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It’s mid-summer. The sun is shining, the popsicles are dripping, and your children—those precious bundles of joy you swore you couldn’t wait to spend more time with—are now pacing the house like little wolves with WiFi withdrawal, muttering the two most dreaded words of the season:
“I’m bored.”
You’ve been to the pool. You’ve done the park. You’ve let them destroy your living room with an epic indoor fort that now somehow qualifies as “semi-permanent housing.” So now what? Here are three fun—and possibly sanity-saving—activities to keep them entertained while you secretly Google “cheap week-long summer camps.”
1. Backyard Olympics: Let the Chaos Begin
Give them a whistle, a hose, and three pool noodles, and suddenly you’ve got a fully sanctioned Backyard Olympic Games. Events can include:
- Speed Sprinkler Dodging
- Extreme Slip ’n Slide Long Jump
- The Sibling Water Balloon Toss of Doom
Bonus: Let them create their own opening ceremony. Even if it’s just them wearing towels as capes while blasting Taylor Swift, it’ll buy you a solid hour. Gold medals optional. Parental judging absolutely biased.
2. Cardboard Box Engineering
You know that huge Amazon box still sitting in the garage because it might be useful one day? Today’s that day. Give your kids a stack of boxes, markers, scissors (the safety kind—unless you’re feeling brave), and tape.
Challenge them to build:
- A spaceship
- A pet hotel
- A drive-thru window that only serves snacks to parents
It’s cheap, creative, and lets them feel like they’re doing something epic when really they’re just surrounded by cardboard and yelling “THIS IS A CONTROL PANEL!” into a cereal box.
3. DIY Home Movie: The Summer Saga
Kids love screens. Fine. Use it to your advantage. Have them write and film their own movie using your phone (with strict “no deleting your photos” rules, obviously).
Genre ideas:
- A mystery involving a stolen popsicle
- A superhero origin story where mom’s flip-flops give you powers
- A documentary titled “Why Our Parents Are So Weird”
Let them edit using a free app and host a premiere night complete with popcorn and fancy pajamas. It’s like Cannes, but with more Goldfish crackers.