Are those lazy, long summer days calling your name? It’s amazing to me how summer can feel so different from the rest of the year. Maybe it’s because our activities wind down, but for one reason or another, summer feels so very different from the rest of our homeschool year. We tend to have so much more time to enjoy all sorts of summer craft activities!
We tend to fall into a much lazier routine around here in the summer. Yet we somehow end up crafting and creating almost every day. Most of the time, the ideas come from my little ones themselves, but once in a while, I will get a spark of creativity and prepare a special summer craft or two.
Summer Camp at Home
If you are looking to add some magic and whimsy to your child’s summer—and looking to keep yours as easy and breezy as possible—you are going to want to check out my Summer Camp at Home! One almost no-prep activity each day right at your fingertips. Best of all, these simple activities spark child-led learning, often lasting for the rest of the day! There are two versions available:
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Summer Craft Activities for Kids
Below are some of our favorite summer craft activities for kids. So many of these come straight from my childhood!
Just before we get into the summer craft activities, I have some super cute FREE Printable Summer Playdough Mats for you! Your child can get creative making some delicious ice cream out of playdough, decorating butterfly wings, making playdough flowers for their garden, and more! Get yours right here:
Weave a Sunflower – This is such a great summer craft for kids! It strengthens fine motor skills, works on patterning and math skills with weaving, and turns out to be a beautiful sunflower. Such a great way to use a paper plate.
Make a Car Track in the Garage – Like they say, the sun can’t shine every day! When it is a rainy summer day, take those little ones to the garage with some chalk. We used to love doing this! Incredible roads and parking lots were created and little ones would play for hours. We have moved since I originally wrote this post and we are now garage-less. I definitely miss it on those rainy summer days!
Wild Child WindSpinners – Summer is definitely for the wild child. My wildest one and I set out to create a beautiful wind chime one sunny summer afternoon, and well, I will just say that this summer craft did not go quite as expected! However, the end result was beautiful. Summer fun for sure!
Marble-Painted Monarch Butterfly – Marble painting is such a classic craft for kids. This was a fun way to explore that painting medium last summer time while making monarch butterflies! We used tissue paper so we could hang them up in the window afterward and have beautiful suncatchers.
Nifty Nature Belts – This summer activity for kids is such a fabulous one to keep up your sleeve! If your summer day needs a little pick-me-up, this one is for you. Grab a roll of duct tape and get to collecting those summertime treasures.
Frozen Yogurt Melts – After all that summertime play, we definitely need some treats to cool off. These frozen yogurt melts are delicious and FUN for the kids to make too. Plus, they’re much healthier than most frozen summer treats!
Wood and Stumps Play – If you happen to be doing any construction this summer time, leave all those wooden scraps for play! And if not, I have a great tutorial for how to make these awesome DIY building blocks. This summer activity is so much fun, fabulous ‘heavy work’, and full of learning too.
Knotted Pillows – This is such a fun summertime craft. There is absolutely no sewing required, making it ideal for kids of all ages! These turn out so beautiful and are even perfect as a craft for kids to make and sell.
Weaving Baskets – Those little fruit baskets are plentiful in the summertime. We decided to grab some yarn and do some weaving . They turned out so pretty! Plus, weaving is such a great learning activity for kids.
A Stairway Marble Run – My little guys ended up having a blast with this activity (after a little while of showing no interest in it whatsoever!!). They loved moving the tubes higher and lower, closer together and farther apart, making that marble go as FAST as possible!
A Flying Egg Carton Helicopter – This is a neat STEM activity for summertime that is full of all sorts of learning opportunities for children. We made these helicopters that spin and twist super fast out of paper and an egg carton. It is an awesome summer science activity for kids!
Pebble Art – If you take a trip to the beach this summer, be sure to bring home some beautiful and smooth beach pebbles. Maybe a little driftwood, too! Creating gorgeous pebble art is so easy and such a beautiful keepsake summer craft.
Dirt Playdough – It’s amazing how you can rekindle complete love for an activity just by changing one little thing–like adding dirt to playdough! This activity was a hit with both my toddler and my older children, PERFECT for a bit of summertime fun!
Seed Art – Grab some glue, an assortment of seeds, and a simple picture, and you’re all set to make some seed art with a beautiful mosaic effect! You can download the owl and leaf templates as a freebie in the blog post, but any simple picture would do!
Summer Journal – Last but not least, keep a summer journal! This printable comes with 100 writing prompts to help spark your child’s imagination if they’re not sure what to write about, and would make such a lovely keepsake at the end of the summer!
What do you think? Did you find some fun and classic summer craft activities for kids? I hope you found a few new ones in there, too!
And if you’re ready for a magical summer with your children—reading whimsical stories, learning about plant and animal life cycles, and enjoying creative and fun hands-on activities—you’ll want Summer Camp at Home!
Grab the Little Kid Edition of Summer Camp at Home here: https://shop.howweelearn.com/products/summer-camp-at-home
Or the Big Kid Edition of Summer Camp at Home here: https://shop.howweelearn.com/products/summer-camp-at-home-ages-6-12
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We are so ready to get fully into summer mode over here. Bring on the sprinklers and hopscotch!
xo
Sarah
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