Summer activities for kids – painted rocks

We’re huge fans of painting and hiding rocks. Over the Bank Holiday weekend we hid a lot of painted rocks. Both my children have been decorating a lot so recently I varnished everything so we could take them out with us whilst we were away. I think that painted rocks make a great low-cost activity that will keep any child busy over the holidays.

What equipment do you need to decorate painted rocks?

Making and decorating painted rocks is relatively low-cost but you will need to invest in a few thing. We buy bags of smooth rocks from the garden centre. We wash and dry them before we start decorating them. We usually draw our designs on first with a pencil, then go over our designs with Posca pens. We now have a huge tub of these and make sure to have thin nibs to add detail or outline the designs. I use spray varnish to seal every painted rock on the front and back of each one.

There are a couple of things to remember. Firstly, you are not allowed to remove rocks from the beach. I didn’t know this. Secondly, avoid sticking googly eyes or small embellishments to rocks. These are bad for small animals and the environment and something we also only recently learned. If you do embellish your rocks then consider hiding them indoors. Thirdly, join a local Facebook group which you can find by the # on the back of the rock. It’s always nice to let someone know you found their rock.

Summer activities for kids – painted rocks

Many of our painted rocks are dreamed up by the children. They like to produce a little ‘series’ of rocks to hide around one place, such as the Diary of a Wimpy Kid rocks my 8 year old painted. Once are rocks are clean and dry I let the children craft as they want. They’ve picked up some ideas along the way and also got ideas from painted rocks we’ve found. They were really happy when we found a few whilst we were away in Norfolk over half term.

I thought I would show you some of our latest painted rocks:

Miffy painted rock (too simple!)

Roald Dahl Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Gold Ticket painted rock

Unicorn poo painted rock

Dinosaur eye painted rock

Votes for Women 100th anniversary painted rock (we hid this on local election day last week)

Unicorn painted rock

And another unicorn painted rock

These have kept us busy but they are all now hidden so it must be time to make some more. Let me know if you’ve tried this simple craft activity with your children. It makes a great all year round activity but I know it will also keep them busy over the summer holidays.

You may be interested in our other painted rock posts:

Diary of a Wimpy Kid painted rocks

Han Solo painted rock craft

Cross of Saint Patrick, Cross of Saint Andrew, Cross of Saint George

Union flag painted rock

Remembrance Day painted rock

Sylvanian Families painted rock ideas

Halloween painted rock monsters

Painted rock succulents

Painted rock fairy door