Whether you are a parent or grandparent keeping your children or grandchildren active this summer is challenging!
Here are some ideas to keep children busy, and provides lots of great memories and chances to get great photos for summer digital scrapbooking albums too!
Idea 1: Take the Children Bowling!
How about free bowling all summer long? Did you know that more than 800 bowling centers in 45 states have teamed up with kidsbowlfree.com to give kids two free games of bowling every day for the entire summer!
It’s a fantastic way to have fun with your children this summer and create some terrific memories.
Don’t forget to bring the camera and get some photos you can scrap too!
If you want to have a family bowling activity but want to stay home then, set up your own Bowling Alley with Bottles
Homemade Bowling Alley ~ from Grandparents.com
You’ll need one round, heavy ball, such as a basketball or a soccer ball, and 
ten empty plastic bottles. Fill each bottle about one quarter-full with sand or water, making them just heavy enough to stand up but just light enough to be knocked down by the ball. Cap the bottles tightly.
Find an area for your alley, like a driveway, a flat, grassy area, or even a long, furniture-free hallway in the house.
Set up the bottles in the traditional bowling pin grid: Place one pin up front, two behind that, three behind those, and four in the back
Idea 2: Make a Craft together
Memories of a lifetime are made from the simplest pleasures, ones that don’t necessarily include buying things!!!
How about making a craft together, this gives you the opportunity to laugh
together, talk and share a fun activity too! Again, take lots of photos to remember the activity and to scrap it later.
Here are few craft ideas:
Make a Paper Bag Puppet ~ from Grandparents.com
Make a plain brown lunch bag into any kind of puppet with a little imagination. Simply turn the bag upside down and, using markers, crayons, and glued-on items, create a character of your own.
Build a Shoebox Dollhouse ~ from Grandparents.com
This project can be as simple or elaborate as you choose to make it. First, decide how many 
rooms (one shoebox per room) you want the dollhouse to have. Cut squares in the bottom of the box for windows. Add miniature furniture and decorations. Put the boxes in the order you want the rooms and glue them together. Take two of the box tops and lean them against each other over the house. This creates a vaulted ceiling and an attic space above the rooms.
Make a Shoebox Guitar ~ from Grandparents.com
An easier project than you might think. Take a shoebox and cut a hole in the
center of the lid. Now cut a hole on one side of the box. In that hole, put an empty paper towel roll and tape it in place. This makes it look like the long end of a guitar.
Take four or five rubber bands of various widths and lengths, and stretch them lengthwise over the lid, as shown.
Decorate a Paper Plate Mask ~ from Grandparents.com
Using a white paper plate, make a funny face or a primitive mask with just a pair 
of scissors and some crayons. Cut holes where your eyes will go.
If you’ve got some yarn around, add it on as hair or a beard.
Put two small holes on either side of the paper plate, and thread some yarn through it to tie the mask to the child’s head.
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Creating memories by doing crafts with your children and grandchildren make summer less boring, creates some wonderful and lasting memories and gives you a great chance for some fun photos that you can scrap too!
Idea 3: Let your Child be a Reporter
Give your child or grandchild a camera, a notebook and pen and have them capture the summer events and write about it.
Why give the kids a camera today? Well, as a parent, I’m sure you have lots to do this summer and it hard to be with them doing crafts all the time! With summer here, and many kids out of school, they have plenty of free time to also keep busy doing independent activities like taking a few photos and writing about them too! Not to mention, giving them the responsibility to be in charge of the digital camera and getting lots photos this summer will help keep busy!
You can use the photos and the notes they take in digital scrapbooking pages too!
Idea 4: You and your Child/Grandchild scrap the Summer activities
Each Summer month, help them to digitally scrap the photos into digital scrapbooking pages, albums, and other scrapbooking projects. Once they 
have digital scrapbooking pages of their summer activities then they can make the pages into puzzles, mouse pads, posters, calendars and even gifts for other family members or friends.
For help on helping children scrap, check out these blog articles: Helping Kids Start Digital Scrapbooking ~ Part 1 and also this blog article: Helping Kids Start Digital Scrapbooking ~ Part 2 . Helping your children preserve the memories of their summer activities would be always be a way of preserving very special memories!
Have very happy summer and have some fun with the kids in your life!
Cheri
Ps. Tomorrow’s blog article will have more summer ideas for children, so check back then!
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