The weather is warming up, which means school is just getting out, and you are now on the hook for coming up with fun summer activities for preschoolers.
It’s exciting and wonderful to think of all of the fun you have ahead of you: Icecream, splash pads, movies, parades, and tons of fun in the sun. Although you have so many exciting things to look forward to, summer can also bring along the dreaded “Mom, I’m bored,” talk.
On top of juggling all your normal life mom stuff you already do, you are also now responsible for being the entertainment director for the summer.
Lucky for you, I have you covered with a roundup of the best fun summer activities for toddlers and preschoolers. Learning through play, is an amazing way to encourage your child to get messy, be hands hands on and use those thinking caps; all while learning as they go.
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Fun Summer Activities For Preschoolers
1. Soapy Sensory Box
Playing with water is one of the best fun summer activities for toddlers and preschoolers. Make your own homemade water table and add some bubbles for the ultimate summertime boredom buster. Find loads of fun water activitivities in the water table for preschoolers.
2. Bubble Paint
Bubble paint is a fun way to get messy outside, and allow your child’s creative side to shine. Bubble paint is exactly what it sounds like. Taking bubbles and adding a bit of food coloring, grabbing a paint brush and letting your kiddo get messy outside. I love using these natural dye food colorings for this activity. Read exactly how to get setup with Bubble Paint at Glitter on A Dime
3. Sidewalk Paint
If your child loves painting with chalk, they will be head-over-heels in love with sidewalk paint! How exciting that your child gets an entire driveway or sidewalk as a blank canvas. Simple Every Day Mom has instructions on how to make sidewalk paint, and some fun ideas on how to add some educational elements to the activity.
4. DIY Bubble Wands
Blowing bubbles is TONS of fun, but the activity itself tends to only last a few minutes. Give yourself some time, and allow your children to work on their fine motor skills with this DIY Bubble wand tutorial from One Crazy Mom. This is perfect for those huge gallons of bubbles that you aren’t sure what to do with, or lose the wand!
5.Pool Noodle Sensory Bin
If you’ve been to this blog before, you know that we are huge fans of sensory bins around here. Simple Every Day Mom kicks the sensory bin up a notch and makes it extra messy, with a shaving cream and pool noodle sensory box. This is the perfect fun summertime activity for toddlers and preschoolers that will keep them busy all afternoon.
6. Old Fashioned Yard Games
The best things in life are FREE! Growing up my neighbors and I would spend hours playing games like freeze tag, red light-green light, red rover, and london bridge is falling down. To be honest, it’s hard to remember the exact the rules to those games. Passing Down the Love has you covered with all of your childhood favorites, and the rules and songs to go with it.
7. Tie-Dye
Tie-dying a shirt or hat with your preschooler is the perfect way to spend a summer day, and you also get to have a tangible item to remember all your summer fun! Swoodson Says has tons of tips and tricks to turn tie-dying into one of the best summer activities for preschoolers. You can even grab some pre-mee onesies and your kiddo can make fun tie-dye outfits for their baby dolls.
8. Nature Scavenger Hunt
Take your preschooler past the confines of your backyard and get out and explore nature. DIY Candy has a fun nature scavanager hunt all planned out for your little one, with printables to go along with it.
9. DIY Ring Toss Game
This DIY ring toss idea has two different parts to it. The first part allows your child to “decorate” the bottles by painting them or perhaps even adding their favorite stickers. The second part is teaching them how to toss rings onto the bottles. This is a great activity that could be played all summer long. Check out all the details at I Should Be Mopping The Floor
10. Pool Noodle Games
Who knew that there were so many fun things you can do with pool noodles. Usually you can find pool noodles at the dollar store, and they can be used for fun games for you and the kiddos all summer long. Check out these fun pool noddle ideas from Mission To Save and loads more games to play.
More Summer Activities?!
What are your favorite fun activities for toddlers and preschoolers? Do you love splashing around in your hose outside or do you love coming up with activities to keep them busy? We would love to hear from you!
6 Comments
Such fun ideas! We have practiced with tie dye shirts and liquid sidewalk chalk a few times before and our kids loved it but summertime means it’s time to make them again Ü
Tie-dying shirts is being put on our list right now! I remember how much fun that was growing up. Thanks for the amazing list!
This is great! We are always looking for new ways to entertain the kids!
Such good ideas! I appreciate how simple these things are to set up and do with kids! We love water play around here – it’s such a good way to cool off in the heat!
These all look great! Thanks for the ideas!
Ooh I love the nature scavenger hunt idea! Gets kids outside even more!