Update: See the end of this post for an update on the changes we made to the list. We completed 100 activities but we did make many changes along the way.

This summer I will have my nearly 11 year old nephew and recently 13 year old nephew at my house two days a week while their Mom works at an office. I have enjoyed other summers with them and we did a combination of activities. This year I was inspired by lists of Summer Things-to-Do and worked with my nephews to develop this list. Of course this list is not only for boys. Girls can enjoy each of these items. But when searching for ideas I found a lot of ideas that my nephews would not want to do. Since I wanted their buy-in for each of these items we went through lots of ideas before getting to 100. They did come up with some of their own ideas. I separated the ideas into categories: Outings, Exercise, Science, Outside/Water, Crafts, Misc., Food/Drink. They did not say no to any of my Food/Drink ideas. I wanted an Education category but that was vetoed.

I have no idea how many of these we will actually do this summer but hopefully I will occasionally share our progress.

100 summer activities (PDF of all 100 items in abbreviated form)

At the end of this list I have some additional ideas I came up with that they rejected.

Outings

1. Beaver Meadow Audubon Center
2. Miniature golf
3. Movie at planetarium
4. Lego Store
5. Visit a historic place
6. Visit cousins
7. Archery
8. Factory tour
9. Zoomobile at library
10. Daniel Boone program at library
11. Village Garage Sales
12. Wildlife Defenders at library
13. Collect eggs from cousin’s chickens
14. Visit Great Grandma (bring baked item)
15. Go to Ellison Park
16. See movie at local movie theatre
17. Picnic at Beach
18. DEC Education Center
19. Fort Niagara
20. Skyzone
21. Go canoeing

Exercise

22. Walk to Tim Hortons
23. Walk to McDonalds
24. Play tennis
25. Run/Bike around Village Park 1/2 mile loop

Science

26. Create a baking soda volcano. Pour a bit of white vinegar into a plastic cup, add a tablespoon of baking soda and watch it “explode.”
    
27. Microwave Ivory soap
28. Other microwave fun – peeps, etc?
    
29. Make magnetic slime and make it move with magnets
30. Coke and mentos experiment
    
31. Kool aid eruption
    
32. Foam experiment with yeast, soap, and peroxide
33. Experiment with food coloring, milk, soap
34. Lava in cup experiment
35. Take apart an obsolete and unwanted household object, like an old printer or clock radio, to see how it works. – see if relative has something
36. Make a robot
37. Clean pennies with vinegar, salt
38. Build waterfall water wall
39. Build and launch miniature rocket
    

Outside/Water

40. Make a target with chalk on the sidewalk, and then throw wet sponges at it until it disappears.
41. Water balloons
42. Put a small toy in a balloon, fill it with water and freeze. You’ll end up with a toy frozen in a big chunk of ice.
43. Set up a Lego scavenger hunt in the backyard. Give the kids maps or clue sheets for extra fun.
    
44. Make ice sculptures by freezing different shaped containers full of water. Once frozen, take them out (use a little warm water if necessary) and use them as building blocks.
45. Play croquet

Crafts

46. Sun print paper craft
47. Sculpt with clay
48. Squirt shaving cream onto a paper plate and “draw” with your fingers.
49. Make a toy boat. Add sails and decorations, and then float it in pool, river or tub.
50. Create a wallet out of duct tape.
51. Origami – crane and moving crane
52. Paper airplanes
53. Make greeting cards
54. Draw a picture blindfolded
55. Throw paint filled eggs at canvas to make art
56. Exploding sidewalk paint bags
57. Blow paint bubbles with straw painting
58. Make wooden rope climbing monkey
59. Shrinky dink craft
60. Learn about another cultures holiday – make food, etc..
61. Make Christmas gifts
62. Family Photo magnets
63. Duct tape pencil case
64. Nail string art
    

Misc.

65. Create a short stop-motion film using legos
66. Play the board game Life
67. Play Monopoly
68. See if you can actually get a Slinky to go down the stairs
69. Make a domino chain reaction. See how long you can make it, and try adding curves and going up and down stairs.
70. Read a book, watch the movie, make themed food
71. Lay down sheets of bubble wrap and have the kids get popping.
72. See who can create the best shadow figures. All you need is a flashlight, a sheet and your hands.
73. Play Balloon Ping-Pong Paper plates, Popsicle sticks, and a balloon are all you need
74. Throw a balloon into the air and see how long you can keep it afloat without letting it touch the ground.
75. Make a catapult (this is only one way, not sure which type we will try)
76. Make your own bouncy ball
77. Rubber band car
78. Make a marble run
79. Learn bird calls and test each other
80. Star Wars movie marathon day
81. Special Volunteer / Good Deed
82. Make Lego candy dispenser
83. Listen to various types of music
84. Play with refrigerator box
85. Learn some magic tricks put on a show

Food / Drink

86. Beverage challenge. Set up chilled cups of seasonal drinks (lemonade, iced tea, fruit water) and try to identify each while blindfolded.
87. Play restaurant: Have the kids create a menu, take orders, cook the meal and serve.
88. Make your own rock candy
89. Make candy from maple syrup experiment
90. Bake soft pretzels
91. Make bagels and experiment with toppings
92. Guess taste of various ingredients while blindfolded (include whipped cream)
93. Make ice cream
94. Decorative cake with dry ice and book (if can find dry ice)
95. Make fried dough
96. Make and eat Popsicles
97. Battered fried apple rings
98. Flower Pot cupcakes
99. Mini ice cream cakes
100. Make corn fritters

100 summer activities (PDF of all 100 items in abbreviated form)

Some Rejected Ideas

• Fruit picking
• Take photos of plants and animals using different filters and frames
• Paint the sidewalk with water, see how fast the sun makes it disappear
• Draw a game board on the sidewalk and make up the rules
• Create a sidewalk masterpiece with chalk
• See who can build the tallest tower with blocks or Lego bricks
• Massive bubble battle
• Water cup race – balance cups of water on their heads
• Make and navigate an obstacle course made out of recycled items
• Collect items from nature and make a collage
• Play War, Old Maid, or Go Fish
• Make your own puzzle
• Create your own comic book
• Make a summer vacation scrapbook
• Grab binoculars and go bird watching
• Make tie-dye T-shirts
• Build a house of cards
• Lie outside and watch the clouds
• Make potato stamps
• Grow cress heads
• Visit ancestors at a cemetary
• Draw a picture with your foot
• Dye popcorn kernels and make a mosaic
• Pony bead crafts
• Interview a family member and make a digital recording

I hope that this gives you some activities to do with the kid in your life.

Update: These are the 100 items we ended up completing.

• Beaver Meadow Audubon Center
• Miniature golf
• Pluto show at planetarium
• Lego Store
• Visit a historic place – Land Grant Museum
• Spend time with cousins
• Zoomobile at library
• Hidden Valley Animal Adventure
• Village Garage Sales
• Collect eggs from cousin’s chickens
• Visit Great Grandma
• See movie (Shawn the Sheep) at local movie theatre
• DEC Education Center
• Fort Niagara
• Altitude Trampoline Park
• Zoo
• Go to Lego competition
• Ice Cream Parlor for Slushies
• Ice Cream Parlor for Ice cream
• Walk to Tim Hortons (3 miles round trip)
• Walk to McDonalds (4 miles round trip)
• Run/Bike around Village Park 1/2 mile loop
• Walk puppy
• Create a baking soda volcano. Pour a bit of white vinegar into a plastic cup, add a tablespoon of baking soda and watch it “explode.”
• Microwave Ivory soap
• Soda grenade
• Make magnetic slime and make it move with magnets
• Coke and mentos experiment
• Kool aid eruption
• Foam experiment with yeast, soap, and peroxide
• Experiment with food coloring, milk, soap
• Lava in cup experiment
• Take apart a broken microwave to see how it works
• Clean pennies with vinegar, salt (this not work well but our pennies were very dirty)
• Launch miniature rocket
• Make a target with chalk on the sidewalk, and then throw wet sponges at it until it disappears
• Go biking
• Freeze a toy in ice
• Set up a Lego scavenger hunt. http://www.bigdandme.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Scavenger_Hunt_LegoMinifigures.pdf
• Make ice sculptures by freezing different shaped containers full of water. Once frozen, take them out (use a little warm water if necessary) and use them as building blocks.
• Sun print paper craft
• Squirt shaving cream onto a paper plate and “draw” with your fingers.
• Create a wallet out of duct tape
• Origami – crane and moving crane
• Paper airplanes
• Make greeting cards
• Draw a picture while blindfolded (all three of us did this – we decided to draw a sheep)
• Throw paint filled eggs at canvas to make art
• Exploding sidewalk paint bags
• Blow paint bubbles with straw painting
• Shrinky dink craft
• Learn about another cultures holiday – make food, etc.. (Rosh Hashanah)
• Make soap
• Family Photo magnets
• Duct tape pencil case
• Nail string art
• Lego Head container
• Take photos for short stop-motion film using Legos
• Play the board game Life
• Play Monopoly
• See if you can actually get a Slinky to go down the stairs
• Make a domino chain reaction
• Read a book, watch the movie, make themed food (Spiderman)
• Lay down sheets of bubble wrap and have the kids get popping
• See who can create the best shadow figures. All you need is a flashlight, a sheet and your hands
• Play Balloon Ping-Pong Paper plates, Popsicle sticks, and a balloon are all you need
• Throw a balloon into the air and see how long you can keep it afloat without letting it touch the ground
• Make a catapult
• Make your own bouncy ball did not work for us but we tried
• Make a lego marble run
• Learn some bird calls
• Star Wars movie marathon day
• Make a lego balloon powdered car http://frugalfun4boys.com/2013/04/11/lego-fun-friday-balloon-powered-car-building-challenge/
• Listen to various types of music
• Build Lego Bird set
• Play Battleship
• Puppy come to Aunt Kathy’s house
• Make 10 different frog sounds
• Play Snoopy Game
• Go to Candy store
• Beverage challenge. Set up chilled cups of seasonal drinks (lemonade, iced tea, fruit water) and try to identify each while blindfolded.
• Make your own rock candy http://pagingfunmums.com/2013/08/15/how-to-make-your-very-own-rock-candy-at-home/
• Make candy from maple syrup experiment
• Bake soft pretzels
• Experiment with bagel toppings – caramel apple
• Learn how to make Aunt Kathy’s bagels
• Guess taste of various ingredients while blindfolded
• Make ice cream
• Make slushies
• Make fried dough
• Make and eat popsicles
• Battered fried apple rings http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/apple-fritter-rings
• Flower Pot cupcakes
• Mini ice cream cakes (rhubarb apple) – http://houseandhome.com/food/recipes/rhubarb-apple-ice-cream-cakes-recipe
• Make corn fritters http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/06/corn-fritters/
• Make skittles sherbet http://www.cowboyslifeblog.com/2015/03/homemade-skittles-sherbet-recipe.html
• Make flavored ice cubes
• Graham cracker, pb, peanuts, teddy choco grahams, m&m’s sunflower seeds snack
• Bake brownies and cookies
• Star Wars Ice Cream