Summer ideas for kids to stay busy?

Okay mommy’s I need some good ideas of what I can do with my son this summer when he gets out of school he is 6 years old I need to add that he is always on his phone watching cartoon videos something I’m working on trying to break him from to wear it’s not so much I have considered the park maybe go bowling not much come to mind those so I need your help with some ideas to get him out of the house and off that screen!! Any kind of ideas would be helpful FYI we also live in a very small community so we always seem to have to travel for an event which is a downfall but I’m willing to do that extra mile just to have him involved in some activities thank you for your support

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What about the zoo or an aquarium? I know my kids love those places

My 6 year old liked park hopping. We would drive to a playground, then on to another park and so on. Each park offered something different. Splashpad, picnic lunch we packed, eaten by a creek which he could explore. Another playground. And it’s all free.

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We spend lots of time at the library or the local swimming pool, picnics, water fight, children’s museum, arts and crafts.

The screen thing is pretty simple you just take the phone away and don’t give it back. And just go do things with him it doesn’t even matter what it is. Go fishing. Play with chalk. Etc. the phone thing though will be easy like I said just take it away.

I put my 7 yr old daughter in a local summer camp 2 days a week for a few hours. We go swimming a lot, go to different parks and playgrounds. The library, ride bikes, the zoo etc…I also have her in Girl Scouts, where they do lots of activities as well!

Learn words in another language together. Learn to identify birds or other wildlife in your area. Wear gloves and take plastic bags on walks to pick up trash/recycling. Plan snacks. Make birthday or other cards for friends and family. Are there other kids around your son could play with?

Check to see if there are any daytime summer camps in your area that he could go to during the day. Also if you have a local YMCA they usually have a ton of youth programs. Not sure if you need to be a member for that or not though. Museums can also be fun and check if there are any hands on science Museums you can take him too. Maybe have your son start a “summer journal” and go on nature walks and he can document things he sees (bugs, birds, other animals) and when you get back home do some research on what you spotted that day. Bowling can be fun and during the summer bowling alleys have a kids bowl free program. You can sign him up online and he can get 2 free games every day during rhe summer up until I think September 9th. You have to pay for shoes though, and when signing him up they also offer a “family” package which allows you and others in your family that you sign up to get 2 games as well for rhe entire summer. It does cost money, but it’s worth the money if you go regularly. Just Google “kids bowl free” to sign up. My kids love going bowling (9y and 5y) and so does my husband and I and my husband did the math and we would have ended up paying WAY more by the end of summer if we had not signed up for the family plan.

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Get him a bike. Take him somewhere that he can safely learn to ride

State parks, playgrounds, hikes, swimming, allow him to be bored outside or in the house, lego building, drawing cartoons, library, bike riding…

Local library may have summer reading programs
Vacation Bible School
Summer learning programs
Summer camps

I was going to get my kids some Spanish learning computer games.

Bubbles, kiddie pool, mini trampoline, tricycling/bicycling, cooking together, gardening. Home improvement stores sometimes have kids programs where they build a birdhouse or something. See if your library has story hour or other kid programs. Let him pick out and check out a few books for the week. Exercise videos for kids. Make a list of things to look for on a walk: a bird, black shutters, a dog, a flower, an air conditioner unit, a fence, a cow—whatever you’re likely to encounter. Paint by numbers or just paint. Activity books and flash cards for learning. Sewing buttons on scrap fabric. Learn to set the table. Iron pressed flowers between wax paper. Learn a simple instrument (recorder, harmonica, kids’ drum, maracas, tambourine, etc.) lLearn to knit. Put on music and dance. Study something together. Learn what things are called and where they are in a car. Learn Chinese jump rope. Find out what people ate in the Middle Ages. Learn about the impressionists or Dadaism. Keep the info to 20 minutes or less unless he’s up for more.

Set up schedules for your days, sun & rain. Example: Make something for breakfast, get dressed, make beds, wash dishes, read for 15-30 minutes. Then sunblock, a walk & outdoor play, then look at recipes in cookbooks or online & pick some to try. Make lunch, eat & clean up together. Another reading break, or maybe talk about something in the news at his level. Then arts & crafts—lots of stuff at the dollar store, or on Pinterest—then chores or errands, then more outdoor time riding a tricycle/bicycle, tumbling in the grass, playing catch, kicking a soccer ball, whatever. Practice letters, numbers, words, math & other flash cards. It should be time to start cooking dinner together by then. Kids can stir, pour, find stuff in the fridge or pantry, turn things on, measure, read directions, open packages with help.

On rainy days substitute screen time or indoor activities (exercise video, hide & seek, build a fort, pillow fight, drive somewhere) for outdoors. Try old movies like Marx Brothers, old Woody Allen comedies, Abbot & Costello, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang & Flubber, or short educational programs for kids (Neil de Grasse Tyson? PBS kid shows? Something on history channel? Animal Planet?) NASA has space cams, the National Zoo has a Panda cam you can watch, most museums have online stuff. Check out videos from the library. Pick topics to Google or ask Siri/Alexa.

Local churches should offer (vbs) vacation bible school and they have kid camps too. I did a lot of planting with my boys when they were little and now grown they still wanna help momma plant

Rock hunting than paint the rocks and leave them random places . Leave a note for who ever finds it to move it and take a picture of where they put it and post. Fun to watch how it moves around