Despite a very slow start to summer, the season is hardly cancelled. Even though COVID-19 and the Canada-wide reopening has come complete with new rules, there’s still so many activities, adventures, and fun things to do in the summer with friends.
This list contains fourteen of our favorite fun things to do in the summer with friends:
1. Day Camps
Day camps in the community are a really great opportunity to develop a new skill or try an unexpected activity while meeting others in the neighborhood. Day camps are based around various activities, including arts and crafts, technology, and special events. Camps are also excellent to encourage children to try out physical activities, such as the best sports for girls.
2. Talent Show
If we’re trying our best to maintain some social distancing, a talent show can be a fun way to celebrate every friend’s unique talents. Some may sing, others may dance. It can be anything.
Scheduling regular talent shows can encourage your friends to invest themselves in learning something constructive over summer or collaborating with a friend to produce something unforgettable.
3. Play A Board Game
Choose your favourite board game, pull it out, and invite some friends over to pass the time with. Coupling this with some sodas or a nice summer afternoon watermelon and you’re golden.
4. Scavenger Hunt
If you don’t mind having kids running around the house, yard, or neighborhood, try your best scavenger hunt. It doesn’t have to involve collecting objects. It can be simply distributing clues, leading everyone eventually back home for a dessert or special prize.
5. Lego
One of the best fun things to do in the summer with friends is to play legos. Legos are a classic multi-season activity. You can follow a Lego plan from online or create your own.
Between friends, you can build a large house, a store, a park, or even a whole neighborhood. If you go the way of a neighborhood, you may even be able to make this a summer-long activity.
6. Starting A ‘Friend Garden’
Dig up a patch in the backyard or build your own flower bed. From there, plant seeds, flowers, and vegetables of you and your friends’ choosing. Come summer’s end, you can give each participant a collection of what was grown in the garden to take home with them.
7. Explore A Local Trail
Every community has either a nearby trail, a rural area not far off from them, or a provincial or national park. Grab some friends and take a day to do some old-time exploring. Chat and connect with old friends, camp overnight if you want to go bold with it, or simply get in some exercise on a nice summer’s day.
8. Backyard Movie Theatre
If you or one of your friends is fortunate enough to have a projector, throw a sheet over your backyard swing-set or clothesline and invite some friends over at dusk to watch a movie. It’s an inexpensive way to create a summertime memory you’ll look back on with fondness.
9. Cook Up A Summer Meal
You can do this in the backyard on the BBQ or in the kitchen with the windows open but if cooking’s a passion, there are plenty of summer-themed meals easy to prepare. If a full meal doesn’t work, try your hand at some beverages. Tag team it with some friends and have fun.
10. Visit A Local Restaurant
This one wouldn’t fit onto our list on any regular summer but this season’s special. Our local restaurants have been shut down due to COVID-19 for months or they’ve remained open and haven’t seen the business they’re used to.
Supporting a local business and introducing your children or friends to what it means to support local businesses is a tasty and also worthwhile trip.
11. Have A Social Distancing Dance Party
Invite some friends over and everyone brings a few of their favourite songs. Fire up the backyard barbecue, put those songs on a playlist, and have a list afternoon dance party.
Provide hula-hoops to your friends and establish that two-metre space for attendees. Maintaining social distancing shouldn’t be a problem as long as everyone sticks to their personal space.
12. Build Gift Bags to Hand Out to a Charity
For gift bags, ensure everything you put in is wrapped and separated as to prevent germs. Organizations in need are always looking for donations, particularly those taking care of the homeless population.
Grab some friends and put together some care packages to be given to them as a donation this summer. It’s a fun and important way to give back.
13. Paint A Wall
We know this one’s a little out-of-the-ordinary but why not open a window and have all your beautiful friends help you paint a wall – it’s a lot of fun.
Give everyone their own section and provide them the chance to paint something that speaks to them. It’s an unexpected summer activity that’s artistic and adventurous with minimal effort.
14. Create-A-Candle
Candles are surprisingly easy to create from next to nothing. Choosing the color and smell, watching it come together, and getting the finished product to take home with them is a fun activity for craft-minded friends.
