summer

I don’t know about you, but it gets tricky keeping my kids busy during the summer without a bunch of screen time, especially those older kids. We live in Phoenix so it’s too hot to be outside, which adds another challenge. I am always on the lookout for summer activities to keep my older kids playing, thinking, growing and limiting video games/tv/computer etc. With teens and tweens it’s especially difficult to find summer activities that will hold their interest. Here are summer boredom busters for teens that have worked well for us this summer.

1. Build a House of Cards.  It takes patience, a steady hand and practice. A rough surface definitely helps and be ready with the camera to snap a photo of success, because the whole thing is very delicate and a breath of air knocks it flat in 0.2 seconds. My two oldest boys have spent a good hour or two on a few different afternoons trying different techniques and building bigger/taller houses.

2. Craft Stick Bombs.  My oldest son learned how to make these chain reactions from a friend and then looked up more patterns online and even made up some of his own. Again, this activity gets kids using their hands and brains. It takes a little patience to learn the patterns, but they’re not too complicated. My kids’ favorite is the Cobra Weave because it is long and super impressive when you let it loose and all the sticks fly… but they also like the smaller throwing ones that explode on impact. I like to challenge them to create and name new designs. Look up “Craft Stick Bombs” for detailed tutorials and ideas.

Read moreBoredom-Busting Summer Activities for Older Kids