The Kookist team ended up spending an entire week together this summer at the Outer Banks in NC. We then decided to invite another family, which made a total of 6 adults and 6 kids. Even in a large house; it’s imperative to have activities for kids so they feel engaged during vacation (we didn’t want to plop them in front of screens when we weren’t at the beach). Check out our tips for some activities.
Kids Activities
One of the things we found imperative was having a handful of kids hands-on activities planned out ahead of time. These were perfect to lean on during the midday hour while the kids were winding down and of course rainy days.
They also served to keep the overall screen time to a minimum, encouraged creativity and collaboration, and were quite fun to boot!
DIY Bouncy Balls
This was a great activity, and one that was new to the Kookist team. Essentially it boiled down to the following: take some simple ingredients, load them into one of the molds, dip in water, dry, and bounce!! The kit we used included several different shapes/sizes of molds along with a great variety of colors allowing our kiddos to create colorful, wacky bouncy balls that are as unique as the little ones themselves.
In particular the parents benefited from the fact that everything was included in the kit and we had balls bouncing in less than an hour! Clean up was a breeze too. Consider this activity for those spells right after lunch while people are winding down and before heading back outdoors for more fun.
Here is a great option from Amazon that will certainly fit the bill:
Tie-Dye T-Shirts
A throwback classic! The kids had so much fun dying their shirts and the end products were so cool, unfortunately they were still wet and in their plastic wrap so we weren’t able to take any group photos, but the early results were very encouraging. What we liked about this particular activity was it took some time for the kids to complete but with an adults help everything was easy and the kit made clean up painless. We ended up buying some additional shirts which we highly recommend – not just to make sure everyone has one, but it also helps extend the fun and if you extras, then ever more fun can be had experimenting with different color and design combinations. Basic white t-shirts shirts are a no brainer and not particularly expensive, but mixing things up with v-necks, A-shirts, or even classic shirts that simply could use some fresh life – (Pro Tip – if you are going to use a non-white shirt, make sure its on the lighter side of things and any writing or images are darker in color – this will ensure the colors pop, and the writing/design is still able to be seen).
Disclaimer – this one is a bit more involved for the adults as the dyes can stain and there is considerable drying and rinsing time involved. Make sure you have enough gloves, a table cloth, and review carefully with the youngsters how to do the project safely and work to minimize spills/drops of the dye going anywhere but the shirts.
Decorate/Art Cookies
Likely everyone’ favorite activity was the DIY Cookie Decorating kit we had on hand. While we went with an Independence Day theme, there are multiple kits out there that can be purchased at craft stores, online, or you could even put it together yourself – think pre-baked cookies (freeze them if need be), icing, decorations (sprinkles, sugar, small candies), and maybe some inspiration such as photos or colorful art.
We did the cookies one morning when everyone was somewhat dragging. It was a fun activity that kids from the age of 3 to 10 enjoyed. Instead of icing and sprinkles, our kit was actually pre-iced and each cookie had a unique design that the kids ‘painted in’ using small edible paint palettes and just a splash of water on their brushes. So easy and so fun! The cookies dried quickly and while we encountered a few minor spills with the water and edible palettes, by and large the event was mess free and enjoyable for all.
Check out our photos and consider the below kit from Amazon to help make your vacation all the better!
