Fun Summer Learning Activities for Kids

Our summer has been filled with sunny days, water play, refreshing snacks and lots of relaxing. Along with all the fun, summer doesn’t have to mean kid’s brains go on vacation too. My kids always seem to be eager to learn something new. Here are some simple ways to encourage kids to keep on learning while they are having fun!

Make Huge Bubbles

My kids love chasing and popping bubbles. They were amazed to create huge bubbles with WOWmazing bubble wands. These cool bubble wands are easy to hold and create amazing bubbles using the gentle airflow available on an average day. My kids had a blast taking turns creating bubbles, running after them and popping them. My husband and I even joined in the fun too! Bubble making is a creative science-inspired kid’s activity and a great excuse for kids to run around and get some exercise.

We mixed a packet of the concentrated bubble solution with a quart of water in a bucket. The rope part of the wand goes into the solution and makes huge bubbles when held in front of any gentle airflow. My husband experimented and learned that twisting the wand helps to create individual bubbles rather than a huge long bubble.

This bubble activity easily inspires 30 minutes of play and allows you to create hundreds of huge bubbles before you run out of bubble solution from 1 packet on concentrate.

Do Interactive Workbooks

Learning is so much fun when kids can draw, cut, fold paper and play with stickers! I Can Do That! books are a great resource to encourage kids to keep learning through the summer and into the school year. Each book provides a different interactive set of activities.

My daughter loves stickers and the skill of peeling and placing individual stickers is a great activity to practice. The I Can Do That! Stickers book is perfect for her preschool learning stage because she has to use specific stickers to follow the directions on each activity page. She enjoyed decorating desserts with sticker accents and applying stickers to the matching and counting games, challenging mazes and engaging picture puzzles.

Kids can also embellish the colorful pictures in the I Can Do That! Erasable Art book with scribbles, squiggles, lines, dots and artful dashes. Each picture is designed to encourage little ones to use their imagination and their fine motor muscles. Kids can draw on the wipe-off pages with markers or crayons and design their own art over and over again!

My 6-year-old daughter enjoyed cutting and folding the activities in this I Can Do That! Origami interactive kids workbook. Sixty-four printed sheets feature clever, adorable projects marked with simple cutting and folding instructions no more than three steps for each project. Children as young as two years old can transform an elephant into a teapot; make a lion roar; or turn printed flower paper into a pretty bouquet. These kids workbooks are a super fun educational activity.

Get Creative with DIY Paint

My kids LOVE painting. They play with finger paint, mix up homemade sidewalk paint, design potato stamp patterns, play with watercolor paints and create custom art with acrylics on canvas. These 3 easy homemade paint recipes are simple to make with ingredients you probably already have!

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Homemade Sidewalk Paint

Make colorful DIY sidewalk paint with 1 cup water, 1 1/2 cups cornstarch, 2 tbsp. baking soda and 3-4 drops food coloring. My kids love designing washable art on the sidewalk and I appreciate that it keeps them busy for 30 minutes. You can find full details about how to make sidewalk paint here.

DIY Finger Paint

Kids can help make glitter finger paint and choose their favorite colors! Finger paint ingredients include 1 cup cornstarch, 2 cups water, glitter and food coloring. Learn how to mix up this fun squishable paint here.

Colorful Potato Stamp Painting

You can use any color combination to create designs with DIY potato stamps. Cut a potato in half and use each half to carve a simple stamp. Dip the stamp in a light layer of craft paint and press it firmly down onto art paper. Kids can easily do this potato stamp project by themselves!

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All you need is a little creativity to keep kids learning through the summer and into the school year. Which of these ideas is your favorite?

Katie Wallace

Hi, I’m Katie! I live with my husband and 4 kids in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. I love Jesus, coffee, creative projects, photography, and traveling. I’ve previously worked as a web designer, journalist, and barista. I hope you enjoy our creative projects and family adventures!