Top 10 Summer Craft Ideas for Tweens
We reached the mid-summer break. If it were a typical July, which it hasn’t been, we could call this season the “canine days of summer,” when the days are sweltering and sticky and those wonderfully cool fall nights couldn’t come any faster. Here in the Midwest, we’re still waiting for the 80-degree days to linger long enough to bask in the sun.
However, we have reached the point where our weekends are packed with activities, vacations, and other commitments from now until Labor Day, while the weekdays are quite mundane and delayed. Younger kids have special interest or day camps for their favorite sports that they can look forward to, while their parents schedule play dates and pool parties.
As a kid, I remember the days when summer got downright boring due to the lack of activities I had planned for the summer vacation. My mom would yell at us to turn off the television and go out and play. In my teens, summer vacations got a little more interesting with friends to hang out with, preferably those with cars.
However, between those years of day camp and the teenage years of free flight, many parents may wonder what tweens can do during summer vacation. How old is a preteen? Tweens are typically between elementary school and high school – too old for some things and too young for others.
So here are some quick summer craft ideas for your tweens, whether they’re babysitting the neighborhood kids or having a fun day to themselves. You should never run out of things to do for tweens during summer break!
1. Get artistic with your favorite summer journal, decorate the cover with beads and colorful fabrics, and take notes in style as you sit on the beach writing about the life lessons you learned the hard way.
2. Create a fun summer scrapbook page that documents your family vacations and fun hangouts with friends. Do it the old-fashioned way with magazine clippings and colored markers so you don’t have to spend a ton of money on scrapbooking supplies.
3. For the crochet crowd, make your own summer bag with a free crochet pattern you can find online at Favecrafts.
4. Jewelry, jewelry and more jewelry! What girl doesn’t love it? Buy some appropriate colored beads and sterling silver wires from your local craft store and have fun creating your own bracelets, earrings, and necklaces.
5. Recycled aluminum coffee cans can be used and decorated for your next big barbecue around the house. Covering the cans with decorative fabric will transform the aluminum into stylish outdoor silverware and napkin holders.
6. Have fun in the garden! If you are a family of gardeners, have your tweens create garden animals using clay pots. A funny little turtle just takes 3 pots of different sizes stacked on top of each other. Paint it green and decorate it to be the adorable garden creature that it is.
7. At the age of 12 he had started collecting candles of all kinds. Try making your own beeswax candles by purchasing textured sheets of honeycomb from the craft store along with several inches of wick. Candles are great, but even cooler when made by hand.
8. If your tweens are babysitting, have them create drink coasters using old bottle caps and gluing them to circular pieces of foam.
9. Look around the house for antique jewelry, using original shapes and sizes, see what you can create using the things you have found. Try taking a bit of disassembly and creating new and improved parts!
10. Finally, your kids are entering a new stage in their lives, whether it’s 10, 11, 12, or even 13. So now might be a good time to create an inspiration journal that compiles the things that interest them and the things that inspire them. Go through magazines and get creative with it – it will be a fun keepsake to remember!
