20 Educational Summer Boredom Busters

Printable Snack Checkers & Tic Tac Toe

Summertime is just around the corner, and summer break is already in session for some students. That means those inevitable cries of “Mom, I’m bored!” are also just around the corner! It doesn’t seem to matter how many fun family activities are packed into our schedules, downtime at home often results in the need for summer boredom busters. Luckily, I’ve got you covered with this list of 20 ideas that are SO much fun, kids won’t even realize that they’re also educational!

Most of these activities are appropriate for preschool through early elementary age children, and many can also be adapted to fit your child’s age and skill level. Join in the fun, play with your child, feed their imagination (and yours, too!), and build fun family memories together!

Water Balloon Phonics from Mess for Less

Jackson Pollock Style Painting

Preschool Color Sorting Activity

Oil + Water Kids Science Experiment

Piet Mondrian Style Painting

Make Your Own Solar Oven from I Can Teach My Child

Vinegar + Baking Soda Science Experiments

Homemade Microwave Puffy Paint (Baking Science)

DIY Giant Board Game from The 36th Avenue

Penny Boats from PBS Parents

Make a Circles Collage inspired by Wassily Kandinsky

Leak-Proof Bag Experiment by Paging Fun Mums

 Learn How to Make Recycled Paper

Make a Sand Volcano by Growing a Jeweled Rose

Even snack time can be educational when it’s filled with brain-boosting strategy games like checkers and tic tac toe!

My boys love these Cheddar Sandwich Crackers by Horizon (the peanut butter version is yummy, too!), and since we always have them on-hand, I sized the checkerboard to fit them perfectly. To distinguish between the two teams, I used a red food coloring marker to draw hearts on half of the crackers. Easy peasy!

My four-year-old wanted to play a snack time game, but he’s not terribly interested in checkers yet, so I made him a tic tac toe board. We played the game with Horizon’s Honey & Chocolate Snack Grahams (MY favorite snack these days!), and we had fun changing up our game pieces each round – first we’d play shape vs. shape, then flavor vs. flavor, etc.  SO much fun!

Summer is an ideal time to participate in new educational memory making activities with your children, so I hope that this list will help inspire your summer creativity!

Get the Snack Checkers & Tic Tac Toe Here

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