Fun Summer Vacation Activities for 3 to 8 Year Olds- Category Wise

The summer holidays are in full throttle, and so many of us face young energetic kids active from the second they wake up till the second they settle into bed with nothing much going on. This is the time to really bond and have fun whilst simultaneously making the entire duration an educational experience for your precious little one. Here are a few random activities that require not much in terms of resources but can really capture their imagination and keep them preoccupied for some time.

1. DIY Stuff:

• Mix paints and create colourful abstract art.
• My kids love cross stitch, buy little kits from a supermarket and make fun deco for your home.
• Elder kids may like to dye their clothes or paint on interesting quips on their t-shirts.
• Young girls love making clothes for their dolls, provide them the material to experiment.
• Make a scrap book and put in a memorable little momento for each interesting thing that happens during the holidays.
• Get card board boxes and give them to the kids, let them use their imagination to build anything.

2 .Home Cleaning Mania:

• Get some gloves and get the kids sponging the walls.
• Give them some window cleaner and have them polish the surfaces for you. My kids love doing this.
• Done properly you can even get the kids to get rid of all the unpaired socks, the torn linen etc. All you have to do then is put away the good stuff.
• Kids love an organizing project. How about getting the kids to help de-clutter all those pending cupboards and drawers?
• Now would also be a good time to ask the kids to put the old unwanted or broken toys out to be given away or thrown away as the case might be.

3. Art Projects:

• Get kids to water colour. Make sure they clean up after themselves.
• Make collage work. Draw out a picture and tell the kids to stick little pieces of coloured paper according to their taste.
• Make little crafts like pinwheels, paper chains, cut out masks etc.
• Play dough is very good for building imagination and building co-ordination in little hands. Ask the kids to make things in 3-d or even on a plate. 
• Kids love making cards, but this craft is slowly dying out. Revive this age old tradition this summer.
• There are so many interesting ideas on the internet, one for every day of the week for the entire Summer.

4. Cookery:

• Safety first, kids have to be supervised at all times when dealing with hot surfaces. Kids love helping out in the kitchen. Have bake outs in the kitchen, sometimes cookies, other times simple cakes.
• Children can make surprisingly good sandwiches. Provide them the raw materials to do so.
•  Involve your children in making refreshing drinks like lemonade, tang or popsicles.
• Here is an interesting site to check out: http://www.kidspot.com.au/best-recipes/kids-cooking+5.htm

5. Reading Fun:

• Honing in on those reading skills can be achieved in these holidays. Practice with your kids. 
• Have them make flash cards of difficult words.
• For young kids cut out the alphabets with sand paper and stick them on some empty flash cards. When kids trace along these letters along with the sound of the letter, they catch on really fast.
• On a chart make word families like vegetables, fruits, dairy products, planets etc. It is a great way to improve general knowledge.
• Read along with your child or read to them. It is a lovely way to improve vocabulary and bond.

6. Educational Fun:

• For this one you'll actually have to step out of your house. Go on exploratory walk and point out the plant life, insect life etc.
• Take trips to interesting places you've been meaning to visit. Click here for more.

7. Pretend Play:

• Children love pretending. Play charades with them.
• Create a setting for the kids and ask them to role play, like at the petrol station, at the hospital, in the classroom etc.
• Ask kids to look around in their clothes wardrobe and come up with a costume with what they have.
• It is also cool to act out scenes of possible emergencies for e.g what to do if they get lost in the mall, or how to talk to the doctor about their pain etc. Of course it has to be age appropriate.

Engaging your child is not a very difficult task but it does require a lot of dedication and persistence. The sites I have referred are a few of the tonnes of interesting ideas out there. The purpose of this blog was to point you out in the proper direction. Hope this was helpful.