If you follow me on Instagram @EastCoastCreative (<<<if you don’t- umm let’s get on that okay?!?) you might have seen that my kids have been out of school for 5 days and already I’ve head “I’m bored” enough times to make me almost use some special “mommy words” $%(&*@#  So, instead of losing my mind or grounding my kids for the remainder of the summer, I decided to take matters into my own hands an plan and prep some summer kids activities that A) Don’t require much help from me B) Keep them occupied for a while and C) Don’t cost a lot.  I spent a total of $100 at Target and JoAnn Fabrics and now have a list of activities and a box of supplies that should last all summer.

Many of my IG followers asked me to share my ideas here on the blog, so I’m starting a Summer Sanity Series… Today I’m sharing the first activity we did, but Monday I’ll give you the full activities list and the supplies I bought!

I like to know what I’m getting into with kid activities, so I’m going to give a little ranking for every activity we do.  Then, you don’t need to be mad at me when you spend 6 hours tying macrame knots or something! lol

Parental Involvement:  Some times I do want to help and play with the kids, but sometimes I need an activity to entertain my kids so I can do something else.  This activity is medium- I had to help attach the flags to the cups and I had to play referee, because it’s summer vacation and fighting is inevitable for the first few days!

This works indoors or out- we did our course inside.

Cost- could honestly be free for this one, because it’s normal household items, but I did buy foam sheets for our flags, so I counted that.

Success Rating: 3 out of 4.  Making the course was super fun (each kid designed 2 holes) but since I have 4 kids, at the end of playing 8 holes they were donezo.  They also made some ridiculously hard holes, so that played into it a bit too.

DIY Mini Golf Supplies

Dixie or Solo Cups

Duct Tape

Skewers

Foam Sheets (or construction paper)

Golf Ball (we used the soft practice balls we have)

Putter or Hockey Stick (we used both)

Markers

Misc. Household Items

Step 1: Cut the foam into little triangles. These will be the flags for each hole. Let your kids design their flags.

My kids range from 6-13 years old and all of them participated and liked it! #winning

I said they could write any number they want, so obviously negative 4951 was a super cool number to a 10 year old!

Step 2:  Poke the skewer through the flag and then tape the skewer onto the back of a cup.

If they get a little tipsy, just use a piece of tape to hold the cup secure to the ground once they decide where each hole will be located.  

Step 3:  Design challenging (sometimes ridiculously hard) holes using household items.  The mop was out because umm… look at those floors.  Summer is impossible with 2 big dogs and 4 kids.

The kids made ramps, hid holes behind doors and got really creative. My only rule was if you use it you put it away.

Our first summer sanity activity was a success and actually after mini golf all 4 kids sat together and played legos for another hour… what?!?  Apparently it got their creative and collaborative juices flowing.  I promise you that won’t always be the case, but I’d love it if it was!

I’ll be back Monday sharing my whole list and a few other projects because right now my kids are yelling from downstairs asking me to come do another Summer Sanity Kids Activity with them!  It’s Saturday…. Oh well!

-Mon