Today was Lydia’s first full day at her first real spend-the-night camp. And I made it all through the day without sobbing or missing her too badly. (Are you proud of me?) I’ve got more send-your-kid-to-camp info coming up but I wanna go back in time to last week when Lydia had a fever for 3 days in a row and I only left my house once. (STIR CRAZY.)
Summer is the time for pools and exploring in the woods and riding bikes. Instead, we spent those days sitting around and trying to think of fun things to do without getting dressed or going outside. (OK, it doesn’t really sound that bad. But add a 5 year old boy to the mix and see what happens!)
We did watch a little TV. But after that we did 3 main things: Read, Color and Listen To Odyssey. I’m putting that in all caps because it is basically a verb in our house now. “Can we listentoanodyssey? I want to listentoanodyssey!”
And I can’t say no because not only are they totally interesting they are so totally perfect for conversation starters and saturating your family in God-centered, Biblically based thoughts and conversation. (Here’s just a few topics we listened to last week: diligence, fear and bravery, using your words for good, witnessing, life change, friendship and more!)
Anywhoo. If you haven’t subscribed to the Odyssey Adventure Club so you can hear ALL these Adventures in Odyssey episodes, you need to! PLUS, you get a subscription to Clubhouse Magazine (for 8-12 year olds) which is also filled with all kinds of fun articles, stories and jokes for your kids to read. (See activity #1 above).
As we were reading our Clubhouse magazines (Clubhouse Jr for Asa), listening to Odyssey and trying to think of what else to do on a sunny summer day when you are sick and stuck inside, I went over to the Clubhouse Magazine website, started searching around and found all kinds of fun stuff on there—crafts, printables, recipes and even movie reviews!
Which, of course, led me to wanting to share some of it with you, which, as usual, led me to Pinterest to find more amazing low-cost, low-creativity-needed activities which made me think I should make of 101 Super Summer Activities for When You’re Stuck Inside, Sick, Strapped for Cash, Short on Creativity, Sick of Screen-Time or Just Plain Old Bored! And as usual, that turned out to be more than I bargained for so, I had to scale it back a bit and settle for less.
So, here they are, in no particular order:
The Best 42 Summer Fun Activities I Found On Pinterest and The Clubhouse Website That I Think You and Your Kids Will Love.
- Join a book club & read!
- Color. (Might I suggest this amazing coloring book?)
- Listen to an Odyssey.
- Play animal hospital with stuffed animals.
- Sudoku
- Tell your kids a story from your childhood.
- Print and fold a paper square person thingie.
- Tell as many silly jokes as possible (and try to laugh at them all).
- Solve a mystery.
- Look through your cookbooks and find a yummy dessert you can make with ingredients from your pantry.
- Listen to a podcast.
- Make a silly stress ball. (Why are these so fun?!)
- Sort. (There’s something therapuetic about sorting stuff–stuffed animals into kinds, puffballs into colors, legos into sizes, etc.)
- Make ice cream in a bag.
- Instead of talking to each other, write notes. It makes conversation longer, but it’s mysteriously fun.
- Join another book club and read!
- Find a map and plan the ultimate (imaginary) roadtrip.
- Write your sponsored kids.
- Make a fort. (This air fort of awesomeness would be amazing.)
- Make your own sunshine.
- Complete a puzzle. (Yes, even a 1000 piece puzzle.)
- Memorize Scripture.
- Declutter something. (OK, it’s not that fun but it would feel good when it’s done.)
- Be a Super Hero.
- Glitterize something. Or everything.
- Play every card game you have. One time each. One after another.
- Make your own lava lamp.
- Practice doodling your name in as many fonts as possible.
- Try some DIY pink lemonade playdough!
- Grab all your brushes, combs, clips, hairspray and give each other homemade salon hairdos!
- Play with baking soda.
- Pull out your old pictures (not the ones on your phone, but actual pictures!) and reminisce about times gone by.
- Make fireworks with a fork!
- Grab a board game you haven’t played in over a year and play it!
- Make a Prayer Journal.
- Find a fun printable!
- Write a letter to a relative or friend who lives far away. (Or send them a hug!)
- Make an egg carton game.
- Get out a blank notebook and start an hourly journal of the day.
- Make popsicle stick Chinese stars.
- Oh, and uhm…join a book club and read!
- And for the love of summer, join the Odyssey Adventure Club!
What’s your best stuck-at-home activity? Or which one of these are you gonna do today?
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