Sparkly Suggestions for a Unique Summer
Summer. Does the word strike joy - or hesitation - into your heart? If you're a traditional schooling family, there can be lots of open time. What to do with the kids? How to create anchors for your family?
I took it up with the Sparkle Team – a deeply creative, enterprising bunch – and we came up with ideas for you. Great ideas. Inspiring ideas. Ideas that will make you feel ever-so-ready to roll out summer vacation!
- Cook together! Schedule a weekly tradition of making food as a family, whether it be a weekly popsicle experiment or a creative burger night. Better yet, have a night that kids cook. And try to make meals using ingredients from your own summer garden!
- Organize a Neighborhood Fairy Festival. Build fairy houses all around your front yard or walkway, and leave fairy treasures and treats. Invite neighbors to do the same. Then schedule a Tour of Fairy Homes!
- Bump up your water-game skills. Play tag with the garden hose, do the limbo with a pool noodle sprinkler, have a water balloon fight, or just set bowls of water out in various temperatures for dipping your feet in.
Create a garden! Whether it’s planting herbs in a container garden, or digging a tidy vegetable plot in your yard, you can begin to grow what you eat.
Pick a novel to read aloud together all summer. Or, if your kids are younger, work your way through a series of shorter stories. Bonus points if you can recreate a recipe or project or event from the book! (Books we recommend: …)
- Peter Rabbit (currant buns and vegetables and blackberries)
- Blueberries for Sal (blueberry anything!)
- Harry Potter (tons of recipes online)
- Chronicles of Narnia (turkish delight)
- Paddington (anything with marmalade)
- Orris & Trimble (dissect an owl pellet?)
Backyard Camping! Set up your tent, pull out the sleeping bags, flashlights and camp chairs, and sleep in the yard. Tell stories from your childhood around a campfire/candle. (Or, if you’d rather, try some Living Room Camping
Drive-in Movie Night! Project a movie onto a house or garage wall or stand-alone screen. Invite friends to watch (socially distanced) and eat popcorn.
Host a weekly game night! Pull out your favorite classics or try a newer game. We even have our favorite silly Sparkle games plus a Sparkly Summertime Bingo
Throw an Unbirthday Party! Go all out: cake, ice cream, balloons, banner, festive (kid) drinks. Small toys to share. You can even sing the unbirthday song from Alice in Wonderland and blow out the candles.
Created Themed Weeks. Take up a historical or cultural theme, and use your imagination to explore with art making, costumes, recipes, crafts, and stories! For instance:
• Invention week. Make inventions like Martin. Try making mini robots
• Vive la France week! Bastille Day on July 14! Vive la France! Read Madeline or watch a movie based in France (Ratatouille?), make crepes, wear berets.
• Steampunk Future week! Build crazy costumes out of recycling and tools from the shed.
•Pirate week! Dress up like pirates and create a boat out of a bed or couch. Make pirate food and set sail for a voyage of pirate stories
Celebrate the Summer Solstice. Create a bonfire. Do some solstice-related crafts. Celebrate the true first day of summer with summery foods.
Rearrange the furniture in your house — even just for a weekend. A little change brings welcome novelty!
- Explore your Local State or National Parks! Make an Explorer Bag and pack it with everything you might need, from pens and journals to binoculars.
Create with Nature. There are so many wonderful “art supplies” just outside your door. Make Mud Creations, Flower Crowns or Earth Art.
Schedule a Daily Family Storytime. You know just where to get hours and hours of delightful stories!
Hold a Backyard Penny Carnival! Create a coin toss in a kiddie pool, a ring toss with mason jar rings and bottles, a beanbag toss into a cardboard face with a mouth open. Costs a penny to play and win simple prizes!
- Create a Bike Parade! Decorate bikes and enroll friends and neighbors to cruise the neighborhood. At the end, have a popsicle party.
Organize a Drum Party. Invite friends to bring something to bang on, and then start banging. Bring extra bangables for others. Try to find pleasing beats. (Consider having a drum leader.)
Care for your community in a fun way. Go on a "trasher hunt" to clean up litter. Research a local food pantry together, read some stories, and donate to them. Chalk the sidewalks with encouraging messages for pedestrians.
Organize a tasting project! Host a chocolate ice cream tasting and pick your favorite brand, or create a challenge to find your family’s favorite take-out french fries.
Be a tourist in your own town. Spend a week as if you were visiting your town for the first time. Check out the museums, parks, sports teams if you have them, best places for treats, and anything else you haven't tried. Where would you send visitors? Go there!
Host a Crafternoon. Spread out an assortment of craft supplies and invite friends over to get creative. Search the Sparkle blog for Sparkle Crafts and get inspired - we have so many fun projects! Try our Scrap Basket Softies or Peace Owl Amulets or No-Sew Corner Cushions for starters. We love the idea of a weekly Crafternoon for those wanting some scheduled summer fun.
Master a new skill. In Martin & Sylvia: More Adventures! "How to Fall" , Daddy helps Sylvia learn to ice skate. His tips apply to rollerskating too, and skateboarding. Or even riding a bike. Challenge yourself to learn a new skill this summer and do it!
Try backyard stargazing! There are some exciting meteor showers in the summer, including the Perseids in July. You can find a meteor shower calendar here. Big summer night skies are also good for seeing constellations, and we love this DIY Constellation book from Mommy Maestra. Get outside when it's cooler and explore the night sky!
Enjoy the summer!
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About the Author
Lisabeth Sewell
Lisabeth Sewell has worn many hats at Sparkle over the years, from Sparkle Kitchen Blogger to Editorial Director to Doer of All Odd Jobs. Her primary role is as CEO.
