Top 10 Summer Play Ideas For Babies and BIgger Kids

We love activities that get all our children to play together. With summer just starting and the holidays just weeks away, we can all use ideas that are safe and fun for different aged children. Here are the Top 10 Summer Activities For Babies and Mixed Age Children.

Summer usually means family time for us. We either go visiting or we have extended family visiting us. It is that time of the year when my children get their cousins and close friends to come and stay with them or have sleep overs. That means, lots of different aged kids. We are always trying to come up with fun activities that babies, toddlers and bigger kids can play and do side by side. We also love to make crafts, gifts and keepsakes. Here are some ideas that are a hit at our place.

Related: Read about our Kids Summer Routine Chart

Top 10 Summer Activities for babies and Bigger Kids

I have an 7 yr old, an almost 3 year old and an 18 month old toddler. We usually have babies and toddlers to bigger children like tweens visiting. These activities are the kind that most kids enjoy.

1. Splashing Water Fun: In our world, summer means splashing around drenching others wet! It doesn’t have to mean heading to the pool all the time but simple fun like making water bombs to throw or going to splash parks is always a hit. Here are a few more out door play ideas to try. Try some squirt gun painting that all the kids can take turns painting too.

2. Scribbling then cutting and making crafts out of those: Babies love to scribble and bigger kids love to doodle. We like to roll a large size of paper on the floor and then tape it. Place a few thick crayons and watch as the babies and toddlers go creative. You can ask the bigger kids to draw on their area of the paper too. After they are done, you can either tape this paper to the wall to show off their art or you can use this art to make a craft. You can also let the kids colour with this glow in the dark sidewalk chalks or paint the sidewalk with this paint.

We also have this fun paint idea that toddlers and older babies love.

3. Making music: Children love making noise… umm, I mean music. When we were kids we loved playing the piano and mouth organs. When we had friends or cousins over, we would make music with them. My kids are no different. They love to make music and even if we don’t give them any musical instrument they make their own. Here are 10+ ideas for home made musical instruments by Buggy and Buddy. 20+ DIY Musical Instruments by Meaningful Mama. You can get the children to make some baby music instruments like these from The Educator’s Spin on it

4. Bubbles fun: One of the best ways to have some happy giggling kids is to let kids blow bubbles even if it means just in the bath tub. It is one way my son taught our baby to stop fearing bath time. Ofcourse, you can take them all outdoors for the real fun! The older kids can blow bubbles and the younger ones can pop them. Here is how to make giant bubbles ; your own bubble wand; how to paint with bubbles; how to make bubble snakes or try bouncing bubbles all day!

5. Splat painting: One of our favourite ways to paint with little children is to paint splats. The older kids can drop paint on the paper and cover it with another piece of paper. The younger ones help spread the colour by rubbing the surface. Once dry all the kids can scribble or doodle on it. This works with giving older babies edible finger paint too. The older kids can imagine what the drawings look like and then doodle over it. The toddlers can decorate the drawings with scrap or crafty accessories like googly eyes.

6. Water and Ice painting: One of the easiest and most fun way to paint is to paint with ice. You can make icicles for the little ones to hold on too. Here is how to ice paint.

7. A little Summer Reading : The best part about reading in summer is that you get to choose books randomly. Need ideas for books to read for the little ones? Here is a list of books from grade 1 through 8. You can see our collection of books that we read for our kids here and here. You can find some great summer reading programs for kids here.

8. Cool stuff in the Kitchen: Making smoothies, shakes, slushies, popcicles, yoghurt pops, veggie pops… there are just so many cool things that bigger kids can make for the little ones. Here are more fun recipes to try: Strawberry Orange Milk Shake, Ice cream in a bag

9. Fun road trips and excursions: The best way to make summer memorable is to go places with the kids. You can visit family elsewhere or just take a short vacation. Here are some fun ways to keep preschoolers and toddlers busy on the road trips.

10. Resist art and process painting. We are in love with resist art ever since we discovered it. Resist art is fun with toddlers around too. It can be a science experiment and art all thrown in to one. You can use crayons, tape, semolina, any material you like and then have more fun to come up with fantastic modern art. Process art involves carrying out a few steps without worrying about what the end result looks like. With little babies and toddlers, this can be so much fun. Here are a few ideas for you to try: Tape Resist art by Imagination Tree, 13 creative ways to make Tape resist art Hands on as we Grow, Crayon Resist Art Happy Hooligans, Leaf water color resisit art by Fun At Home With Kids. Process painting art like Car Wash Painting by One Time Through, Rainbow Ice Painting by Two-daloo, Engineering meets art by My Dearest and Nearest.

These are a few ideas that we love. Do you have any fun ideas that you’d like to share? Tell us in the comments or hop on over to our Facebook Page. we would love to hear from you!