6 Ways to Keep Your Child Busy with Art This Summer

​We get it...sometimes it's hard to keep your child engaged throughout a long summer without school to keep them busy. When your regular list of fun activities becomes exhausted, what's a parent to do? Take advantage of long summer days to get your kid involved in art. We've listed some fun activities to do at home. But we also offer regular kids' programming throughout the summer at our art studio in Issaquah. If you'd rather not deal with the planning and clean-up, leave it all to us. Read the summer activities listed below and get going. Happy creating! 

Squirt Gun Paintings

​There's no better time for a messy outdoor art project than a lazy summer afternoon. Your child who constantly exclaims, "I'm bored!" will be entertained long enough for you to relax with a cool drink and a book.

Set up easels in your yard with watercolor paper attached. Fill multiple squirt guns with liquid watercolor and water. Make sure the watercolors are strong enough that they show up easily on the paper when sprayed. Let the kids go to town making original squirt gun watercolor paintings! They can use different colors, distances from the easel, and spraying techniques to make multiple abstract creations.

When they're done, move the easels out of the way and let the kids clean off in the sprinklers. If you don't have an easel, you can use a cardboard backdrop or pin the paper to a tree.

Sidewalk Chalk Masterpieces

Sidewalk chalk might already be in your arsenal of summer activities. Take it to the next level by challenging your older kids to recreate their favorite masterpiece in chalk form. Have each of them scour art history books (checked out at the library) or online for a piece of famous art they love. Print out a copy of each child's favorite work, then let them copy their respective pieces on your driveway. This is a creative and fun way to learn about master studies.

Encourage children to bring friends over to create a little gallery of master studies. Have a neighborhood gallery stroll with snacks and drinks to show off their work at the end of the day.

Nature Faces

One of the best things about summer is the beautiful weather! Help your kids explore the outdoors in a new way with this fun nature art project. First, lead them on a hunt to find nature objects like leaves, sticks, fallen flower petals, and small stones. Once they've collected a small bag of items, give them paper or cardstock and encourage them to make faces using only the nature items found.

Snap a picture of the face, then have them make as many different faces as possible. Your kids will have fun turning pebbles into eyes, leaves into noses, and flowers into hair. Take the project a step further and print the pictures, then cut out and glue them to popsicle sticks. Your kids will have little puppets that they can use to put on a show.

Summer Art Camps

When your child's artistic curiosity reaches further than you can take them on your own, try signing them up for a summer art camp in your area. Summer art camps are typically week-long day camps that group children of similar ages together to learn about art and create fun projects. Museo Art Academy holds multiple sessions of summer art camps throughout the summer, from June through August. Each session is organized by medium, from painting and drawing, to clay, pottery and mixed media. Learn more about art camps (and register!) here.

Art Events

Maybe you don't want to commit to a week of art camp, but an evening art event sounds perfect for your child's attention span or your family's schedule. Many art schools offer art events on Friday nights for children and/or families. These events are a great excuse to get out of the house and make some art. Museo Art Academy's Friday Night Events include Pizza & Picasso Night, Manga Night, Masters Night and our new Family Pottery Night. We also have art events that take place during the week for that mid-week art kick. Check out our Summer Workshops to learn more about those.

Each week students can learn about different artists and techniques in a fun and nurturing environment. Friday Night Events are held throughout the year, but summer is a great time to try them out. 

Art Classes

If you can tell that your child's love of art has blossomed in the past few months, a weekly art class might be perfect to hone their skills and pique their curiosity. Weekly classes give children a more in-depth understanding of art history and techniques, and allows them to make like-minded friends in their age group.

Museo Art Academy's weekly classes are offered on select weekday evenings and Saturdays throughout the summer (to accommodate Summer Art Camps). Summer classes are our list of Saturday classes here.