With the last days of school right behind us, many of us now face the prospect of being home with our children, all day. In theory this sounds great, however you know that if they don’t keep themselves entertained, they are going to start pestering you constantly! If this is your fear, here are five clever ideas for children’s entertainment that will keep your kids busy and entertained all summer long.

1. Sidewalk Masterpiece

One of the cheapest and easiest ways to entertain children involves a bucket of chalk and a short stretch of sidewalk or driveway for them to create their masterpiece. Often purchased at a very low price, sidewalk chalk can provide hours of entertainment while you create your own scenes and pictures. Consider looking up some of the amazing sidewalk chalk artists online or on YouTube for inspiration!

2. The library

Get your kids out of the house and ask them to do something educational that will help them start the next school year off on the right foot. Grab your library card and head to your local library this summer for days of kids’ entertainment. Most libraries offer summer reading programs, where your children can earn prizes and recognition for the more books they read. This not only saves your house from the mini-tornadoes that are your kids, but also gets them to do something educational!

3. Water Day

You don’t have to have a pool for your kids to play in the water. One of the easiest ways to entertain children for literally hours is to connect your garden hose to a sprinkler and place it in the garden. Kids will jump up and down on the sprinkler, slide on the grass, and maybe even make mud pies, but most importantly, they won’t worry and likely wear out. You are free to sit in the shade with a cold drink while you supervise!

4. Strong

Inherent in the nature of every child is the desire to build forts out of just about anything they can find. From pulling a sheet through a string tied between two doorknobs to stacking sofa cushions and hiding inside them, kids love forts. Whether you use the aforementioned materials, cardboard, or build an entire tree house, your children will want to spend hours playing and entertaining in their own space.

5. Live historical entertainment

Another educational way that you can entertain your children is to find historically accurate forms of live entertainment that they can participate in. Your kids will love getting their faces painted at the nearby Renaissance fair, eating historical dishes with their hands, and maybe even seeing some knights in shining armor as they do battle on the tournament grounds.