School Age Activities

[TwinMama]

Anyone have ideas for school age kids for Summer? Are there toys that you have outdoors or indoors that they just love? I don't do pools at my house because I feel like they're a liability.

I've got 2 possibly 3 school aged kids that get bored. Ages 7, 8, and 10. My daily activities are geared towards the littler kids.

I know it sounds bad but I'm dreading it. The older kids are more work than the toddlers. Any ideas would rock!

[Thriftylady]

Well right now it is easier on me since the youngest just turned five. But we do tons of activities. Planting flowers, today we started planting veggies in the garden we will care for that this summer and cook what we grow. They love the "art box" which is odds and ends stuff and art and crafts stuff. They still love play doh! I don't remember without looking at my list, did you sign up for our penpal program for the summer? If not let me know if you want in I can tell you what to do! I am going to give each of my kiddos a spiral notebook for the summer to journal. They can write, draw pictures, whatever. Right now they have small notepads and they love them. I will come up with more as I plan my summer!

[Josiegirl]

Cooking? Science? Pinterest is a good place for science experiments! Tie dye t-shirts. Find old game boards they could make over into new games(or use poster board). Decorate plain white shoelaces with permanent markers.
As was talked about in another topic(started by Thrifty about her being crazy ) you could plan a virtual trip to different countries or states, make regional food, a craft or 2. What about hula hoops and those jump balls(there's a plastic ring that goes around the foot and a ball at the end of a short cord, they have to swing it around and jump it).
Card games. Board games. Hunts with or without clues.

What are the kids' interests? For instance I have a 9 yo dcg who is horse crazy.
I have a jar with popsicle sticks in it, all have a number. Each number coordinates with an activity on a list. If they fight or whine I'm bored, they HAVE to pick a stick and do the activity it says. Last week was spring break and even though they had a good week they really wanted to pick a stick. My 8 yo dcb picked 'put on a puppet show for the little ones'. 9 yo dcg picked 'write 10 things you like about someone in dc'. 7 yo dcg picked 'write a thank you note to someone in your family for all the things they do for you'.
They loved it.
You could prepare some writing prompts for them. Give them each their own special journal to write in all summer.

[Josiegirl]

Oops, just saw Thrifty's idea of a journal.
Not a lot of toys hold my dcks' interests for long, except for the games. But they do like Lego's.

[LindseyA]

My SA's still like play doh & bubbles. They make their own of both. It's funny how if they make either the play doh or the bubbles, they appreciate it more, are careful not to spill, etc.
I also just went and got a cheapo laundry basket and filled it with all different kinds of balls (football, soccer, basketball, kickball) all for less than $20. They all had more than enough to each have a ball, but most chose to play together. We also do the notepad summer journals, which is always a hit.

[Mike]

Get out the Nintendo, Wii, etc. j/k
That's how many parents keep their bigger kids busy.

If you have the space, outdoors of course, kids that age like riding around on bikes. They also like sports, tag, hide and seek. For indoors, board games. Indoors or out, I find that age like contests or competitions too.

[nothingwithoutjoy]

My oldest kids LOVE the "preschool-y" types of sensory stuff they don't get to do anymore (except at my house): play with shaving cream, "cook" in the mud kitchen, etc.

They have free access in our art studio and go through materials like crazy but come up with some cool stuff. Set them loose with recycled stuff and a glue gun and they could go for hours.

Beads are always a hit.

Magnatiles, unit blocks. (But you have to have a ton so they can build elaborate stuff.)

Cooking! I often ask the school-aged kids to take a recipe and make snack while the littles sleep. They trash the kitchen, but it's worth it.

Mine like wading in the stream, catching creatures, and then observing/drawing them at home.

[Michael]

More threads on school-age activities: https://www.daycare.com/forum/tags.p...age+activities