Summertime is here!

If you find your little kiddos are having too much screen or tablet time and you want to find activities for them right in the comfort of your home, read on to see eleven suggested activities for your kids to enjoy. Hope these activities will make your kiddo's summer a memorable one and that they enjoy it as much as my little monsters did!

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1. Bring out the little Master Chef in them by baking cookies!

What could be more fun than eating the results of your labor of love. Oh, she couldn't wait for the cookies to finish, she had a shot at the batter and totally loved it.

All you need is:

A pack of ready to bake batter mix, we used Duncan Hines Devil's Food cake

An oven, in our case we used our old Turbo broiler

2 large eggs, and a half cup of vegetable oil

Then follow the instructions here.

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2. Make Animal Art with KoKoRu

KoKuRu is colored corrugated paper that comes in strips or A4 size, It is excellent for use in creating 2d and 3d figures like the sample ones below that comes with the packaging. For more ounces of fun, make sure to use googly plastic eyes.

All you need is:

A pack of colored corrugated paper

A glue gun and glue sticks (safety first!)

Plastic googly eyes

Check out our KoKoRu animal creations post for more ideas.

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3. Bring out the science genius in them

Give your little ones a peek into the scientific process by doing an experiment on Non-Newtonian Fluids. I liked this one because it was easy but opens up discussions about viscosity and force and it’s so easy, kids can do it with some supervision. Ask them what happens when they push on the surface of the fluid as compared to when they let their fingers stay on the surface for a few seconds.

All you need is:

A box of Cornstarch and some water (be ready for mixing!)

A glass bowl and a Stirrer (we used metal chopsticks)

Paper towels for cleaning up

Follow the instructions here or watch the video below. We also had fun with some Chemistry in this science post.

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4. Color with their imaginations

One thing my kids always have at hand are coloring materials. Coloring books are an excellent way to pass the time and kill the boredom. My son like coloring car themed coloring books while my older kid loves coloring mandalas.

All you need is:

A coloring book to their liking

Crayons or colored pencils or colored markers

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5. Cure the boredom with Board games

My sister and I spent a lot of nights playing scrabble and monopoly when we were kids. My daughter loved Monopoly and keeping her “money” or not “spending” it too often. I think she liked Monopoly better than Snakes and Ladders but Scrabble is now her favorite. If you also like Jenga or Jumbling tower, it's a fun way to let your kids practice patience.

Check out this Monopoly Town post, this post about Scrabble , this post about learning chess and this post about Jumbling tower for details. Or see the video below on how we made our Jumbling tower.

All you need is:

A Monopoly Town Board game

A Scrabble Board game, a dictionary, a pen and notebook

A tin of Jumbling Tower wooden blocks

A Chess set

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6. Get creative with Polymer Clay

Jumping Clay polymer clay packs is an educational tool that can be used to make 3D creation that will spark your children’s imaginations while helping them “Learn through Play” as their facebook page says. What’s cool about polymer clay is that it hardens after some hours and you can use turn it into a keychain or attach a string to it so it can be used as a phone charm. Sooo cute!

All you need is:

A pack or box of Jumping clay

Check out this post where we made mini owls during my son's birthday party activity.

Samples by Jumping Clay, also refer to below video for cool instructions (video not mine)

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7. Sew up a finger puppets Zoo

For this one we used this little ready to sew DIY packet of finger puppets. It took me about 20 minutes to sew a finger doll with a simple handstitch.

All you need is:

Art Attack Finger Dolls kit or you can also cut out Felt cloth

A needle and some thread

My son loved the lion and chased her sister around screaming “Roar!”, see the post here.

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8. Create a Robot Hand prototype

I came across this very simple DIY robot hands using a bunch of straws and polymer clay (no plastic eyes this time).

All you need is:

A pack of Polymer clay

6 Drinking Straws

A Shower glove

A needle and some thread

Scotch tape

Scissors

Play Doh knife or plastic knife

My daughter had the idea of adding the shower glove. Please refer to the post on science buddies website that we followed to make this robot hand. Check out our post on making the same prototype here.

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9. Build a wooden Jungle

A close friend of mine gave my daughter this interesting crafts box called ‘Woodsies’ which is composed of pieces of Popsicle sticks and shapes of wood that you can use to create at least 11 Jungle animals. You can also get colored markers and color the wooden creations after the glue sets in.

All you need is:

A Woodsies Jungle Rumble box

Glue or a glue gun and glue stick

Our little boy was so eager to make a monkey with the pieces he got, and his sister came up with interesting works of wood art, see the post here.

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10. Try out the Loombands craze

My daughter loved making simple loom band bracelets that she learned to make from her cousin. We have also tried making the more complicated and thick, colored ones from the instructional leaflet that comes with her Garage sale loom bands called the Monster Tail- Rainbow loom set.

All you need is:

A Monster Tail- Rainbow loom set

Here’s a video of a bracelet she made for her dad which is called a Singleband Quadfish loom, check out the full post here. My video is at DLive .

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11. Let them become Storytellers through a Lego Comic book

We did this activity at the Lego iCreate Cafe. LEGO Education phase 2 is the StoryStarter kit wherein my daughter made stories or a comic strip through mini Lego dioramas. She spent 6 hours on this module and had lots of fun!

All you need is:

A Lego Classic kit and Lego mini figures or a Lego Story Starter kit

A camera and laptop for editing

This activity helped my daughter appreciate her Lego kit at home and let her imagination explore storytelling and story progression, see the post here.

Below is a sample of the comic she made. Also Lego Education's introduction to the story starter kit. I do not own this video.

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Have you chosen the activities you and your kids will be doing this summer? Which activity do you think your child will like best?

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Also posted on luvabi.com

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