Simple Summer Fun With Older Kids - A Round-Up of Ideas

I had meant to write this post a while ago...and I promptly forgot. I know some kids are heading back to school already, but we've still got another couple of weeks of summer ahead of us, and I intend to enjoy every last moment! Here are some of summer fun favorites this year!

Ice Block Painting

 You'll need a carton of some sort (that will fit upright in your freezer) to fill with water; squeezable food coloring; sea salt. When your block is frozen solid remove it from the carton, place it on a plate or baking pan, and add salt, then colors, and be amazed!  :)

Well, it was supposed to involve actual paintbrushes, but we had so much fun simply squirting the colors onto the ice we never used the paintbrush. It was super hot the day we did this, and it was so cool watching the colors stream and tunnel through the melting ice.

The block started out in a plastic tub but the colors that formed and pooled around the bottom looked so pretty, we wanted a better look. The plate worked fine.
Also, regular table salt will not yield as much color - stick with the sea salt.

 Icy Treasure Hunt
Simply fill the bottom of a bundt pan with water and add a few treasures & trinkets; once frozen, add another layer of water and goodies. Repeat until the pan is full of ice and treasure! (I added a few drops of food coloring and it looked really pretty.)

 Do me a little favor and ignore our scary weed-lawn, 'm-kay?

It was another scorcher of a day so we placed it in the kiddie pool, and they had tons of fun swishing it around. (They started out squirting water guns at it, but that was so slow, and it was so hot...I bet you know where this is going...)

I'm not even going to embarrass myself by giving this project its own heading because it was an EPIC FAIL.
Looks pretty cute, right?
Yeah, well, they were. For a few days.
They were going to be part of our Fairy Garden -- C, J and I picked out a vegetable plant to grow in a pot, and we were going to create Fairy Houses with rocks, twigs and such in each pot. Still sounds cute, right?
I will spare you the melty, sludgy, sticky tragedy that became of these guys. I didn't realize they required a little SPF. Ugh. Let's remember them, whole and cute, and well, intact, like they are here.

Here are some other simple, fun and low-cost things we've done during the summer:

Sidewalk Crime Scene {Chalk Drawing on Sidewalk}

Backyard Water Olympics

Family-Friendly Frozen T-Shirt Contest

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