At-Home Summer Activities for Kids

If you're like many people, your summer vacation ideas are on hold - maybe even until next summer. So what can you and your family do to enjoy fun in the sun close to home? Check out these eight kid-friendly ideas that will keep you all busy.

8 Fun, Kid-Friendly Activities to Do at Home This Summer

These kid-tested (and approved) ideas are great ways to keep your family moving, creating and playing all summer long:

1. Make egg carton turtles

2. Create photo journals

3. Build a backyard water obstacle course

4. Make solar oven S'mores

5. Watch zoo live cams and learn about the animals

6. Create sparkly slime

7. Make soda bottle fireflies

8. Paint and hide rocks

Here's a closer look at each.

Related: How to keep your kids entertained during quarantine

#1. Make egg carton turtles

Get more from your empty egg cartons by upcycling them into a family of turtles. All you need is some green paint, glue, a few craft pompoms, green pipe cleaners, and sticky googly eyes before you follow these steps:

1. Cut your egg carton into 12 sections.
2. Paint each section green and let dry.
3. Paint darker green spots on each green turtle shell.
4. Cut a pipe cleaner into 1-inch sections.
5. Glue a pompom to each section.
6. Glue four pipe cleaner pieces (for legs) to each section.
7. Affix a pair of eyes to each pompom.

#2. Create photo journals

Send your children around the house on a photo hunt. You can ask them to capture images that represent certain colors, that represent each letter of the alphabet, or even photos of each other. Then, work together to create and style your own hardcover photo book.

Related: 4 fun, interactive Mixbook project ideas for kids

#3. Build a backyard water obstacle course

When the weather's just right, keep your kids entertained by building them - or having them build - their own DIY backyard obstacle course. You'll need pool noodles, a kiddie pool, water balloons, and a few household items to make it your own. Use these ideas to get started:

1. Anchor pool noodles in archways for kids to crawl under.
2. Fill a kiddie pool with water and require kids to splash, spin or spray as one stop on the course.
3. Have one station where kids need to carry a hard-boiled (or not - it depends on how much cleanup you want to do!) egg from one point to another using only a spoon.
4. Include a station in which kids have to throw a water balloon in the air and catch it a few times before moving on, or where they have to hit a water balloon, like a baseball.

#4. Make solar oven S'mores

Have kids gather these materials to make a solar oven in which they'll bake their own S'mores:

• A large pizza box
• Tinfoil and clear plastic wrap
• Pencil, ruler, craft knife, scissors, and a glue stick
• Black construction paper
• A stick or dowel rod

Follow these instructions:

1. Close the pizza box and draw a square on it that's just one inch smaller than the perimeter of the box.
2. Cut out three sides of the drawn square.
3. Glue aluminum foil (with the shiny side out) to the inside of the cut-out flap.
4. Glue another piece of foil (shiny side out), to the inside of the bottom of the box.
5. Tape black construction paper over the foil.
6. Glue plastic wrap to the opening in the lid - from the inside - and make the seal as air-tight as possible.
7. Put graham crackers topped with chocolate on one half of the black construction paper, and graham crackers topped with marshmallows on the other half.
8. Close the box and put the box in the sun.
9. Use a stick or dowel rod to prop open the flap so that the aluminum can reflect sunlight into the box.
10. Wait an hour (less if it's hot) and take out your crackers - then put them together and enjoy!

#5. Watch zoo live cams to learn about animals

Several zoos and aquariums are offering livestreams all summer long so kids from all over the world can learn more about animals. Make an adventure out of checking out different zoos to do some virtual traveling. Here are a few zoos and aquariums you can watch from your living room:

• The San Diego Zoo, which features livestreams for apes, baboons, elephants, giraffes, hippos, koalas, pandas, polar bears, tigers and more
• The Smithsonian's National Zoo Panda Cam
• The Vancouver Aquarium's Jelly Cam
• Monterey Bay Aquarium's Sea Otter Cam
• The National Aquarium's Coral Reef Cam

Looking for dogs, cats, and horses (and their babies)? Check out Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary's Senior Dog Gathering Room, the Kitten Rescue Sanctuary's Kitten Cam, Warrior Canine Connection's Puppy Cam, and the Kentucky Equine Adoption Center's Live Cam. (Check out other options here.)

#6. Create sparkly slime

If you're like many moms and dads, you've put off on the homemade slime craze because it's messy - but it's really not that bad. All you need is glitter glue and liquid starch. For every one bottle of glitter glue, use 1/8 to ¼ a cup of liquid starch and you're all set.

#7. Make soda bottle fireflies

Soda bottle fireflies are easy to make and fun to play with. Here's what you need:

• Green plastic bottles with lids
• Glow sticks
• Googly eyes
• Pipe cleaners
• Black construction paper
• Glue, tape, scissors, and a permanent marker

Once you have your supplies, follow these instructions:

1. Wrap three pipe cleaners around the base of each bottle, about 2 inches apart, so they resemble firefly legs.
2. Wrap black construction paper around each bottle so it reaches the legs, and glue it in place.
3. Wrap a pipe cleaner around the neck of the bottle to make antennae.
4. Glue googly eyes to the cap and draw a smile.
5. Cut and decorate firefly wings and glue them to the top of the firefly.
6. Break a glow stick and put it inside the bottle.

#8. Paint and hide rocks

Pick up a bucket of river rocks at your local stone and paver supply or gather them on your own. Get creative - paint designs, witty sayings, or cartoon characters on your rocks and hide them around town. For even more fun, join a Facebook group that engages the community. (Hint: search your city's name + rocks to find local rock-painting groups where you can post the rocks you find.)

What Are Your Favorite Summer Activities for Kids?

We'd love to hear about what you're doing to keep your little ones busy this summer, so let us know in the comments below.