and added water to make watercolor. Then we picked up pretty leaves and stick and glued them to a canvas and painted with our homemade paint.
If you want to add another layer to nature's art, you could bring in real paint and use the leaves as stamps. Paint the entire leaf and then press it onto the paper, then take it off to create a colorful leaf print!
5. Nature's Mandela
Everyone knows the pretty picturesque Mandela paintings that are basically just random shapes and lines, right? Well, have your child make a Mandela structure from nature!
Think of all the things you could use to create your masterpiece:
Rocks
Sticks
Flowers
Leaves
Berries (if you have them near your house)
Pine cones
Feathers
The possibilities are endless! All you need is a little creativity.
Summer is made for the outdoors, and the time the kids have should be utilized to invest in their creative minds! These summer crafts will keep them occupied and their minds moving. Although, some of them may require more time to clean up than how much time it occupied them. Oh well, it’s all about the fun!
Mackenzie Eaton is a senior Honors student at Sacred Heart University, expected to graduate with her BA in English and Minor in Marketing. She plans to pursue a Master's degree in English after graduating in May 2022.