Need Ideas for Summer Time Fun at Home

Bubbles and sidewalk chalk for the little ones, and play 'school' with the older ones. Ask their teachers for leftover dittos and workbooks, they throw that stuff out anyway!! Make popsicles, have jump ropes and hula hoops on hand. And water balloons!! Just keep the broken pieces away from the wee ones :)

My latest obsession: Oobleck! This stuff is awesome, and all it is is a mixture of corn starch and water. It keeps us mesmorized for hours, and although it can be messy, it rinses right off with water. It's this sort of play-dough type material that is somehow pressure sensitive- if you hit it hard, it is a solid, but if you touch it slowly, it's a liquid. It sounds weird, I know, but it's really cool. You have to kind of play with the amounts of water, but it's close to:
- 1 cup water
- 1.5-2 cups corn starch
- a few drops of food coloring of your choice (optional)
Here a cool link about it:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Oobleck/
Have fun!

I use this website a lot for fun crafts/coloring sheets: dltk-kids.com
When I was watching a few little ones we would do story time at home, scavenger hunts (have the older child be the one to make up the hunt), model magic, nature walks (you can include the scavenger hunt for this also).
These are just a few of the things we would do. Good luck!

check out Family Fun's website....also Better Home & Gardens. They have excellent kid activities.

With my daycare, I still do preschool activities thru the summer. Learning never ends with me!

My son attends an in-home daycare and in the summer she does:
- Sidewalk chalk
- Water gun painting (water colors diluted into a water gun and they "paint" pillowcases)
- Tie-dye t shirts
- BBQ outside once a week (the kids LOVE this)
- outdoor sprinklers every day (bathing suits are kept there) and she sets them up like an obstacle course
- make popsicles in the morning for the afternoon snack

we get a kiddie pool, and put it at the bottom of our slide - we put the slide in the pool, tie a hose to the top of the slide, and voila, instant water slide, I get about 4 hours of play with my 3 and 8 year old

You can make bubbles in big rubbermaid tubs and it's more fun and less messy! Get a shallow rectangular tub and fill it with water and then pour in about a bottle of Joy liquid soap. Then fill it with all kinds of fun things like hangers, six pack rings, slotted spoons, etc. Anything with a hole makes a bubble! I also cut off the bottoms of soda bottles and yogurt containers or cut holes in the sour cream lids, etc. I usually put it out for all our parties and it's a big hit!

I also agree with the others to do some sort of water activity every day or most days with kiddie pools, sprinklers, etc. A friend of mine has a giant ball that hooks up to a hose and water sprays out of little holes all over it, it's pretty fun!

We just bought a trampoline and it had been hours and hours of fun for my three year old (we bought a 7 footer with cage). My nieces and nephews all had the huge 12' ones, no cage. No one was seriously injured and provided hours of exercise and fun.

Slip & Slide, sidewalk chalk, hopscotch, lemonade stand, catch lightening bugs, kites, car/bicycle wash

I just went to the Dollar Store today and they were selling these tube like things that squirt water out of them! Any kind of water toys for a small kiddie pool are always fun! Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles! You can never go wrong with bubbles! We have a bubble machine and my kid is entertained for a while with that! Picnics outside are always fun with picnic like food for the little ones! What about a sandbox? Hope these ideas help! PS. we love water balloons as well! Kids of all ages love to throw them! Just be careful that noone eats the balloon pieces after breaking! :)