The Best Summer Vacation Ideas to Entertain Kids Now

There’s no Camp Grandma this summer. The grandkids will be out of the country, visiting their other grandmother.

So, instead, I’m reviewing all the projects we’ve done in past years to share the best ideas with you.

I started Camp Grandma, a camp for kid crafters, in 2020 as a virtual camp during the pandemic to entertain homebound Miss T. We’ve continued Camp Grandma every year since, except in 2022, when the kids were away overseas.

If your grandkids will be coming to your house while school is out, and you’re looking for summer vacation projects, here are some ideas to try.

Hosting a Camp Grandma

You can choose to use any of the summer projects below individually when the grandkids are looking for something to do, or group them together under a “Camp Grandma” umbrella. If you go the Camp Grandma route, here are some tips for organizing and hosting.

If you are a long-distance grandparent, try these ideas to engage the grandkids remotely.

If you are a grandparent of young grandchildren, you’ll find some of our projects can be simplified and adapted to them.

Summer Cooking Ideas

Cooking helps kids with reading comprehension and math. Measuring cups and spoons teach fractions.

Following a recipe and achieving a good result instills confidence, a sense of accomplishment, and self-sufficiency.

And, there’s a reward at the end of any cooking project: something good to eat!

• Healthy Vegetable Nachos is a kid-pleasing snack that’s so tasty, kids will eat their veggies.
• No-Bake Peanut Butter Cereal Bars; with nut-free, gluten-free, and vegan variations; can be made by little kids; no hot oven involved.
• Easy Apple Crisp is written so a child can follow instructions; offer prep help and oven supervision.
• High Heel Cupcakes is suitable for a child who excels in craftwork and wants to do challenging projects.

Multi-Step Summer Projects

Some summer ideas we’ve embarked on take several days to execute. The prep time involved is rewarding, as kids work towards a goal.

Here are four such ideas.

These are more complex, themed projects that will require a few days to complete.

• The Restaurant Game: First you cut out food pictures from magazines, make a menu, and prepare play money. Kids take turns being the proprietor and patron. This game teaches poise when kids act as the server, and math skills when totting up the bill and giving change. You’ll find tips for kids who can’t read or do math, so they can play, too.
• Puppet Show starts by making puppets from recycle materials. Then you make a puppet theater (or just use a table as your stage). Next write your script, which is a great language arts project, then put on a show to teach kids how to rehearse and perform.
• Cookie Shop: This one has many educational legs. Kids make air dry clay cookies (art project). They make up a price sheet, posters to promote the cookie shop, and even do a video ad (sales and marketing). Finally, they take turns selling (math practice and interpersonal skills).
• Tea Party: Kids start by making fascinators, those perky headpieces British society women wear, using cake cardboard circles. Then they’ll plan a menu, gather recipes, make the dishes, and host the tea party!

Fun and Games

Sometimes, you just want kids to have fun, without much of an agenda.

• Water Play–“cooking” and “baking” with water is fun for kids of all ages; even older kids can enjoy this game, using plants and flowers to create beautiful “food.” Just send them out with all your pots, pans, and utensils.
• Treasure Hunt is a good indoor game for rainy days. Make cryptic clues that challenge kids to solve.
• Fort Fight was a game we played during the pandemic, using large boxes for forts and crumpled recycle paper as ammunition. Later we painted our forts and made shields with heraldry motifs.
• Scavenger Hunt is an outdoor activity with a list of items to find. For kids too young to read, take photos of the items to be found.

More “Call Me Grandma!” Ideas

For more summer ideas, search Grandma Food, Grandma Crafts, and Grandma Fun, as well as Camp Grandma.

Other Resources

The Internet provides a multitude of resources for summer projects. Search science projects for kids on YouTube.

And here are more resources to explore:

• Your local library–most libraries have a summer reading program, story hours, and craft workshops. Library Finder will help identify your nearest US public library.
• Free Art Lesson can be found from the Schack Art Center, a visual arts center in the Pacific Northwest. Or try art making activities for children and families from the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Search other museums for more art projects for kids.
• Free and Fun Summer Learning Resources are available from the filmmaker George Lucas’ educational foundation. There’s a wealth of links to explore. The article was last updated in 2016, so a few of the links are no longer active.
• Science Experiments for Kids can be found at CuriOdyssey, a science museum and zoo in San Mateo, California. You can find more science projects offered by The Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum and from other science museums.

Hope you and the grandkids have a wonderful summer!

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