Fun Projects For You and Your Kids This Summer
- Erica Szusterman MA., LMHC
- Jul 5, 2017
- 6 min read
Studies show that spending time with your children improves social-emotional literacy, academic performance, relationships and mental health. As your children grow time spent with parents is correlated with drug and alcohol abuse and risky, illegal behavior. However, it's not the amount of time you spend with your children that matters, it's the quality of the time spent that makes a difference. Just 6 quality hours a week with your child has shown to have a significant difference on your children. Many of us have spent longer binge watching TV shows at night.
Of course sometimes we need a break from the kids. Of course sometimes they're annoying, overwhelming or simply giant assholes. Everyone feels like that sometimes. Raising children is so fucking indescribably hard. However, if you feel like it's too hard - like it's impossible and they're constantly driving you crazy and you can't catch a break and you just need to get the fuck out of there... it might be time to seek some help. There are strategies that you can use for both yourself and your children that can help.
But that is not the point of this particular blog post. This particular blog post is about creating quality time for you and your child. Quality time can be anything from playing, to creating, to listening and dancing to music, to taking a walk. And now that school is ending and summer is just about here, I'd love to share some ideas that you can use to enhance the quality of time you spend with you and your family.
Calming Jars/Glitter Jars
No matter what you call them kids will love to create this glittery, swirly mindfulness tool with you. Let them add the glitter and pick the colors. You handle the hot water and glue. Afterwards, redirect them to it whenever they become overwhelmed and have them watch the glitter until every last drop hits the bottom. Play with the amount of glue and water until you're able to get the perfect settling time for a "time out" tool. Or just display it in their room and chalk it up to time well spent crafting with your kid.
Game Night
Never under estimate the power of a good ol' fashioned game night. Stick with the classics like Monopoly, Jenga, Uno or Life. Looking for something new?
Try:
Perpetual Commotion - This game is a personal favorite of mine and can be played with kids and adults of all ages. Perpetual Commotion is a fast and furious card game where players scramble to play the same colored cards in number order into the center arena. The more cards you play, the more points you score. There are no turns and all players are playing on the same stacks of cards. Can you get your cards out first? Recommended for kids ages 8+.
Yeti In Spaghetti - Similar to Jenga but with yetis and pasta. Carefully remove noodles from the bowl without disturbing the yeti. Recommended for kids ages 4+.
Labyrinth - Make your way through the ever changing labyrinth in this fun, mythical strategy game filled with dragons, princesses, ghosts and genies. Recommended for kids ages 8+.
Exploding Kittens: A Card Game About Kittens and Explosions and Sometimes Goats - Recommended for children ages 7+. Essentially a game of Russian Roulette for kids. I have yet to play this game myself, however, I've heard from friends with children that their kids love this game. It's got great reviews on amazon. Make sure you don't accidentally confuse the kids card game with the adult version.
Pancake Pile-Up - Race to stack and serve your pancakes to match your order cards. Be the first to correctly complete a pancake stack and top it with a pat of butter! Encourages movement, helps develop fine motor skills and practices impulse control and sequencing. Recommended for kids ages 4+.
Mancala (Mancala Super Stack for kids) - Ancient strategy board game. Both sets come with simple directions and the game is relatively easy to learn. There are many versions of the game so as your kids get older can learn the different types to keep things interesting. The for kids Super Stack version is recommended for kids ages 6+.
Apples to Apples - Select the card from your hand that you think is best described by a card played by the judge. Make hilarious comparisons. Recommended for kids ages 12+. Apples to Apples Junior is the young kids version. Cards Against Humanity is the rated X, adult version.
Say Anything - Similar to Apples to Apples except instead of being restricted to cards you can say anything. You and your family will be able to finally answer the important questions in life. Like what's the best movie of all time. Recommended for kids ages 13+.
Pandemic - Four diseases have broken out in the world and it is up to a team of specialists in various fields to find cures for these diseases before mankind is wiped out. Players must work together playing to their characters' strengths and planning their strategy of eradication before the diseases overwhelm the world with ever-increasing outbreaks. Recommended for kids ages 10-14.
Settlers of Catan - The Settlers of Catan is an award-winning strategy game where players collect resources and use them to build roads, settlements and cities on their way to victory. The board itself is variable, making each game a little different from the next. Each round of The Settlers of Catan is intended to keep three or four players ages 10 and above engaged for up to 90 minutes.
Summer Scavenger Hunt
Try one of these free printables or create your own summer scavenger hunt. Can either have them take a picture of/with the item or if you're with them have them point them out each time.
Outdoor Water Games
DIY Squirt Gun Race - using water guns, solo cups and string you can create your own squirt gun racing game.
Set aside as many plastic solo cups as you have players. Measure out and cut equal length pieces of string (I would recommend about 5-8 feet but can be as long or short as you'd like).
Poke a hole in the bottom of each cup and thread one piece of string through. Tie the ends of the string around two poles/trees or whatever you have handy giving the middle of the rope little to no slack. Make sure that the cups are all facing the same direction!
Squirt the water from the pistols into the cups to slide them along the string.
Water Gun Art - Using water guns, water color paint, and canvas/water color paper you and your children can create fun and unique art.
Use painters tape to create designs first. When finished squirting your water color paint, remove the tape for a personalized touch.
Giant Sensory Bag - Using shower curtains, duct tape and water you can make a giant backyard sensory bag that can be uses are limited only to your child's imagination.
Once it's filled up and sealed with water and your favorite food coloring (or water color color), it can be used as a water bed, slip and slide, bounce pad and so much more.
Better yet, sensory bags are great for sensory play; which helps with cognitive development and fine motor skills.
I've included links for smaller (sandwich bag sized) sensory bags, which I'll sometimes make with kids in my own therapy sessions. The kids love being able to choose what kind they will make, filling them with shaving cream, shampoo, water, oil, glitter, food coloring, stickers, googly eyes, pom-poms, letters and so much more. Not only can these smaller sensory bags be used to help decrease anxiety (in the same way fidget cubes and spinners do), but they also help with fine motor skills, social learning and cognitive development. The only con is that kids can be rough with the bags and if you're not careful they will pop them and you will have an awful mess in the house. Make sure that you supervise play with any type of sensory bag for your child's safety and to prevent horrible household messes.
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