It's July: You're all hot, the kids are bored, and all the brilliant summer-fun ideas you stockpiled back in May or June have melted away like the last traces of snow in Boston.
Our TODAY Parenting Team community is here to help with go-to summer fun activities that don't require a lot of money, planning or effort. Not a glue gun in sight, we promise.
The good news is, kids don't need elaborate structured activities to have a good summer. In fact, just the opposite! Check out TODAY Parenting Team contributor, Positive Parenting Solutions founder and parenting author Amy McCready for more advice on exactly why and how to have a laid-back summer: "According to researchers, a lazy summer might be what we all need more than anything," McCready writes. There you have it: science.
More good news? The Parenting Team is an open parenting community, part of the TODAY show, and if you haven't already signed up we'd love for you to join us. You can sign up here and contribute your thoughts on monthly topics, like how to have the best summer ever.
Here's what a few of our contributors said:
1. Have an old-fashioned watermelon seed-spitting contest. Noelle Kirchner, NoelleKirchner.com.
2. Water balloon fights are never not fun; especially when mom and dad join in. Samantha Ettus, Samantha Ettus.com.
3. Use a bucket of water and a brush or sponge to "paint" the driveway or deck. Encourage creativity AND keep cool. Christine Burke, Keeper of the Fruit Loops.
4. Build structures out of toothpicks and mini-marshmallows or Dots. Just make sure the building material doesn't get eaten. Mary Ann Ware, Still Chasing Fireflies.
5. Make a DIY indoor racetrack on the floor out of masking or painter's tape. Start your engines! Janie Porter, SheJustGlows.com.