The girls have been on summer break for a week now, and I’ve already heard the words, “I’m bored!” countless times. I decided I was going to type up a list of all the fun activities we could do, then print it out so we can fight any chance of boredom. Once I got started on the list, it kept growing and growing. Now I’m excited about the months ahead (mixed in with some sleepovers at their grandparents too, of course! Ha!). I’ve listed 72 activities below that are location-neutral, then included 28 that are Houston-specific. Of course, given the Coronavirus pandemic, you’ll want to check to see if/when those places are open.
If you have other activities that you and your family do to stay busy/entertained, please send me an email or write a comment below! I’d love to add to the list. I hope you find this list helpful – it was a true labor of love! xo
Fun Family Activities For Young Kids
- Wash the dishes! My girls all love playing “wash the dishes” (seriously!) in this sink that has a faucet that actually works (it’s basically a water fountain). We typically do this outside if the weather is nice.
- Make slime! I fought this as long as I could, but the girls just love making slime. So now we have very specific rules about where we play with slime. This confetti kit would be any kid’s favorite, as well as this glow in the dark one.
- Do scissor and tape activities! Isla and Emi absolutely love cutting paper up – this Melissa & Doug activity set helps them practice their scissor skills.
- Build with Magnatiles! We have a few different types (gifted from my mom’s best friend!) – I can’t find the exact ones, but these are very similar.
- Have a dance party! Some of our favorite songs to dance to are Thunder, Party in the USA, Can’t Stop This Feeling, Old Town Road, Baby Shark, Happy and Hey Ya!
- Freeze toys in ice and play “toy rescue” as they melt! I got this idea from my friend Julie of Young Wild & Friedman. We will use a big bowl, add a little water, then put in a few gems, toys, characters, etc. I’ll let that freeze, then add more water and more items to the bowl. Once it’s all frozen, we will chisel away at it with plastic forks and warm water. It’s a fun sciencey activity for kids of all ages.
- Play with water beads! This bag will make a billion water beads – they expand significantly once you add water and provide so much entertainment for kids of all ages.
- Read books! This sounds obvious, but sometimes we are scratching our heads for things to do with books all around us. I’m glad the girls love books and am grateful for a full bookshelf. Right now, some of our favorite books that both Emi (3) and Isla (6) enjoy are: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, The Gruffalo (basically all Julia Donaldson books!), A Unicorn Named Sparkle, Pinkalicious, Where the Wild Things Are, The Book with No Pictures, Dragons Love Tacos, Today I Will Fly, Duck! Rabbit!, Miss Nelson is Missing, and Miss Lina’s Ballerinas (my personal favorite as it addresses adjusting to new situations).
- Imaginative character play on themed play mat! We have tons and tons of characters – from movies, TV shows, animals, etc. – and the girls love to play with them. One of our favorite ways to play is to use our princess castle play mat (I can’t find exact link for ours). The girls will play for ages and ages, coming up with wild scenarios and I love participating too. These Camp Castle play mats are insanely cute – the graphics are so beautiful. My favorite ‘people’ are HABA characters – like this dad, this and this girl, and this boy, as well as peg dolls from Turtles & Tiaras.
- Play with a balloon activity kit! My friend, Tiffany, owns a company called Glamfetti and is basically the Queen of all Balloons. She sells these fun balloon activity kits, which I highly recommend. There are a ton of activities she recommends with the things you receive in the box. My girlies love balloons.
- Act out a favorite story! I cannot tell you how many times I’ve had to play the Big Bad Wolf lately! Some fun stories to let your kids play out are their favorite books or movies. We recount princess stories often too! It’s also fun to make up a tale of your own.
- Make an obstacle course! You can do this inside your house or in your yard or driveway! I use these kid traffic cones and make the girls run, jump, ride, etc. around them. Burn, energy, burn!
- Play Spot It! The girls absolutely love Spot It – this Jr. Animals one is easy for even Emilia to play. I will play my hardest, and Isla will still beat me!
- Take a bike ride! Whether it be a baby bike, toddler tricycle, Strider bike (we believe this is the best way to teach a kid to ride!) or big kid pedal bike (Isla’s is a Cleary!), there’s nothing we love more than a family ride. Isla has also been practicing on her rollerblades lately, and Emi, on her scooter!
- Sensory play with Young Wild & Friedman play dough kits! My friend, Julie, makes the most creative, themed play dough kits that have kept my girls entertained for hundreds of hours. We love them so much.
- Play a card game! This six pack is perfect for kids – we love Go Fish and Old Maid the most. These card holders make holding a full hand of cards easier for little hands.
- Set-up a sensory table! This IKEA table is perfect for sensory play – you’ll want to buy two of these tubs to go under the lids too. You can fill the tubs with water beads (reference number 7!), Young Wild & Friedman’s sensory bin contents, sand, etc. Be creative!
- Blow bubbles! “Bubble!” has been in the first twenty words spoken by all three girls – we love bubbles. Bubble baths are a family favorite, but during the day, we will use bubble wands or a good bubble maker. This one from Amazon is the best! Isla’s class also did bubbles in a platter with dish soap, water and a straw. She loved that!
- Play dress up! We have a plethora of dress up costumes – princess dresses, dragons, Minnie Mouse – you name it! The girls have a few costume outfit changes throughout the day. We have this $12 IKEA clothing rack for the outfits to hang on.
- Sprinkler fun in the yard! Attach your hose to this flower sprinkler for little kids or this inflatable structure for older kids for lots of laughter. This is a great way to beat the summer heat without getting in a pool.
- Play with stickers! We love these sticker sets from Melissa & Doug, as well as these window clings. I feel like our whole house is covered in puffy stickers, but they peel off easily, so I’m okay with it!
- Jump around on an inflatable bounce house! This bounce house is perfect for older kids, and this highly-rated one is cheaper and great for toddlers and babies.
- Make window art with paint pens! We love these Crayola window markers – the girls will draw for ages and they wipe off so easily.
- Go for a swim! Whether it’s in an inflatable pool (toddler size or big kid size), at a neighborhood pool or in your yard,
- Visit the zoo! The Houston Zoo recently opened back up, with new social distancing and safety guidelines. We are members at the zoo and definitely plan on going multiple times this summer – but will aim to be the first in the park, given how hot it gets here!
- Play a board game! Our newest favorite is Pirate Game (a gift that I can’t seem to find online!), but we also love Shopping List, Zingo and Guess Who? and play these often.
- Draw with sidewalk chalk! Good ole classic Crayola chalk reminds me of my childhood, and the girls always enjoy drawing on our sidewalk and driveway.
- Play hopscotch! This definitely ties in with number 26, but you can also do hopscotch inside with blue tape or fun mats, like these foam ones from Lakeshore Learning.
- Play Simon Says! The girls always laugh and laugh when we play Simon Says! We take turns, and I inevitably lose every time, but it’s a great way to practice creative thinking on the spot.
- Build with Duplo or building blocks! We have lots of Duplo sets (like these or these) and these building blocks. Buying a Duplo “creative building plate” is a great idea too to use as a base for all of the building. We have made some amazing castles and fortresses with the building blocks – such a great value for $14!
- Bake together! Now, I typically just mean “break apart some frozen cookies and put them in the oven together” – but during the coronavirus quarantine, we did bake a ton of gluten free, vegan banana bread using this Minimalist Baker recipe and it’s DELICIOUS. Our favorite pre-made frozen gluten free, vegan cookies are the Sweet Loren’s Chocolate Chunk ones from Whole Foods. I dream about them! The girls will eat most anything when they have a hand in the process.
- Journal/write letters! My grandma lives in Scotland, and she loves getting mail. She recently broke her hip and had surgery, so the girls have been extra good about writing her letters and drawing her pictures to help entertain her. I have a huge collection of letters my grandma has sent over the years and cherish them! I am sure your friends and family would love some snail mail from your kids! I bought this kindergarten lined paper Amazon for Isla to use when writing letters or journaling. The space at the top for pictures is her favorite!
- Color and bubbles in the bathtub! My girls love these Crayola bath crayons. Some days just call for a mid-day messy, sometimes bubbly bath. I inevitably end up refilling the tub after 30 minutes with warm water because they never want to get out.
- Do fun workbooks! I ordered Isla this 1st Grade workbook to help keep everything she learned in Kindergarten fresh in her mind. They have workbooks for quite a few other grades too!
- Make a bird house out of popsicle sticks! When I was volunteering once at Isla’s school, her librarian read her a book called Sticks – a sweet book which ends with the popsicle stick realizing he could be reused as a bird house. We love the book and are currently collecting sticks to make the house (instructions here or at the back of the book!). You could also just buy popsicle sticks, but that’s not as fun!
- Play hide and seek! The girls go crazy for hide and seek – from Georgie at one to Isla at (almost!) six. It’s a great, classic activity for inside or outside.
- Buy a bug box and collect insects! This pink box and this yellow box are perfect ways to put your pet lizards, worms, frogs, etc. The animal lover in me would love them all to be catch-and-release!
- Make potions with spices! The girls adore making magic “potions” using a variety of spices from our spice drawer. I will let them pick 5-7 spices and make sure they don’t use more than a teaspoon amount of each. They’ll stir, then pour from big bowls to smaller bowls using measuring cups. I basically toss a ton of kitchen utensils at them and let them go to town.
- Make s’mores! If it’s a nice day and Sasha is there to help supervise, we will make s’mores using our outdoor fireplace. If not, “indoor s’mores” it is! This recipe is a great resource. Dandies vegan marshmallows are so delicious, so if you don’t eat gelatin, I’d definitely recommend having those on hand.
- Make beaded jewelry! This beaded jewelry set from Amazon is absolutely perfect for little girls. It has little compartments, but buying a bead box like this Container Store one (I bought 2 of the 10 compartment one!) is helpful to keep everything neat.
- Do a jigsaw puzzle! I think we have 8 of the Melissa & Doug 48-piece puzzles – they’re really great for toddlers. Isla now loves their 100 piece puzzles, like this Under the Seat one.
- Play with a water table! Toddlers and young kids love playing with water tables. It’s fun to add the water beads I talked about in #7 to the table too. My biggest lesson learned from our water table is to empty it out and leave it upside down when it’s not in use or it collects dirty water and gets grimy!
- Make a fort! I grew up making forts out of blankets in our playroom, and I bet you’ve made one before too. We have some huge picnic blankets and quilts that my mom has made – these are our favorites for fort making. We’ll sometimes use cardboard boxes as part of our forts and have tunnels and skylights.
- Play Alphabet Slap Jack & Go Fish! Emi knows all of her uppercase letters, but struggles with the lowercase ones. I ordered her this fun slap jack game and this Go Fish game so we can practice matching upper case and lower case letters this summer.
- Have a round of golf! This Little Tikes golf set comes with two putters, three balls and a putting hole. The girls and their friends (boys and girls) all love to play put-put and this is an inexpensive way to get some putting practice at home!
- Host a tea party! The girls have three different tea sets – all gifts they’ve received for birthdays – and all three get used very often. I’m always being served tea and coffee (normally tap water) and delicious (normally imaginary) desserts. Amazon has a ton of different tea set options if you don’t have any already!
- Jump rope! Isla is just now at the age when she has an interest in jump rope, but I remember being obsessed as a kid. We had Jump Rope for Heart as an activity in elementary school, and I feel like I was a jump rope addict! Ha. These adjustable jump ropes are a perfect weight for big kids to use as they’re starting to learn.
- Paint with shaving cream! I will fill foil baking trays with shaving cream and add splashes of natural food coloring then give the girls paint brushes and let them paint away. The trays become very colorful (and eventually very brown, ha!) but before that happens, I’ll let the girls use the shaving cream paint on paper to make beautiful works of art there too. This activity is too messy for Georgie, who is one. Someone recently recommended that I fill a gallon size Ziploc with paint and let her use her fingers as a paintbrush – she has loved this!
- Have breakfast for lunch (or dinner!). The girls love having crepes, eggs, bacon (sob!), etc. for a non-breakfast meal! We normally don’t do this very often during the year, but during the summer, everything goes!
- Play “kitchen!” We have this play kitchen from Pottery Barn, but you don’t need a kitchen to play – some fake food helps and an active imagination. These toy fruits and vegetables from Target are the best! Melissa & Doug have great play food too.
- Play doll house! We love our dollhouse – we have the older version of this Hape one. I think that the Gaines’ version for Target is to die for (their farm house too!). Isla used to play with the house all of the time when she was younger, and now that baton has been passed to Emi. Using only these two as a proxy, I’d say ages 3-4 are perfect for this type of play.
- Go to a splash pad! Even though we have a pool, I still love going to splash pads because it means I don’t have to get (too) wet while the girls play in the water. This Mary Poppins article is a great resource for finding Houston splash pads. Our favorites are Ervan Chew and Levy Park!
- Pitch a tent in the backyard! This is a great $30 play tent that pops up easily in your backyard. It’s great for pretend camping, but also great for a beach trip so kids can have some shade.
- Have a water balloon fight! These new quick fill water balloons would have been really nice in the 90s/2000s when we were filling them up one at a time! When it’s 100 degrees outside, a water balloon fight is a fun way to cool off. Especially when it’s little girls who couldn’t hit another kid to save their life and the enjoyment comes from the balloons splashing on the ground!
- Play vet! Doc McStuffins is our vet inspo. One of the girls got this vet set for their birthday a few years ago, and we still play with it today. This Melissa & Doug set is also great for young kids who want to care for animals.
- Watch TV or a movie! I typically let the girls watch one to two shows everyday. I try to hold off until I need to make dinner. My favorite educational shows that all three girls enjoy are Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, Word Party, Umizoomi, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Super Why, Dora the Explorer. On Fridays (or rainy days), the girls get to watch movies. They love all sorts of cartoons, but I’m most excited about their newfound love for my childhood favorite – It Takes Two (on Netflix!).
- Color! Coloring is definitely the activity that we do most often. We have a few coloring books that we love, but I typically just ask them what they want to color (i.e. Umizoomi, Kung Fu Panda), then search on Google for “Umizoomi Coloring Pages” and lots of free pictures show up. We’ll either color in those or just start from a blank page. Two of our favorite books are this one and this one. The girls use these twistable crayons to color.
- Get ice cream! Within 1.5 miles of our house, we have a Baskin Robbins, TCBY, Pinkberry and Marble Slab. When it’s 100+ degrees outside, nothing gets the girls more excited than a spontaneous trip to get ice cream.
- Make popsicles! We love making homemade popsicles using these molds. This is our favorite recipe for making a healthy batch of delicious frozen treats.
- Do some gardening! I admittedly have a black thumb, but the girls love to get their hands dirty and be in our garden. Over the weekend, I’m going to get a few pots and seeds so we can plant some flowers. They’ll be responsible for watering them and protecting them to see them grow. This see-thru garden view pot is a fun way for kids to see the roots of their plants grow.
- Make frozen paint! Using the popsicle forms I talked about in #59, we will make frozen paint with water and paint, then paint the sidewalk using the icy colors.
- Perform STEM experiments! I’m going to be sharing more STEM camp activities soon, but this fun kids kitchen experiment book is a great place to start for relatively easy things for young kids to do.
- Write a book! This is SO FUN, and I cannot wait to get this Illustory kit in the mail – Isla is going to love it. Kids are able to draw illustrations and write text for a book, then send it away and they’ll get a hardcover book with their story/pictures sent back!
- Bowl! This adorable $18 bowling set is perfect for a bowling competition in driveway/path or even indoors. I am truly a terrible bowler (gimme bumpers forever!), so I’m hoping the girls will end up better than me after practicing this summer.
- Hoola hoop! Isla can keep a hoola hoop up for a few seconds (Emi, zero!), but she loves it and this “professional” kids hoola hoop will hopefully help them learn. It’s such a great ab workout! I’ll be stealing it too – especially since it has adjustable sizing.
- Have a paper airplane contest! Isla learned how to make paper airplanes over a class Zoom call this spring, and she’s loved making them for the whole family ever since. We decorate them, then have contests to see whose goes the farthest!
- Wash a car or bike! The girls love to go through all the puddles on our walks and I have a white car that is a dirt magnet, so we’ve got lots of transportation that needs cleaning – often! A car/bike wash with kids is like taking 2 steps forward and 3 steps back, but the girls love doing it.
- FaceTime a friend! During this time especially, it’s fun to FaceTime friends and family to see how they are doing. The girls can’t get enough of it.
- Visit the park! Hopefully we’ll see a decline in COVID cases soon, and more and more parks will open back up. We miss swinging, sliding, chasing at our favorite parks and will be there as soon as we can.
- Grab a Starbucks! My girls love unsweetened passion tea lemonades and cookies/cakepops from Starbucks. If they’re being extra sweet (or if I’m in dire need of some coffee), we’ll make a fun trip out of it!
- Host a fun fashion show! I’ll get the girls pick out a few outfits from their closet, put them in a bag, then they get to dress themselves head to toe, then strut the runway while I snap pics. They LOVE doing this.
- Have a confetti fight in your yard! We tossed confetti at each other for an hour on Cinco de Mayo and I haven’t laughed that hard in ages. This confetti paper is biodegradable, so you can have a colorful yard for awhile! Ha.
Houston-Based Activities
- Visit the Houston Children’s Museum
- Go to Discovery Green
- Swim at Typhoon Texas
- Visit the Butterfly Exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science
- Go to the top of Centennial Gardens
- Visit Moody Gardens
- Go to Dewberry Farm, P6 Farms, Froberg’s Farm, Blessington Farm
- Visit Galveston’s Pleasure Pier
- Visit the Kemah Boardwalk
- Play at Levy Park
- Tour Blue Bell Creameries in Brenham (a short day trip)
- Go to Donovan Park and Height’s Mercantile (nearby park and outdoor shopping area – with delicious ice cream at Cloud 10 Creamery!)
- Go to NASA
- Take a photo at the Water Wall by the Galleria
- Watch ice cream freeze at Creamistry
- Go ice skating at The Galleria or Memorial City Mall
- Visit Barnes and Noble for story time
- Go to a Movie Night at Discovery Green
- Paddleboat or take a train ride at Hermann Park
- Visit the Houston Mounted Police
- Visit the Barbara Fish Daniel Nature Play Area at Buffalo Bayou
- Kick a ball around The Green at CityCentre
- Go to The Aquarium
- Visit The Color Factory for some very colorful, Instagrammable photos
- See the Alice in Wonderland sculpture at Evelyn’s Park
- Visit Galveston
- Scavenger hunt at the Arboretum
- Visit the Quillian Center – “Noah’s Ark” pool
