If you’re reading this in live time, the dog days of summer are officially here. The air is hot. The kids are deep into summer break. Intentions of lower screen time this summer just may have slipped. And maybe you’re already home from your yearly trip to camp.
What you need now is a little adventure boost. Nothing too crazy! Just enough to end the summer with intentional fun. So sit back near a fan, grab a cold glass of sweet tea, and check out these ideas. This is your permission to unplug and beat the heat!
The ideas below are laid out in a Mon-Fri format — think of it as a mini camp away from camp. If you want to mix things up, plan one epic day with everything on the list or spread them out across a few weeks. Whichever way you go about it, have fun and get creative.
These ideas are designed to be EASY! If you want to spiff them up, go for it. But high temps require low effort in my book!
One more note before we dive in — most of the materials you need are common household items. You can pick up anything you happen to need from the dollar store!
Recommended Refreshment of the Week: Lemonade Slushies
Step 1: Get a bottle of lemonade from the dollar store. (Or make a pitcher using a mix from the pantry.)
Step 2: Combine with ice in the blender. (Eyeball it for your family’s preferred ice to juice ratios.)
Step 3: Enjoy! There you have it. If you don’t have a blender or washing one is more than you want to sign up for today, just stick the bottle of juice in the freezer and take it out when partially frozen!
Extra time? Extra ideas! Instead of making slushies, use a popsicle mold to freeze the lemonade into homemade popsicles!
Monday: Color Battle
At Family Camp this year, we have an experience called Color Wars. I’m taking that experience and using it as very loose inspiration for this at-home activity! It’s fun, it’s messy, and it’s the perfect way to bond with your people camp-style.
Here’s how to play:
- Assign each player a color.
- Each player dresses head-to-toe in their color. The more ways you can integrate the color, the better! (If you have young kids or a big group, get into teams instead of everyone getting an individual color.)
- Go outside and have an elimination-style water balloon fight! Take it up a notch by having each color player/team only use their color balloon.
- When a player gets hit by a water balloon for the fifth time, they’re out. (Adjust this number depending on how many players/water balloons you have!)
- The last player standing wins! Prize: The whole group has to wear that player’s color the next day!
Indoor version:
Don’t have water balloons or a yard readily accessible? No problem! Play this waterless indoor version instead!
- Assign players a color and have them dress in that color.
- Build an indoor fort together or go in a big room and dim the lights.
- Gather all the clean socks you can get your hands on! Roll the pairs up together into balls — these will be your “snowballs.”
- Play elimination-style dodgeball with the “snowballs”! 5 hits and you’re out!
- The last player standing wins! Prize: The whole group has to wear that player’s color the next day!
Extra time? Extra ideas! Invite others to join you — your kids’ friends, neighbors, small group from church. Ask everyone to bring a dish in the color they’re assigned and share a potluck meal together! (I recommend sharing the meal after the battle, but dig in before if you like to live on the dangerous side).
Tuesday: Craft Day
Crafts are a camp essential! Each summer, I’m blown away by the masterpieces that fill Family Camp’s craft room (seriously — we have some really talented guests!) Even if it’s just a free doodle, tapping into your creative side can feel very refreshing.
So why not turn to crafts when looking for unplugged fun?? Below is a simple but meaningful craft idea — and it doesn’t even require glue! (Unless you feel so inclined!)
Memory Journals
Supplies needed:
-
- Stickers (any kind)
- Paper (bonus for construction paper, but printer paper works too!)
- Drawing utensils
- Optional: Staples, anything you’d like for extra decor, like beads and sequins.
Step 1: Stack 3 sheets of paper. Fold along the middle, like you would for a homemade card.
Optional: Staple your paper book along the spine.
Step 2: Write the crafter’s name on the front cover. Decorate.
Step 3: Fill the rest of the pages using one of the prompts below. Depending on ages and preferences, you can decorate these however you want. Feel free to add words, drawings of favorite memories, and stickers for extra personality.
Prompts:
- Best Moments of Summer 2025
- My Favorite Adventures
- Camp Memories
Extra time? Extra ideas!
If you want to get outdoorsy with it, spend some extra time and make a Nature Journal. These are the perfect excuse to get you outside exploring creation!
To keep the party going, pick up some sidewalk chalk and have at it!
Wednesday: Cool Treat Day
Embrace your sweet tooth today! I recommend something that requires no heat and is really satisfying to make … icebox cake! The beauty of this treat is it’s super customizable. You can find more ideas under “Extra time? Extra ideas!”, but here’s my favorite:
Note! This recipe needs to set in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours.
Ingredients:
- Crunchy chocolate chip cookies (like original Chips Ahoy)
- Milk
- Cool Whip
To serve 4-5 people, you just need 1 pack of cookies (13oz), 1 tub of cool whip (8oz), and 8oz of milk. Adjust amounts depending on how many people you’re feeding!
Directions:
- Grab a casserole dish (smaller sizes like 8×8 work great!)
- Pour a glass of milk
- Dip a chocolate chip cookie in the milk and set it at the bottom of the dish. Just a quick dip! No long swirls.
- Repeat until the bottom of the dish is covered in the dunked cookies
- Spread a layer of whipped cream over the cookies
- Create another layer of milk-dipped cookies
- Cover with another layer of whipped cream
- (Keep repeating this for as long as your dish height and supplies last!)
- Final layer: whipped cream.
- Crumble a few dry cookies on top for garnish!
- Let it sit in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours! (For best results, overnight.) I know, this is the hardest part! But it will be so worth it!
Extra time? Extra ideas!
You can get super creative with your icebox cake. Just be sure your cookies aren’t particularly soft and don’t dunk them in the milk for too long. If you want more flavor combo ideas, check out this article from Food Network.
Thursday: Storytelling
Unleash your inner storyteller today!
How to play:
- Get your group together somewhere not too hot! (And have those lemonade slushies on hand😉)
- Play rock, paper, scissors to see who will go first.
- The winner starts with one of the prompts below. They then have 90 seconds to add to the story. Note: They don’t complete the story, just add to it.
- If you want to keep this activity strictly no-screens, use one of those small board game hourglasses to keep the time.
- The person sitting to the left of the speaker goes next. They pick up the story where it left off and improvise the next 90 seconds of the story. Continue like this until you reach a satisfying end!
Prompts:
- No one knew the bear could talk. Until one day …
- The egg finally hatched. But none of us expected it to…
- He was a small dog. But he …
Oh, to be a fly on the wall when your group is telling these stories!
Extra time? Extra ideas!
Wait until the evening and tell stories around a bonfire (don’t forget the s’mores!) OR wait until it’s completely dark and lay out under the stars to tell your stories. Try out baked s’mores if you don’t have a bonfire readily available!
Mix things up with a bean bag! Instead of the next speaker defaulting to whoever is next in the circle, have the current speaker toss a bean bag to someone at random at the end of their turn.
Not into improvising? No problem! Make this a wordless art project instead! What stories can you tell using only drawings? OR, have a few minutes of independent story-creation time (writing, coming up with a song, drawing) and then take turns sharing your stories.
Friday: Classic Game Night
This one is super simple! Hop on the “90’s Childhood” trend and use this occasion as an excuse to pull out one of those old board games you have in the closet. It’s the kind of group fun that often gets overlooked! I recommend adding some pizza and music to the mix.
Extra time? Extra ideas!
If all your board games are already in regular circulation, run to the dollar store and try something new! Many dollar stores have card games and travel board games — you can usually find them on the toy aisle.
Keep the fun going! After your game, grab some flashlights and play flashlight tag after dark!
Bonus!
Need more ideas to carry you through the weekend? Borrow some from our previous post, 10 ways to unplug this spring break. If you really want to go all-out, do a Christmas in July weekend and use some of these winter adventure ideas to kick off the fun.
Adventure On
And there you have it! A week of family-friendly fun at home — no screens required. Whether you’re missing camp already or weren’t able to adventure with us this year, I hope this helps bring some camp magic into your home.
Comment below to let us know if you try these ideas!
