Summery things for children to do – the best tips for holiday activities from the Espoo early childhood education

6.7.2022 6.21Updated: 1.6.2023 10.10

If you need ideas for nice things to do this summer with children in early childhood education, see our tips below! These 20 ideas for indoors and outdoors will make your holiday, rain or shine.

Things to do outside

  1. Different outdoor games are perfect for summer days. Tag, statues, or various ball games will make everyone happy, and time will fly by.
  2. Go to the playground. In June 2023, all residents’ parks in Espoo will be open and there’s a lot going on. Seven playgrounds – Suvela, Tapiola, Olari, Viherkallio, Kivenlahti, Perkkaa ja Hiirisuo – will be open throug the summer, also in July. Many kinds of instructed activities are arranged at the parks. Read more about the summer at the residents' parks here.
  3. Build a hut. Use different kinds of blankets, branches, and other materials you find in nature or at home.
  4. Playing in water makes hot days cooler. Go to the beach or pour water in a tub or inflatable pool in your yard or balcony and splash away! Wet clothes are not a problem. Always monitor children when near water!
  5. Summer is the best time for biking. Take your bikes to the nearest ice cream stall or a park.
  6. Pack a lunch and go on an outing into the forest. Forests are often cooler even in hot weather, and food always tastes better outdoors than at home. Examine the plants and bugs you see in the forest. Hey, what is that ant carrying on its back?
  7. Send a message in a bottle. Write a letter together, seal it in a bottle, and send it away. You can draw something in the letter, as well. You can then imagine where the bottle will end up: Do you think it will sail to the other side of the world? Who do you think will find it?
  8. Go angling. You can dig for worms together and try to catch a fish.
  9. Use chalk to transform your drive into an arts exhibition. Colour the road full of beautiful pictures or make a hopscotch grid.
  10. Set up a juice stall. Make cold juice together and build a stall to serve it from. One of you can be the vendor and the others can be customers. After a while, you can switch roles.
  11. The Colournauts’ website offers many kinds of activities and challenges, such as creative arts activities.(external link, opens in a new window) 

Things to do indoors on a rainy day

  1. Memory games, board games, or card games can make a rainy day.
  2. You can perform crafts, draw, or paint on a rainy day. Take out your crayons or watercolours.
  3. Go to the library or read books from your own shelf. Picture books, long stories and talking about reading are nice things to do.
  4. Make a strawberry cake or pancakes. Be creative in the decorating, and the best thing is that you get to eat the end result!
  5. Put some juice or fruit in the freezer. An ice lolly will be nice and cool once the sun comes out again. You can also try to freeze bananas or watermelon. See what the icy melon tastes and feels like. Yikes, it’s cold!
  6. Encourage children to make up stories. The adult should encourage the child to tell a story, and write it down exactly as the child tells it. Then, the adult reads out the story to the child, and the child gets to change or correct it. This is about listening to the child and pausing along with their thoughts. Read more here (in Finnish).(external link, opens in a new window)
  7. Pikkuli’s games(external link, opens in a new window) offer joy, playing, and learning in a safe digital environment.
  8. The Pikku Kakkosen Eskari(external link, opens in a new window) application (in Finnish) complements the interactive digital playing services of the Pikku Kakkonen TV show for children under the age of 7.
  9. You can practice shopping in the Papumarket(external link, opens in a new window) (in Finnish). Pick various items in your shopping cart, and pretend to pay at the end.

More activity tips are available at Google Sites(external link, opens in a new window).

 

  • Early Childhood Education
  • Growth and Learning