Summer of fun, faith or rest?
by Joanne Gilchrist, writer, mother, charity director
Is summer a time to shut the world out or go on new adventures? Or do you simply need permission to rest?
As an extrovert with two introverted children, I find the summer holidays a very strange period of time.
People hibernate in the summer - did you know? I used to think the school holidays was a good time to catch up on friendships and playdates but the opposite was true. So instead, when my kids were very young, we filled our summer with activities. Those were the days! It’s changed in the last few years, especially with the stress of my teenagers’ exams. Now, I’ve come to embrace the holidays as a time to change pace and slow down.
Whether you’re filling summer with activity or slowing down, both have opportunities to focus on faith; both our own faith and that of our children.
Your Family’s Inspiration menu: DO STUFF
This is NOT a ‘to do’ list. It is, however, very budget friendly.
Instead, peruse it like you would a menu. Pick and choose what’s right for you and your kids at this particular season.
Make a hat. Each member of the family write all their favourite family things to do, places to go, people to see etc on bits of paper. Put them in the hat. You can add a few new things from the list below to get started. It is ok to have the same thing in there more than once. Try to be really specific (instead of ‘bake something’ have ‘bake a bakewell tart’. Pull inspiration out of the hat as often as needed.
Visit a free museum or art gallery.
Find a new favourite local park (some kids thrive on new and different, some want the same again and again and again and again).
Bike/scooter/roller-skate/skateboard/pogo stick ride.
Bake a new or favourite recipe - (we love the Usborne Children’s Chocolate Cookbook because the instructions are super-helpful and easy to follow. The chocolate cupcakes are the best and you can put our topper on them… see number 6.)
Download our cake topper images and order some edible cake toppers (try Etsy) to add to homemade or shop bought cupcakes, biscuits or brownies. Eat them, give them away or sell a few for charity.
PJ, pillow fort and telling stories day.
“Let’s sort the games cupboard by emptying it, playing everything and keeping score like in the Olympics” kinda day.
Epic game of Uno. Last person to score 1,000 wins (that should take a while!).
Water play. You don’t need to spend a lot of money. I grew up with a bucket and a cup. We invented SO many games this way. With a bit more budget, I recommend water balloons on a trampoline. It’s SO much fun but remember to clean up before the little leftover bits melt onto the tramp like a mosaic.
Introduce a pocket money system and teach them about giving (we do 10%, 20%, 70%).
10% give to God. Do some research about local or favourite charities or look at how your church spends its money.
20% save. Decide on something big they’d like to save up for and work out how long it will take. (This should be something that takes a year or more, to teach them the power of saving little and often).
70% spend. Have some fun with the ‘spend’ part.
Fun ways to spend money and teach budgeting is to set some challenges like:
‘how many items can you buy for £2/$4?”
or “which is cheaper - to buy one brownie or bake a whole batch?”
or “find something in the supermarket you’ve never eaten before for under £5/$10” (this makes a fun date night too).
Reading Challenge. Local libraries run these every year but you can create your own. One year, I created a “The Cover is Not The Book” challenge, to get them reading the books they usually ignore because they look boring/unappealing. My eldest discovered her favourite book this way. You MUST have rewards and incentives to make this work.
Exercise challenge. Learn a new type of exercise or set yourselves mini-challenges. (Does Just Dance count as exercise? Yes, I think so).
Have a cross-cultural adventure. Choose a country you know little about and do some research. Paint a flag, cook a meal, learn a few words of the local language etc. Maybe you know someone from that place who you can invite over to tell you stories about growing up there? Or maybe it’s somewhere you might want to visit someday? (For older kids, you could include ‘working out the costs to visit’ as part of the money challenge above).
Don’t wait till after Christmas to clear out your toys - do a clear out at the end of summer, so the charity shops can be full of toys by November/December (which is when they need them the most).
Equally, clear out old school uniform at the beginning of summer and donate them asap so that they can get to the families who need them most, in good time.
Go through all the books you’ve read this year and write reviews on Amazon or Goodreads. You’ll really bless the authors!
For 30 days of shorter, faith-filled activities in a variety of styles try my co-authored book Next Steps to Following Jesus.
Your Family’s Inspirational Menu: Focus on Faith
Print and craft our “Strong Prayer Tower”. Make a whole bunch, decorate different characters, play and pray.
There are 31 Devotions in God for Kids app. Have you tried them all as a family? That’s one for each day of August.
Bible-based board games. (There’s lots on Eden.co.uk like a board game, jigsaws and even Bible Bingo! Also try Maydor Makes for handmade wooden Bible games.)
Bible Trivia Night (join in with other families maybe?) You can buy trivia card packs or use SunScool’s Trivia Game inside the free SunScool app.
Printable Summer Family Devotions by The Hope Filled Family (free for 2025!)
Use Minno Kid’s “5 minute Family Devotions” or Yippee’s “Daily Devo Show” for a short intro to family devotions. (They’re Christian streaming apps for children.)
Read some faith filled, God-centred stories like our Animals of Eden Valley books. (NB: Our shop is closed between 1st August - 12th September 2025 so order before 31st July.)
For kids over 9 years, we recommend all of Dernier Publishing fiction story books. They’re amazing!
Go on a prayer walk and pray a blessing on each place/person you find. Our prayer cards are free; just pay postage. (NB: Our shop is closed between 1st August - 12th September 2025 so order before 31st July.)
Hang out in God’s creation for a while, giving thanks and praises to Him. Use our prayer poem.
Use our ‘Baby Massage’ poem to pray with your baby or turn it into a toddler game.
Sing and dance in your kitchen/lounge/garden. Among the many artists who create worship or Christian songs for kids, our favourites are:
Yancy (for their energy),
Mary Rice Hopkins (for her old-school creativity)
Rend Co Kids for their whole family vibe.
and we even love The Donut Man (for under 8s) for his ability to teach us scripture (yes, I have memorised many a Bible verse thanks to Mr. Rob Evans). Just keep it for under 8s - don’t let your 11 year old perform a Donut Man song at the school talent show. They will get laughed at. (Yes, I got over it, eventually.)
Visit your local Christian Bookshop with a budget to spend. You may have to travel a distance to get there but they’re so few left that they are worth supporting.
Donate a Christian book to your local library.
Practise hospitality. Model it to your children. Even if it’s just once and it’s just a cuppa. Invite someone who probably won’t or can’t invite you back. It can be at your house or a garden centre/soft play/cafe in a park. It still counts as hospitality if you’re reaching out to invite someone into your world.
Remember when painting rocks with words of love, hope or faith and leaving them in public places was a craze?
Your Family’s Inspirational Menu: Positive Screen Time
Here’s our updated list of Christian apps for kids from toddler to teenager. They include Bibles, devotions, games and streaming apps.
My family’s favourites are God for Kids app (obvs), SunScool, The Greatest Journey and The Serpent and the Seed. (see our interview with the creator of The Serpent and the Seed on YouTube).
Watch the animated version of all 5 Animals of Eden Valley books on our YouTube channel.
Yippee and Minno Kids both have excellent, high quality TV shows, animations and even the odd film for your kids. And the subscription fees are very reasonable.
Learn Something on YouTube kids. One year I told my kids if they were going to watch YouTube Kids they had to learn something useful. One chose crochet and we have lots of lovely items around the house to show for it now. You can learn a new language, sign language, pottery, painting, cooking, photography, gardening, bird watching, origami, calligraphy, an instrument, car maintenance, coding or card tricks.
Download a nature app such as Merlin (for listening to birds) or Picture This (for identifying plants and trees). Identify your local birds and trees and maybe write a list or draw/paint a poster of them or take photos and create a collage?
Create your own film, made up from 10 second clips or one still photo from each day of summer. Like a diary. The amazing thing about this challenge is that it can be as mundane or fun as you like. In 10 years you’ll forget what summer felt like until you re-watch that home made movie. There are lots of apps that help you string together a bunch of stills/videos into one long video. I use Canva Pro.
Alternatively, let your kids make a photo book of the summer using an online service like photobook, snapfish etc. Trust me, you’ll be really glad you have this in years to come.
Your Family’s Inspiration and Permission to Rest
Are you the kind of parent who just needs to know that rest is equally spiritual as ‘quality time together’?
Maybe you need permission not to catch up on your ‘to do list’ but to model what it means to slow down, take a breath and enjoy the God-given rhythms and cycles of life.
Rest. Resting is very spiritual. In fact, we are commanded to rest in Exodus 20:8-11 and Matthew 11:28-30.
I can’t recommend more highly these journals by Rooted Daily Journal Co. for grounding you in a strong, healthy theology of rest while practicing it at the same time. They have a journal for adults and one for kids. They’re simply wonderful. (See the photo above.)
Every time my daughter found me writing in this journal, she wanted to join in which led to some beautiful mummy-daughter moments; and I didn’t even have to move from the sofa!
Missed an idea? Please add your own to the comments
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