Activities to do with Kids this Summer

Activities & Games

Author: Sam (Subject Specialist)
Date: 31/07/23

🕔 5 mins reading time

School’s out and the summer holidays have arrived. It’s time for children to take a much-needed break from the day-to-day routine and enjoy some time to relax. But because there’s only so far you can unwind, we’ve put together some tips for keeping curious kids active and learning while they’re out of the classroom.

It can be a daunting task to keep kids busy over the summer, so read on for some ideas for things to do whatever the weather is like. ☔

Learning Through Adventure

Summer is a great time for kids to get out and explore the world — this could be as simple as going for a walk at the park, in the woods or on the beach to take in some fresh air and nature. Even a wander around their hometown or city could spark an interest in local history, people and their communities or urban wildlife.

Museums and zoos are great places to visit to learn all about science, history and art. Encourage kids to read as many signs as possible on your visit — as well as finding something new to get interested about or involved in, they’ll be practising their all-important reading skills. If you check the websites and social media pages of local attractions, you can often find events going on — many of which are free.

A summer holiday can be great for kids — travelling and staying somewhere new can improve confidence and resilience (especially if you’re camping). If you’re going abroad, you could get kids involved in learning the local language and challenge them to use any new words that they learn.

You could use these CGP+ resources alongside your summer adventures:

Reading for Pleasure

Why not have kids pick out their own books to read over summer? It’s important that they find out what kind of books they enjoy reading (perhaps it’s fantasy, science fiction or history). Encouraging them to read over the summer will get them practising lots of skills they’ll need once they’re back in school — they’ll be adding to their vocabulary, improving their comprehension skills and boosting their imagination.

Setting up a cosy reading corner together is a great way of providing kids with a relaxing place to sit quietly with a book and can be a fun family activity in itself.

To stop their writing skills being neglected over the summer, you could get kids to write a review or a short sequel to their favourite book. They could even branch out into writing poems or newspaper articles about the things they get up to during the holidays.
Here are some reading and writing resources you may find useful for the summer:

STEM Activities

Summer is a great time for some easy-to-do STEM activities (that’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths). These will not only keep kids entertained but will get them involved in some hands-on learning.

You could keep things as simple as making observations on the natural world and how things work. Freezing cordial and water to make your own ice lollies explores the processes of freezing and melting. Catching some minibeasts and studying them under a magnifying glass lets kids get up close and personal with the critters living in their local park or their very own gardens.

Or you could get more involved with some experiments and projects — many of which can be found on CGP+. A popular choice is growing and caring for plants. This will teach kids about where food comes from, give them a sense of achievement and will (hopefully) produce something tasty to try too. Salad, spring onions, peas, beans and carrots should grow well over the summer.
This is a list of some of the stimulating STEM activities on CGP+:

Encouraging Hobbies

With lots of time on their hands, now is a good time for kids to take on new hobbies and practise those they already have. They might enjoy spending an afternoon painting a picture or making sculptures from clay — or you could change things up and have them decorate rocks to share with family and friends or build new and exciting art out of recycled materials.

There’s also lots of time to practise playing musical instruments. The ukelele is a fun and relatively cheap instrument to get started with and, though tastes differ, it often sounds better than a badly played recorder…

Encouraging kids to bake and cook has obvious benefits (i.e. cake) but is also great for teaching them about nutrition, hygiene and safety as well as improving confidence. There are many simple recipes for cakes, biscuits and bread out there and even preparing toppings for a pizza or fruit for a smoothie can be a fun way to get kids stuck in. By the end of the summer, you could challenge older kids to put together and host an afternoon tea party.

These resources will come in useful for encouraging hobbies:

CGP+ Interactive Games

Last but certainly not least, CGP+ has a range of brilliant interactive games. They’re packed with cheerful characters and are great for developing skills in everything from Phonics to Times Tables. Kids can pick their own challenge level and can play as many times as they like to try and improve their scores.

You can have a go at these games for free without a subscription right now:

You can find loads more resources to try out this summer here and a whole bunch of free resources here. If you're not already a CGP+ subscriber you can sign up for a 30 day free trial now. You can also keep an eye out on our Facebook and Instagram pages where we’ll be sharing more fun summer resources. Don’t be shy about telling us what you’re getting up to, we’d love to hear all about it!

We hope you have an amazing summer with your kids and that we can help you make the most of it. We’ll keep our fingers crossed the weather behaves!