50+ Summer Activities for Tweens

Source: Tween Parent Staff

(19 ratings)

School will soon be out for summer! Picnics, baseball games, swimming...when school is out, the fun begins for our tweens! If summer camp isn't in the mix (or only part of the summer agenda), it might be helpful to identify some summer plans to offset the much-needed respite of unstructured time and the dreaded preteen boredom. Further complicating matters, starting at around 10 or 11, preteens crave freedom and begin to campaign for unsupervised time. So, when we combine the desire for unstructured time, unsupervised time and boredom-busting activities, we are launched into the juggling act we call summer!

If you're a planner by nature, you may want to create a comprehensive calendar that plots all activities (including unstructured/free time). If not, you might just create a list of interesting activities and post it in a convenient location for reference. This could help prevent anxiety that your preteen might have about being bored and stay ahead of the much-anticipated phrase, "there's nothing to do!"

One more thing...allowing tweens to be a bit bored isn't a bad thing.  As we all know, life isn't always fun and games!

50+ Activities for Inspiration:

1. Create a summer scrapbook or album to document highlights
2. Set up a lemonade stand (and sell hand-crafted items too)
3. Identify toys and clothes that are no longer used and sell at a stand
4. Rearrange/redecorate tweens's room (identify a few new features)
5. Set up an outdoor movie theatre for a night of viewing and treats
6. Outfit your tween with rollerblades or rollerskates
7. Go fishing in a nearby stream or lake
8. Read the same book together and talk about it
9. Throw a tea party or sports party (with no presents and no goody bags!)
10. Organize a neighborhood treasure hunt
11. Build a fort in your yard
12. Volunteer for a good cause
13. Organize a neighborhood dog wash or car wash
14. Play night tag (with flashlights)
15. Learn to jump rope and share jumping rhymes (perhaps double-dutch?)
16. Play charades
17. Create a summer-end talent show, with practices throughout the summer
18. Organize a bike parade and include prizes for decoration style
19. Host a game of Bingo
20. Research star patterns and star gaze at night; look for shooting stars
21. Camp out on your porch, deck or lawn
22. Learn how to use a compass
23. Keep a weather journal and talk about weather patterns
24. Schedule family movie nights; look back in the archives for classics
25. Sleepover at a relative's house
26. Plan amusement park trips
27. Host a board game tournament
28. Schedule a hike or picnic
29. Have hop scotch supplies available for a quick game, whenever
30. Plan community pool/picnic to meet up with other neighborhood friends
31. Attend a local ballgame
32. Make a tween-prepared family dinner
33. Attend a fireworks display
34. Create artwork (buy "canvases" and acrylic paints/brushes at a craft store)
35. Find a pen pal online and begin email correspondence
36. Start a band
37. Have a water balloon "fight" outside the house
38. Visit a zoo
39. Introduce your tween to a foreign language
40. Recycle bottles and donate the money to a local charity
41. Attend an outdoor concert
42. Make a movie or create a play
43. Go to a museum
44. Research your family tree
45. Fly a kite
46. Build and bury a time capsule
47. Volunteer at an animal shelter
48. Organize a scavenger hunt
49. Go swimming
50. Sign up for a sewing lesson
51. Visit a National Park
52. Roast marshmallows (and add some chocolate and graham crackers!)
53. Build an evening a bonfire
54. Create a garden area and grow vegetables