Fun Summer Activities for Out of School Children: Preventing Pre-Teen Boredom

With summer now just around the corner most schools will be in recess until late summer or early fall. The kids are ecstatic and hardly wait to sleep in and be free of school, free of homework and free of any demands on their time. The problem here, if your kids are like mine, is that after the first week at home they (the kids) become quickly bored and have no earthly idea how to fill their day.

Older kids (teens) can usually drive and get to locations that provide get-togethers with friends at the local swimming pool, movie theaters, game stations, etc. It is the younger crowd, those between the ages of 7 and 12 which are the most difficult to entertain for an entire summer....and it is this age group which is quickly bored and that complains the loudest.

What to do?

Obviously, a stay at home Mom or Dad can not plan activity for every minute of every summer day for the kids, but giving some thought to activities your kids will enjoy and that will occupy their time will benefit both them and you.

Consider one or two of the following activities each day to help your pre-teen and his/her neighborhood friends stay active and overcome boredom.... [Weather permitting most of these activities can be done outside or on a shaded porch or deck]

Here are some possibilities for consideration. These suggestions will not suit every child or every parent, but hopefully some will. As a secondary benefit these activities ideas may well trigger new and even better projects of your own to add to or substitute for on the list.

1. Hold a Construction Contest:

Announce to the kids that they are going to compete in an architectural contest.

Buy one box of toothpicks for each child in the contest. Provide equivalent number of small bottles of Elmer's glue. Have children withdraw photographs (previously selected and cut from magazines by Mom or dad) from a hat to determine which project they will construct. Potential building projects (as shown in the photographs) may include: An airplane, a car, a high-rise building, a store, an army tank, a spaceship, a tower, boat, etc.

With very little instruction you will be surprised with the results that can be achieved as individual toothpicks are made into small boxes, rectangles, and circles and which in turn are glued together to make various and creative structures, cars, airplanes, etc.

If desired you may want to provide colored construction paper which can be cut to fit and glued over the sides of each construction item.

Best structure is chosen by participants with Mom or Dad casting tie-breaking vote as necessary. Winner receives a small prize.

2. Conduct a Scavenger Hunt:

Spend some time developing one or more lists of items commonly found within your back yard. These should be items that can be found without an extensive search or excessive physical effort, but will require some thought and planning to locate them. Your list may include such items as: any four pointed leaf, 3 acorns, 1 bird's feather, 1 maple leaf, 1 day-lily flower, 1 holly leaf, 1 earth worm, 1 pine needle, 1 snail, 1 smooth-faced rock, 1 red berry, 1 ant, 1 piece of birch bark, 1 dog bone, 1 scrap of newspaper, 1 dandelion flower, 1 buttercup flower, etc.

With some forethought you can develop several lists for use on days in subsequent weeks.

Depending on the number of kids involved you can let them search for the items as individuals or in small teams.

The one rule to be followed is that the search is restricted to the yard where the event is being held.

If no one completes finding all of the items after a designated time period (one hour?) award a prize to the person or team finding the most items on the list.

3. Conduct a Sculpturing Contest:

Announce to the children that they are going to have a sculpturing contest.

Give each child an assigned project to sculpt. These should be relatively simple, well known items such as, the Washington Monument, a car, a tugboat, the Whitehouse, a ferry, the Alamo, Niagara Falls, etc. Adding a photo of each assigned item would be beneficial.

Give each child a bar of Ivory soap (or any other plain, white bar soap) and a kitchen table knife. Give them assignment to carefully carve out of the bar of soap their best replica of the assigned item. [Demonstrate how to carefully shave off small layers of soap at a time to form the shape desired].

In addition to dull knives you should provide some simple 'tools' which will assist the kids in adding detail to their work. These 'tools' would include plastic toothpicks (for use as detail chisels), aluminum nails (used for baking potatoes) for detail carving and a potato peeler for shaving rough edges.

Provide a few spare bars of soap in case there are accidents (broken bar).

Spare bars may also be used in conjunction with a small quantity of water to make additions to the original bar ( to make a room addition to house, for example). This can be done by wetting both ends to be melded and pushing these together and allowing to dry.

To add additional layer of fun (although it gets away from pure sculpting) you can provide small decorative items which can be used to 'dress up' each project. Colored push pins can be used to serve as lights on buildings , boats and cars. Small flags can be made from toothpicks and colored paper and be placed on rooftops.

When all are finished allow the participants to vote on who did the best job. Mom or dad casts tie-breaking vote, if necessary.

Award a small prize to the winner.

4. Conduct a Paper Mache Contest:

As this project can be messy it is best done outside, perhaps on a picnic table covered with newspaper. Maybe because it is messy kids love it!

You will need a 5-pound bag of plain flour, a bucket of water, several days of newspaper, a watercoloring set, a couple of cardboard sheets of paper, and a bag of small round balloons.

Have kids cut the 5 days of newspaper into strips one inch wide and ten inches long (or any dimension close).

In a large flat baking pan or dish mix up mache mix by blending half water and half four. Mix thoroughly.

Assign each kid the task of making a clown's head and face using paper mache.

Start by having each child inflate a balloon until it is full. Tie firm know in the stem to keep it inflated. This balloon will be the surface on which the clown face will be built.

Demonstrate for the kids how to immerse individual paper strips into the flour and water mix until it is saturated. Place one strip on the balloon surface and smooth it out with the fingers. Continue process overlapping strips until entire balloon surface is covered in several layers of paper strips.

As needed replenish flour and water mix and paper strip supply.

Use cardboard strips cut two inches wide and four inches in length which when folded in the center can be embedded in the center of the face to form a nose. Cover this with paper strips.

Use cardboard cutouts in the shape of the letter "D" to attach as ears and cover with paper mache strips.

Use cardboard cutouts in the shape of the letter "C" to embed where lips might go. Cover with paper mache strips..

Embed rolled coils of string or leftover knitting yarns to provide colorful and wild hair.

Use M&M candy pieces inserted into eye sockets to make colorful eyes. (let kids eat leftover M&M's)

Once all of the layers are placed, you will need to let the mache dry overnight.

The next day use inexpensive watercolor sets to paint the faces. Encourage the kids to make colorful lips, cheeks, noses and ears.

Have participants vote on best clown with Mom or Dad casting tie-breaking vote.

Give small prize to the winner.

5. Have a Model Building Contest:

There are many inexpensive and simple model build kits available today in hobby and craft stores. The simplest of these have few pieces and require simple skills that any child can easily master. Most require following simple instructions supported by easy to understand photos that instruct a child how to assemble and paint his particular project.

These kits include all required parts, instructions, paint, glue and brush necessary to complete the project. The range of projects available for these kits includes cars, airplanes, boats, trucks, cabins, houses, stores, etc.

After considering the number and ages of the children involved you can buy any number of kits that are age appropriate.

Give each child a kit and allow it the time to construct and paint its individual project.

In my experience both boys and girls enjoy this experience and treasure their final result by keeping it on display in their room.

As the individual kits may well influence the result I would not recommend awarding a prize following the completion of these projects.

The above is a list, which provides some ideas for entertaining your children during summer break. These are fun (and time consuming) projects which your kids will enjoy and hopefully will lead to other ideas you can use this summer.

I hope all of these are of use and will work to the benefit fit of children, Moms and Dads alike.

Have a happy summer.