Families With Grace

70 Summer family activities to do at home

Ah, summertime. The warmer temperatures. Children happily playing outside while adults sip lemonade in the shade. Wait. What?! That’s not how it goes. If your family is anything like mine, it’s a precarious balance between planned activities, downtime and pesky things like work and chores. And that’s not even including the mom guilt that kicks in during summer break.

But you don’t have to make every moment of summer break Instagram fabulous to make good family memories. Lots of summer fun ideas for families are easy to pull off and create fabulous memories for your entire family.

Whether you’re looking for rainy day activities for families, outdoor family fun activities or a mix of both, we’ve got you covered!

Affiliate links are used in this post. If you make a qualifying purchase via my link, I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. This helps support my blog. Thank you for your support! Read my full disclosure here.

Outdoor summer fun ideas for families

One of the great things about summer is beautiful weather. For those of us here in the Midwest, we enjoy the warmer days that aren’t too humid and hot to be outside. Check your local weather forecast and figure out when these outdoor summer fun ideas will work best for your family. Don’t forget that mornings and evenings can be great for being outside, even on blazing summer days.

Launch rockets

From rockets you stomp on for smaller kiddos to building rockets for older kiddos, this can be a great summer family activity that works in some science to boot!

Water toys

Nothing says summer family fun more than cooling down outside with water. You can have a blast as a family with water toys. Be sure to leave some towels by your door for when you go back inside all wet! We usually follow up water play outside with showers, PJs and a movie.

Family yard games

Playing games as a family is always fun. We love tabletop games year-round, but summertime is the perfect time to get outside for some fun. Whether your looking for traditional field day activities or a classic croquet set, these yard games are terrific summer fun ideas for families!

Sporty summer family fun activities

If there’s one way to encourage kiddos (and adults!) to be more active, it’s by playing a game. These sporty games and activities are a great way for your family to have fun this summer as well as get in some cardio!

Indoor summer fun ideas for families

These family fun indoor activities will keep your family entertained and having fun inside when it’s too hot to be outside. They’re also perfect rainy day activities for families and really can work any time of year. Who said you have to be outside all the time to have fun?

Educational and fun STEAM toys

Learning doesn’t sound super fun over summer break, but these STEAM toys are actually fun for the family. And they help your kiddos hone things like problem-solving skills, physics concepts and more.

Imaginative play toys

Most family have a decent amount of toys around for imaginative play, but adding some new ones to the mix can turn into a great family fun indoor activity. Imaginative play is not only good for our kiddos’ brains, but it also gives your family a chance to interact together in new and different ways. Take time to play!

Care for living things

Without springing for a new puppy, you can still have a great time this summer taking care of living things with your kiddos. From plants to easy pets, these ideas are perfect family fun indoor activities!

Crafts for your family

I am pretty inept at crafts and art, but with the right craft kit, I can hold my own. These craft kits and ideas are perfect rainy day activities to keep your family entertained. Work on them together and see what kind of masterpieces you can make!

Puzzles and games

Puzzles and games are perhaps the most quintessential rainy day family activities. And there’s a good reason: they’re fun! Make some snacks and prepare for a good time with these puzzles and games!

Summer fun ideas for families

With so many outdoor and indoor options, you family can have lots of fun this summer. Make memories whether it’s a rainy day, hot day or gorgeous day with any of these 70 ideas!

Find more great family fun ideas in these posts:

• Family read aloud chapter books for kindergarteners through 5th graders
• Family fun night activities at home
• 15 Ideas for spending time at home with your family
• 10 Family bonding ideas
• “Finding Grace at Home: 7 Days of 5-Minute Devotionals for Families”

Tips for Christian moms with a good dose of encouragement

The “Moms with Grace” series takes a look at modern Christian moms and how they handle daily life with raising children. You’ll find monthly posts from moms with older kids, younger kids and all those in between. Let real-life moms encourage and uplift you!

Sometimes when you get introduced to someone, you realize you are on the same page right away. That’s how it was for me with Rachael Belle. Rachael publishes a quarterly magazine called “Healing Home” that focuses on Biblical homemaking. She also maintains a related blog and a second site, Healing Home Recipes, where she posts healthy recipes for families.

Along with her online ministry, Rachael is a wife of nine years to Danny and a mom to three boys: Wyatt (5), West (3) and Wylder (8 months). Needless to say, she’s one busy mama! She and her family live on 40 acres in Minnesota where they homestead with gardens, bees, pigs, chickens and turkeys.

Recently she took time out of her jam-packed schedule to answer a few questions for the Moms with Grace series.

Affiliate links are used in this post. If you make a qualifying purchase via my link, I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. This helps support my blog. Thank you for your support! Read my full disclosure here.

Can you share a little bit about your marriage?

It’s hard to talk about our marriage without mentioning a turning point that happened for Dan in 2005. At the time Dan was living a very different life. In God’s true sovereignty, He issued Dan a wake-up call in the form of a tree. The only problem with this tree is that it met Dan’s head as he was going 60 MPH on a brand-new Harley Davidson motorcycle.

Dan was found dead on scene. He died again in the ambulance and again on the operating table.

But God is gracious, and he saved my future husband’s life.

Dan’s life changed that night. He woke up with virtually no memory and had to relearn how to walk, talk, write, eat and everything else. Although I was not there during this tumultuous time, I have heard many of the stories. And to this day I marvel at God’s goodness in saving Dan’s life.

I met Dan in 2013 at our church, and we were married the next year.

How have you changed from the beginning of your mom journey until now?

The change in me could be summarized in one word: sanctification.

By no means, do I claim that I have arrived at any ending point of development, but again God is gracious. Motherhood and marriage reveal the sin nature in us in ways that nothing else has for me.

After I had my second child, I found myself seething in anger over the smallest of things. I never would have considered myself an angry person, but those little sinful boys triggered my own sin battle with bitterness, angry and resentment.

The beauty of the gift of motherhood is that God does not leave us helpless as we stand there wondering where all this sin is stemming from. He gave us His Word, other sisters in Christ, community and the church.

The biggest change in me from the beginning of my mom journey until now is God’s grace in my life revealing sin in me and His work in me as I learn to lean into His will for my life.

What are some challenges you’ve faced as a mother? How have you worked to overcome them?

The biggest challenge I have faced in motherhood is learning how to be a wife and a mother.

When Dan suffered his brain injury in 2005 it left his brain with certain damages. The section of our brain that allows us to feel empathy was greatly impacted. Our children need our empathy. When they are crying on the floor in frustration, our empathy is in part what allows us to offer them grace when it is needed.

When I married Dan, I thought I fully understood his brain injury, but I didn’t. I didn’t understand how his brain injury would impact our parenting. In our marriage vows I said, “I love you for you were, who you are and who you will become.” To this day that is the only section of our marriage vows that I remember, and it’s because God has brought them to my mind time and time again. He knew I would need that vow consistently in my head as I learned the balance of being Danny’s wife and my boy’s mother.

Your marriage is a covenant between you, your spouse and God. Your motherhood is a gift.

Out of the deepest of respect for my husband, I will be vague concerning this, but I have shed many tears of frustration and cried out to God in desperation as I have tried to learn the balance of parenting my children with grace when my husband’s brain significantly struggles to connect with empathy.

Yet at the end of the day, God is sovereign. He knew we would face this struggle before the beginning of time. I truly believe that if Danny is pursuing Jesus, I am pursuing Jesus and we are united in our love for our boys, we can conquer anything. If you are struggling in your marriage and parenting, do a deep dive into God’s sovereignty. I believe you will be blessed by the study.

In what ways have you and do you share your faith with your children? (I’d love examples!)

This past year we have started something that has been our number one discipleship tool! We make breakfast together and sit down as a family to enjoy a hearty breakfast and have family devotional time.

My husband can be home on Friday, Saturdays and Sundays, so on those days we sit down as a family of five. Most days we cook farm fresh eggs, bacon and some sort of sourdough bread or roll.

We eat and do a Bible reading or devotional. Our three favorites right now are: The Laugh & Grow Bible for Kids by Phil Vischer, How Great is our God by Louie Giglio and The Really Radical Book for Kids by Champ Thornton.

Sharing our faith comes in seasons, but in all the seasons we should be intentional. I have also used our drive time to listen to kids’ Christian podcasts and have discussions afterward. Our bookshelves are filled to the brim with books by Godly authors like R.C Sproul. His book The Priest with Dirty Clothes recently sparked some truly delightful conversations about our faith! Our faith is woven throughout our day and conversations. We are intentional about showing our kids that our affections should be for Jesus.

What are some of your favorite parts of motherhood?

I have endless favorite parts of motherhood, but truthfully my absolutely favorite part is simply watching them have fun.

Last night we were able to sit on our deck finally after such a long winter. My oldest son was in our field with a toy sword, and he was chopping down the tall grass and pretending to fight a dragon. My youngest was playing by a water table on our deck, and he looked over at me with such a big smile it melted my heart. Finally, I looked over at our middle while who was oblivious to the world. His hind end was sticking up in the air as he was trying to look inside a gopher hole.

It was absolutely perfect. Those are my favorite moments. It’s the moments I just get to enjoy watching them.

How does grace play a role in your daily life? Do you have any tips or advice for how moms can show more grace to their families?

I’m not perfect. Far from it. However, one of my prayers with my mothering is that in the moments where my weakness shows through that God’s strength would be evident.

Grace is a necessity in parenting. I need God’s grace to sustain me throughout the day, and my children need to see grace in my parenting. Grace is not the absence of discipline, but the evidence of it.

I often tell my children when I’m extending grace. It might sound something like this:

Wyatt, mommy messed up today and God extended me grace and forgave me. Right now, you directly disobeyed me, but I want to give you grace like Jesus did for me. Can we both repent and move on with our day?

What are you most proud of as a mom?

Right now, I’m just proud that my children seem receptive to what we have taught them about the Bible and Jesus.

Do you have any resources that help you be a mom with grace? (Music, books, websites, etc.)

I love podcasts and right now one of my favorites is The Art of Home: A Podcast for Homemakers by Allison L Weeks. She has great wisdom as a seasoned homemaker and mother.

Speaking of homemaking, I would love for you to join me in the most important step of my day, Bible reading! Inside my Homemaker Binder Planner (updated monthly) there is a Bible reading section. It has been a JOY to read my Bible with other mothers and homemakers. (P.S. You can still call yourself a homemaker even if you work another job!)

It would be a delight if you decided to join the monthly homemaker planner and joined me in the Bible reading challenge. During the month of May we have worked on reading a Proverb a day.

Do you have anything else to add that we haven’t talked about?

Your home can be a healing place! Allow Jesus to be the builder of your home and abide in him.

Connect with other Christian moms for support and encouragement in the private Facebook group, Moms with Grace!

Read more in the series:

Linda Mendible

Mandy Farmer

How Christian families can grow closer family relationships

Since before we had children, my husband and I had a team mentality. It was us against the world. Once we had our children, we incorporated them into our team and have developed an attitude of family teamwork. Along with that, though, we also try to be intentional about family bonding and finding ways to make that happen — even when life is busy.

When it comes to family bonding, quality trumps quantity. Even during the pandemic and a year and a half of virtual school, my family had to be intentional about spending quality time together. We were together all the time, but we weren’t always growing closer as a result.

Of the various ways we spend quality time together, these are 10 of our favorite ways for family bonding.

Affiliate links are used in this post. If you make a qualifying purchase via my link, I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. This helps support my blog. Thank you for your support! Read my full disclosure here.

1. Play games.

Gaming is one of my family’s favorite past-times. My husband and I enjoyed games before had children and then were happy to play games with them once they were old enough. (Be sure to check out five of our favorite family games for small children.) Playing games together can be a great way to bond with the right attitude.

Another bonus to playing games together is it gives you a chance to teach lessons about how you can’t always win, and how to be happy for someone else we love when things go well for them. We’ve worked our way through some of these challenges and still do with one of our kiddos from time to time.

To keep competitiveness at bay, we also really enjoy playing cooperative games where the whole family works together toward one common goal. Role-playing games are often this way. One of our favorites with our kids now that they’re a bit older is HeroQuest.

2. Try new things.

Experiencing something new together can be great for family bonding. Whether you’re eating something new, doing a new activity or going somewhere new, doing something brand-new draws you closer as a family.

Recently, for instance, my daughter and I were alone for dinner while my husband and son went to a movie. We decided to try an Indian restaurant in our city that we had never been to. Neither of us had eaten Indian food before, so along with it being a new restaurant, it was also new cuisine. We learned together, which is a really neat thing to be able to do as a parent and child.

Our whole family tried geocaching together for the first time a couple of years ago. It was a fun way to connect as we searched for the hidden items in sometimes very common areas.

3. Travel.

Any adventure you can go on together is going to draw you closer. You can do this by traveling far from home or just going a city over. It doesn’t have to be complicated or pricey. This year, we spent spring break spelunking in various caves in Kentucky. We also got to feed kangaroos and eat good food. Our trip resulted in good memories and a chance to draw closer.

Traveling together as a family helps you stay focused on each other because there are not nearly as many distractions as daily life. And it also helps your family learn to be more flexible. We’ve navigated feeding a picky eater, finding our way around a new city and surviving tent camping failures as a family.

4. Eat meals.

While some family bonding activities are more out of the ordinary, others are more commonplace. Eating dinner (or whatever mealtime works best for your family) together is great for bonding. Family mealtime allows us to talk about what’s going on in our lives. We talk with the kids about what happened at school. Sometimes we make plans for the week. Other times we have random conversations that spring up like what our most embarrassing moments are. We’ve even had deeper discussions about religion and politics at the dinner table.

If you can’t have dinner together every night, set a goal of however many nights are feasible for your family and do what it takes to make it happen. If dinnertime doesn’t work, then have breakfast or lunch together a couple of times a week. And don’t think it has to be fancy or elaborate. Serve up cold cereal for any of those meals and enjoy the time together!

Be sure to grab the “Favorite Recipes from Families with Grace” cookbook to help you come up with some tasty dinner ideas!

5. Go to church.

There’s something special about being at church together as a family. These days, my 10-year-old prefers to stay in service with us instead of going with the kids. Sitting together with my husband and children listening to them praising God together is awesome. It makes my heart swell with gratitude for my blessings.

If your children go to children’s church, then be sure to talk together about what they did and what they learned. We usually talk about the sermon together after church now that we are all hearing the same one. In fact, Sunday after church is our one regular time to eat out. So we both have a meal together and talk about church. It works well!

6. Have devotion time.

Growing in our relationships with God together as a family brings us closer. Whether you’re doing family devotions at Christmas or throughout the year, make time in your schedule to do some sort of devotional as a family. It doesn’t have to be every day. If once a week is what works for your family, then do that!

Right now, we are reading through “The Action Bible” a couple of nights of the week. After we finish reading a section (or two or three!), we just a bit about what happened and how to apply that to our own lives. For instance, my children were scoffing at how quickly the Israelites turned to worship idols and forgot what God did by getting them out of Egypt. Then we talked about how easy it is for us to get distracted from God even now. We may not being making golden calves to worship, but we do have to make sure we are prioritizing our relationship with God.

Get started today with the FREE family devotion book, “Finding Grace at Home: 7 Days of 5-Minute Devotions for Families.”

7. Read for fun.

Reading out loud together is a great way to encourage family bonding. We started reading to our 13-year-old when she was about 3 months old, and we haven’t stopped since. We’ve read through a variety of picture books and chapter books together. Our family has particularly enjoyed the Harry Potter books and The Mapmaker Chronicles books. My son and I are reading the Wings of Fire series together and really enjoy it as special one-on-one bonding time.

The fun with reading fiction together is your family has a chance to enjoy the story, root for characters, loathe villains and more together. My son and I even come up with our own role play of sorts for many of the books we read.

(For ideas on what to read, don’t miss more than 100 children’s books worth reading and family read aloud chapter books for kindergarten through 5th graders.)

8. Pray.

Along with reading, we also started praying together with our children before bedtime when they were babies. That has continued to this day, and our kids are 10 and 13. Even though our daughter gets to stay up later than her younger brother, we have family prayer time every night. It isn’t elaborate and doesn’t have to be. Most of the time, our kids each say prayers out loud. Sometimes we do also.

Praying together helps our family draw closer. When we pray for each other, it helps strengthen our relationships as well. If one of us is sick or struggling and the others pray for that person, it’s encouraging. We also join together in prayer for friends and family.

9. Reminisce.

Doing things together creates memories. Talking about those memories together can draw your family closer to each other and strengthen your relationships. There is something special about a shared memory or inside joke.

And, here’s the thing, you don’t even have to reminisce solely about the big things like vacations. Talk and laugh about the small everyday moments that nobody will forget. My family, for instance, laughs together about the time I came across mice in our garage and started yelling and ran back into the house faster than they thought I could even move. It was certainly a memorable moment!

Just be careful that in your reminiscing you aren’t putting down each other or hurting each others’ feelings.

10. Cheer for each other.

When you have a team mentality about your family, it’s even easier to cheer for each other. Cheering for each other can look like listening when a family member is talking about something he or she is passionate about. It can look like your whole family showing up for concerts, performances or games and cheering loudly.

Feeling happy for and/or proud of each other only increasing your bond as a family. We want to celebrate life’s wins together so that whenever something good happens to one of us, we all are excited. This encourages our kiddos (as well as my husband and me) to share our good news with our family. And that’s a good thing!

Encouragement for your motherhood journey

As moms, we can be hard on ourselves. This is true for us Christian moms as well. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wondered if I even have a clue what I’m doing. I question whether God should have blessed me with two such awesome kiddos. Am I honoring Him? Am I being a good mother to them?

I do know I’m doing my best, and I’m showing up every single day. Having been raised by a good, Christian mom, I have some insight as to what it looks like. And through the 13 years I’ve been a mom myself, I’ve learned a bit of what good mothering looks like.

None of us get it right all the time. We fall short. But those times give us a chance to model grace to our children, including what giving ourselves grace looks like. (Ouch! That’s a challenge for us when we are so good at giving ourselves a hard time!) And we keep at it. Motherhood never stops.

Check out these five characteristics of good mothering as a Christian mom. Give yourself some credit where it’s due and challenge yourself to improve where you need to. Through it all, love your kids and love God. You’ve got this, mama!

Be present.

We can spend a lot of time with our children and still not be present with them. Our kiddos need our love and attention. Good mothering means finding ways to focus on your children and nothing else. We need to be intentional about disconnecting from other things (hello, electronics!) and focusing on our children. They don’t always need our focus, but they do need to know we are truly listening to them.

One strategy that’s worked well for our family is giving each of our two kiddos two nights a week dedicated to them. After our family prayer and reading time, one child gets to hang with my husband and me solo for about 30 minutes. We focus completely on that child. It’s been a great way to intentionally be present and connect with our children.

Set boundaries.

Most Christian moms have heard the verse from Proverbs 22:6 that says, “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” (NIV) We want to start our children off well both in their faith and in life in general. Raising our children to love God, respect themselves and respect others is important.

In order to do that, our kiddos need boundaries. Boundaries actually help our children feel safe and allow them to grow in a healthy way. Set rules and boundaries — and enforce them. My husband and I made a pact when we first had children to not use empty threats. If we are going to tell our kids they’ll have a consequence for a misbehavior, it’s one we must be willing to follow through on.

And, honestly, sometimes good mothering means we have to say “no,” even when we don’t really want to because it’s the best decision for our child. I have this trouble sometimes even in small ways like when my son begs to read another chapter in the “Wings of Fire” series we’re reading together. I want to find out what happens, too, but I also know he needs enough sleep to have a good following day. So, I say “no.”

Be patient.

Ah, patience. Good mothering means being patient, which can be easier said than done! Whether our children are being challenging or we are just out of sorts, patience can be hard to come by. But, we want to be patient and grace-filled parents. So, we need strategies in place to help us during the difficult times.

One of the things I often do is take a deep breath and repeat the first part of 1 Corinthians 13:4 to myself: “Love is patient. Love is kind.” (NIV) Seriously. It helps me refocus and get outside of myself. There are other times when I get old school rapper with it based on a meme I once saw that said, “Love is patient. Love is kind. Ya’ll gonna make me lose my mind. Up in here! Up in here!”

Listening to Christian worship music throughout the day also helps me. It’s easier to be patient when I have Jesus music playing. Find a strategy that works for you. Our children need us to be patient with them because they are learning and growing. They’re going to mess up — just like we do! Our patience and understanding will go a long way in helping them feel loved and valued.

Be flexible.

I’m a planner through and through. However, I’ve learned a lot about flexibility in motherhood. A lot. I’m a decade out from newborn days, but I still remember how out of control life feels with a baby. Just when you think you can predict the baby’s schedule, it changes. Or right as everyone is ready to leave the house, you end up having to change a dirty diaper.

Sometimes the best thing we can do is let go of our plans and expectations. Living with chronic illnesses taught me this lesson, but motherhood has driven it home. Being flexible when plans change also allows our kids to see what it looks like to keep moving forward.

Over spring break this year, for instance, we had plans to go to a national park. A big storm went through the area two days prior, and the park was closed for the day our first tour was scheduled. The second choice we made also ended up being closed. But, our third choice option ended up being one of our favorite parts of the trip that we wouldn’t have even done without being flexible. (We got to feed kangaroos!)

(Check out more family travel woes in this post about our tent camping failures!)

Model good behavior.

Our kids are watching and learning from everything we do and say. They learn how to act and react based on how our actions and reactions. Good mothering involves modeling good behavior and values. If we don’t want our children to call each other names, then we shouldn’t call anyone names either. If we want our children to encourage each other, then we should encourage those around us. We want our children to have the tools they need to live productive, faith-filled lives as adults. One of the best ways we can help teach them is by modeling that to them.

Choosing our words wisely is also incredibly important. Proverbs 31:26 says this about how a virtuous woman should talk, “She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue.” (NIV) I try to choose my words wisely. As an introvert who tends to think before she speaks, I am pretty decent at this. But, I’m not perfect. And those times are ideal for me to model what apologizing looks like.

Good mothering requires grace.

None of us are perfect moms. We all fall short. However, knowing what good mothering looks like and striving to achieve it is exactly what we should be doing. One bad moment doesn’t make you a bad mom. It doesn’t define you. Pray about and learn from your mistakes, then move forward. Give yourself grace, because God gives it freely to you.

Just keep going, mama. You are the perfect mom for your kiddos!