Easy Summertime Projects For Your Kids

Summer is known for hours of sunshine, blooming flowers, and bright colors. And with all the perfect weather, there’s no better time to create fun projects with your kids. Keep their creativity going from morning to night, open them up to different art forms, and keep their minds working.

Plus, it’s a bonus for parents when they get to add another signed art piece to the refrigerator! Even if you aren’t the craftiest mom of the PTA bunch, you can still have fun making these easy and fun summertime projects with your kids.

There are more than 100 Crayola crayon colors.

Create a Home Garden

There’s no better time for flowers and plants than now! Why not have your kids lend a helping hand in decorating the home garden this season? Check out the home gardening options online, and let your children pick their own succulent or herbs and pot to plant it in.

For this project, you can do a little more than just teaching them about planting and soil, it teaches them responsibility and care and hopefully, in a few weeks your kids will be proud of their little saplings! 

For additional artistic flair, buy some puff or water-based acrylic paint and let them decorate their pot with their unique touch.

Succulents get their name from the Latin word “succus,” meaning juice or sap.

Let’s Paint!

Chances are you already have lots of extra art paint around the house, if not, it’s a quick and easy online buy! For this project, they can paint on little canvases, rocks, a coffee mug—whatever you want! If you don’t have paint easels, set out a tarp or cardboard outside in the backyard and have them paint in the sunshine.

It’s a great way to get them outdoors and even spark some inspiration for what they might want to paint! Purchase fun colors and some paintbrushes but don’t be opposed to letting them do a little finger painting, too!

Check out all my crafting ideas over on the City Girl Gone Mom Pinterest board!

Crayola claims that the average child wears down 720 crayons by their 10th birthday.

Paper Plate Animals

Chances are you may already have some art supplies at home and you don’t even know it! Head to your pantry to see if you have any paper plates left. You can use these to help craft some fun paper plate animals like turtles or snails. (If you don’t have any paper plates left, use construction paper!)

Simply have your children design what they want the shells to look like, cut the body of the animal out of construction paper and put it together. With a little help from glue and googly eyes, you’ll have yourself a refrigerator-worthy piece of art.

Paint colors can affect your mood. Cool tones invoke feelings of calm, peace, and happiness.

Put Crayons to Use

Drawing pictures, filling in coloring books, or even creating your own “stained glass” art with crayons and wax paper are all fun and creative projects for your little ones! If your older kids are totally over coloring books, then it’s time to find an alternative project to do with crayons. 

One of the easiest projects is to melt crayons on a canvas! You don’t have to buy a new box of crayons for this one. It’s a great way to put all of those half-broken ones to good use. The kids can choose what colors they want to line up next to each other. Then just hot glue them to the canvas. Once everything is in place, hand your child the blow dryer and let them melt the crayons themselves. Watch as it turns into a blend of colors streaming down the canvas, let it dry, and then hang it up in their room!

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The first Crayola crayon box sold for a nickel.

Start a Ready-to-Do Project

Chances are over the years you’ve bought a few (or tons!) of fun and easy ready-to-make projects for your kids. Maybe it was something as simple as a build-your-own friendship bracelet kit or as complicated as the STEM-focused crafts from KiwiCo. Now is the time to pull them out of the closet and get started!

The directions are always easy to follow, require minimal mom supervision and teach your kids fun skills like braiding, numbers, colors, or even science. It’s a win-win!

Fostering creativity helps kids develop mentally, socially, and emotionally. Creating art may also boost young children’s ability to analyze and problem-solve.