girl with hula hoop
As summer drags on, hot days push kids inside. But long summer days can send even the most patient mom to her last nerve. When emotions start heating up, it’s time for fresh ideas that can turn a long day into a fun day.
Create a Nerf gun shooting target. Take a sleeve of plastic cups and help your kids stack them upside down in a triangular fashion. Add some action figures on the cups on the ends. Let the kids take turns at target practice, gaining points for shooting action figures. If you don’t have a Nerf gun, use a small soft ball.
Sculpt with aluminum foil. Ask each child to make five animals with aluminum foil and let others guess them. Have a small prize on hand to give to the child who creates the best-guessed animals.
Pore over an “I Spy” book. Go to the nearest library and check out every “I Spy” book you find. Kids can spend hours hunting for carefully-hidden objects on each page, competing with one another on who can find the most objects the fastest.
Finger paint the tub. A great way to extend bath time! Drop blobs of finger paint on the sides of the tub and ask the kids to paint the sides. It’s easy clean up when the fun is over as the paint washes down the drain!
Create a movie marathon with old movies of your kids. Dig out the movies of years’ gone by. Pop popcorn, make coke floats, and create loads of fun while the kids laugh at themselves and their siblings from younger years.
Skype with Grandma. Grandparents love to see the smiling faces of their grandkids and hear about what’s happening in their lives. All you need is a personal computer with an internet connection and a built-in or clip-on camera. Download the Skype application for free and connect with any other Skype user. Help your kids color a special picture or work a hard puzzle and then let them brag about it to Grandma.
Break out the Hula Hoop. Tell your kids that the current world record for continuous hula hooping is 90 hours. Once they give up on that idea, use the hoop to make a reading fort. All you have to do is sew or pin a sheet to the hoop and then use strong fishing line to attach it to a high ceiling or a beam on the lanai. Toss a pillow and a blanket inside and you have an individual reading nook. See neafamily.com for complete instructions on the assembly of the nook.
Build a fort and go camping...indoors. Our kids have spent hours playing in homemade, indoor forts. Let your kids move the chairs from your dining table to an out-of-the way room and drape sheets and blankets over the chairs, securing them with clothespins or rubber bands. Encourage them to take books, games, snacks, legos, or whatever they need to create hours of fun.
Scavenger hunt with your favorite pet. Does your dog have special treats he likes? Hide them in not-hard-to-find-places and time how long it takes for him to find them. If you have a cat and a dog, hide treats for both and see which one wins.
Throw a dance party. Kids have pent up energy on hot days that needs to be released. Blare the stereo and dance around the house. Let the kids pick their favorite songs so they’ll be sure to participate.
Teach the kids how play traditional card games. Play a couple of hands of Crazy Eights, Go Fish, Concentration, Slapjack or Spoons. Or, toss a few decks of cards into apile and let the kids build a house of cards.
Gayla Grace is a freelance journalist who lives in the South and looks for creative ways to entertain her five kids on hot days.