• Raising Boys

  • In The Kitchen

  • Family Travels

50 Ideas For Having The Best Summer Ever With Your Family + A Fun Printable Checklist

There are 93 days of summer, and each should be a blast for kids. Whether exploring and learning new things together, or having fun right outside your front door, parents should encourage their kids to enjoy every beautiful summer day…and join in on the fun!

Here is a collection of 50 fun (and sometimes educational) things to do this summer with your kids to make the most of every single, memory-making day. Want to check them off as you go? We created a fun printable for you! (click here to get on Etsy)

The best part of our time together is making the most of it, and the time passes so quickly… so parents, here is your mission if you choose to accept it:

Make the time count!

Hug more, play more, laugh more, and spend lots more time together. And make it a summer to remember!

50 Fun Family Summer Activities Printable Checklist - Penelope

50 Fun Ideas For Fabulous Summer Fun With Kids

1. Have a water balloon fight
2. Grab a magnifying glass and explore your backyard
3. Visit a prehistoric museum
4. Draw an entire chalk town or city on your sidewalk or driveway
5. Bake cookies to bring to a neighbor
6. Read a book a day together
7. Have a bubble blowing contest
8. Build a lemonade stand and sell homemade lemonade
9. Go to an outdoor movie theater
10. Have pillow fights

11. Create a makeshift slip and slide in the backyard
12. Make a family time capsule and bury it in the backyard
13. Have tickle wars
14. Make scrambled eggs together
15. Build forts
16. Go on a picnic with a blanket and basket
17. Have a joke telling contest
18. Go to the beach and build huge sandcastles
19. Visit a botanical garden
20. Have family game nights

21. Visit a food festival and try different foods
22. Visit a planetarium
23. Play ring toss with a stick and plastic rings
24. Play charades
25. Camp in your backyard
26. Make puppets out of brown bags and socks
27. Make a puppet theater out of a cardboard box
28. Have puppet shows!
29. Make dioramas of outer space, cities, and jungles
30. Visit a petting zoo

31. Fly a kite in the park
32. Go roller skating
33. Have a scavenger hunt and invite all the neighborhood kids
34. Go miniature golfing
35. Put notes on helium balloons with your email address and set them free
36. Write back to whomever finds them and emails you
37. Visit the grandparents, and bring brownies
38. Draw with pastels and colored pencils
39. Paint with watercolors and oil paints
40. Hang up your art all around the house

41. Have a card building contest (whoever knocks it down does the dishes)
42. Stargaze and draw what you see
43. Host a backyard cookout and toast s’mores
44. Run through the sprinklers
45. Go on lots of bike rides
46. Go fishing
47. Try to beat a Guinness World Record
48. Learn a new craft, like knitting or wood carving
49. Learn to swim
50. Paint faces and create a clown act

So go have the best summer ever with your family!




  • Pam

    I love this! It’s easy for the kids to get bored over this summer, so lists like this would keep us full of ideas!

  • Marcie W.

    I have been doing a summer break challenge where I attempt to do one fun thing per day with my kids over summer vacation for the last four years. I will definitely have to incorporate some of these fun activities this year!

  • Jeanine

    Wow this is pretty awesome. I’m really looking forward to summer and now there will be plenty to do! so this will be a great one!

  • Chrystal

    What an awesome checklist! Even though I work from home, kiddo will be spending the summer between her grammie, her moms and her grandmothers. We live in the country and she wouldn’t have much fun cooped up with me all day while I am trying to work. So, our weeks will flip flop. We’ll get her on weekends.

  • Amanda

    These are all really great ideas. Summer is just around the corner!

  • Theresa

    This is definitely a great list to whip out for those “I’m bored!” Summer days! I hope to build lots and lots of sandcastles this year!

  • Demetra

    these are all fantastic ideas for summer fun especially number one have a water balloon fight. I can’t wait to do some of these things with my family, I think it’s just as much fun for grown ups 2

  • Natalie Z

    Great list for summer! I will have to add some of these to our summer bucket list!

  • Dawn

    Having a check list seems like a fun idea! It’s like a summer bucket list!

  • Stacey

    Sometimes I run out of things to do in the summer! It’s nice to have all these ideas in case that happens.

  • Beth

    I hope to have a great summer with my kids. Just wish I had the time.

  • Amanda

    I’ve been working on my summer check list with the family. These are some great ideas!

  • Marina John

    Great ideas! I love that you put them in a handy printable! I’ll be taping this up for me to refer to!

  • Amanda

    Yes to all of these! We are so ready for summer and this is the perfect list for summer fun!

  • vanessa: briteandbubbly

    These are definitely some great ideas. I’m going to print this out and keep it for the summer.

  • Christie

    These are wonderful ideas! I can’t believe that summer will be here before you know it!

  • Donna

    What a great list of ideas! My son wrote a summer bucket list this past Friday of some things he really wants to do during his summer break, too! Thanks for this!

  • valerie g

    I can’t wait for the summer. those are some great options.

  • Stefani Tolson

    This is a great list of ideas. So many things I want to do. Thanks for the printable.

  • Shannon Gurnee

    These definitely sound like some fun ideas for a great summer! The printable looks great! Thanks for sharing.

  • Rebecca Orr

    I will definitely be doing a ton of these with my husband and our kids!