What a scorcher it is today!  We are really hoping this weather will continue during the school holidays. This term is flying by and we only have a few weeks of home learning left to do. I can’t wait to have 6 weeks off before (fingers crossed) the children will be able to go back to school full-time.

We are looking forward to a relaxed summer with no plans to travel very far this year, although I have to admit that the learning won’t really stop! I have lots of resources on my blog if you’re looking for other ways to encourage learning at home. These range from geocaching to taking part in the Summer Reading Challenge.

10 activities to keep tweens busy this summer

Most of these are free or low-cost and will be great for keeping kids busy during the summer holidays.

We are a family who love to paint and hide kindness rocks. This is such a fun activity and brings real joy to my own kids. They love spotting a painted rock and re-hiding it for others to find. You don’t need many supplies at all and there’s so much inspiration from special days to local historic buildings or landmarks, film or book characters to food. Join a local painted rock group on Facebook to see if your rocks have been found!

We go on a lot of walks in our local area. We’re lucky to live on the edge of London so are surrounded by open spaces from woodland to open countryside. I love to get out and about but sometimes the children can be a little reluctant. We’ve found that we can make walks fun with geocaching.  Have you ever tried it? It’s a simple treasure hunt using GPS. The geocache is usually a physical container which vary from small film cannisters to larger boxes. The App is free to download although you can pay for a slightly better version which shows you more caches.

My kids are real collectors and love to collect anything including collectible cards. You can keep kids busy collecting BEAR cards. One card comes free inside each pack of BEAR YoYos and you can send off for a free card keeper and stickers which you can use with the free Grrreatest Games cards in each pack of BEAR YoYos. There are 50 cards to collect and the snacks are pretty healthy too!

If you’re out and about for a walk then why not download another free app and identify trees with the free British Trees app from the Woodland Trust. This is a lovely way to appreciate the trees around us. Why not take a piece of chalk with you and write the type of tree by the base of it so others can learn?

We’re lucky to have a small garden which is invaluable if you have children. A few years ago we invested in a den kit which included a huge tarpaulin and ropes to build dens at home. This has given my kids hours of fun. If they get bored then we head off to the woods to play in some tree dens.

I’m always keep to keep my kids reading and writing. Thankfully they have already signed up for the Summer Reading Challenge.  This is a great way to encourage them to keep reading. Kids aim to read at least one book a week for six weeks with small rewards along the way. We usually try to keep  a Summer smash book too. This is a cheap scrapbook or exercise book and a place to write memories, stick postcards and any other souvenirs we pick up during the 6 week break.

I’m not a huge fan of the kids being glued to a screen when we’re out but I’ve had to relent with playing Pokemon Go. This is another free app and will keep my daughter occupied for a bit. She loves Pokemon and she enjoys collecting pokeballs and new pokemon characters.

We always seem to pick up i-SPY books in Service stations so have quite a collection. They’re not only good for long car journeys though, i-SPY books are great for home use too. There seems to be an i-SPY book for every occasion and it’s something which keeps my kids busy. You try to spot the car badge or bird then tick it off in the book. Different items have different point values and when you reach a certain amount you can apply for a free badge and certificate.

Our final idea for keeping kids busy this summer is to build a fairy garden. We love fairy gardens and have lots where we live. It inspired my daughter to make her own fairy garden and she loves adding to it with fairies, flowers and little homemade accessories.

I hope we’ve shared some fun ideas for keeping the kids busy this summer. It’s going to be a strange summer for all of us but I’m determined my kids won’t miss out without our usual trips away, visits to the cinema or kids clubs. I’d love to hear if you have any ideas for keeping tweens busy. I’m always on the look out for more!