Things To Do This Summer Part 3: Sunny Day Fun

Warm summer days are easy to plan for; no matter what, the kids can always have fun playing in the yard.   Trips to your local park, the zoo or one of the many wonderful museums in New England are always a fun way to fill up your summer.  Sometimes though, you just want to let your kids do something that’s a little different to keep them from getting worn out.  Even though kids are pretty inventive in finding new activities for themselves, here are some creative ideas that you and the kids may not have thought of yet and allow for some great family time together. 

1. A great way to explore the area and have a fun adventure is to go geocaching.  It’ll be a day for the whole family to spend time together while searching for treasure.
2. For some outdoor fun in the backyard, host your own Olympics!  Before you go outside you can have the kids make their own medals with some cardboard and string.  Once outside create different events for the kids to participate in like running, jumping and throwing.  Another fun thing to do is place cones, Frisbees or something similar around the yard and let the kids race to see who can get the most first.  After the first round, let the kids place the cones around the yard and go again.  This will keep the kids active and let their imaginations run wild as they pretend to be Olympic athletes. 
3. A unique outdoor craft to do with the kids is water balloon art.  Use some cheap art canvases that you can buy at a local craft store and either water color crayons or washable markers.  Let the kids design their own piece of art with the crayons or markers on the canvas.  Then, let them take the canvases outside and throw water balloons at them.  If you don’t have water balloons, water guns work well too.  The water will change the kids original design on the canvas giving them a funky design that they can then decorate their room with. 
   
4. Take the kids berry-picking.  Not only will it get the kids outside, but they’ll have fun picking fruit that you can eat later on!  A lot of berry picking farms have other activities for the kids to do as well.  Once you’re done, let the kid’s help you make something to eat that contains some of the berries that they picked. 
5. Go for a classic American pastime.  A fun treat for the whole family to enjoy is to go to a drive-in.  The kids will not only enjoy getting to stay up a little later than normal,  but the experience of watching a movie  on a giant screen while sitting in the trunk in pajama’s will also make them smile.  For a list of Massachusetts drive-ins click here.

Summer allows for so many wonderful opportunities to have a great time.  With all the ideas that you’ve seen here recently and your own summer ideas and traditions, this summer is sure to be that one your kids will look back on fondly when they’re older just as you do with your own childhood summer memories.

Treasure Hunts for the Whole Family

Does your child relish finding clues and hunting for treasure? In the fashion of his/her favorite character, Blue, Dora, or the contestants on Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman, adventure away from the TV and do some exploring of your own.

My family's most recent discovery is the world of Geocaching. In short, there are "treasures" hidden all around the world just waiting to be discovered, including surprisingly many in our local area. Containers, called geocaches, are hidden in a variety of places such as on hiking trails, at historical landmarks, and near waterways. Using the website www.geocaching.com, you choose where you would like to search and the difficulty level. Then use your GPS and hints from the website to locate the cache. Many caches contain a small trinket which you can keep and then leave a new one for the next person. Basic membership online is free. Kids have a lot of fun discovering nature, not to mention getting some exercise and learning about history and geography.

Letterboxing www.letterboxing.org is another family-friendly outdoor quest that involves rubber stamping. Lace up your hiking books, grab a home-made or store-bought rubber stamp and your log book, and hit the trail. Like Geocaching, you find trail directions and clues online. Once you locate the letterbox, make an imprint of the letterbox's stamp in your personal log book and leave an imprint of your personal stamp in the letterbox's logbook.

Adventure awaits with the MA Department of Conservation and Recreation's similar Park Passport Program. From coastal beaches and the Boston Harbor Islands to scenic mountain tops and cultural and historic points of interest, the free passport guide book invites you to discover Massachusetts' over 450,000 acre state park system. After exploring a park, find the park stamp box, use a secret combination (from another spot in the park) to unlock the box, and stamp your passport. These inexpensive and close-to-home destinations provide quality family time, enjoyable exercise, and opportunities to learn about nature and history.

In between your outdoor adventures, keep your little treasure hunter on his toes this spring by coming in to the Children's Museum in Easton. Hunt for pots of gold on St. Patrick's Day (Mar. 17), search for hidden teddy bears on Teddy Bear Day (May 6), or come in any day during school vacation week (April 19-23) for a dinosaur investigation.