Make the most of the season with these skill-boosting summer activities
Outdoor activities
1. Become a tourist in your hometown by flipping a coin to decide where to go.
2. Build a high-rise insect hotel from natural materials.
3. Oil up your chain and go for a scenic bike ride.
4. Put on your wellies and go pond dipping.
5. Build a fire and watch it sizzle.
6. Camp in the garden and sleep under the stars.
7. Launch a water bottle rocket high into the sky.
8. Create some polluted bottle pops to learn about water hygiene and why it matters.
9. Grow your own crystals in a cup and watch them sparkle and shine.
10. Navigate without a compass.
11. Fry an egg on the pavement.
12. Create a paper plate sundial.
13. Keep a nature diary over the summer, documenting the world and its wonders.
14. Go for a long walk somewhere you’ve never been before, and breathe in the fresh air.
15. Make your own rainbow chalk and bring a new lease of life to your neighbourhood slab.
16. Visit a Scout Adventures centre and try out a new activity.
17. Hug a tree to see if it's ancient or not.
18. Turn your back garden into an outdoor cinema.
19. Take part in some mischevious googly eye photography.
20. Build your own nature orchestra, making noise using natural materials.
22. Play a game of frisbee golf.
22. Make a rain gauge to measure the summer downpour.
23. Take optical illusions to new heights, with this levitating puddle trick.
24. Build a human knot to test your team-building skills.
25. Play a game of glow in the dark flag-capturing.
Indoor activities
26. Try out some mindful morning exercises and start each day refreshed.
27. Create your own peg people worry dolls and place them under your pillow each night.
28. Blend up some spooky summer smoothies.
29. Learn something in another language.
31. Make your own thermometer and learn about how heat works.
32. Build a blanket fort and escape from the world for a while.
33. Craft an edible raft out of marshmallows and sweets.
34. Film your own stop motion animation and watch inanimate objects spring to life.
35. Relax and recharge with some story yoga.
36. Build a fruit salad solar system to help you understand the scale of the universe.
37. Create a camera obscura from an empty Pringles can.
38. Recycle odd socks by turning them into fearsome puppets to play with.
39. Make your own stress balls and thinking putty.
40. Write down some hopes and dreams for the future, with this ‘goal capsules’ activity.
41. Learn how your body works by creating an edible DNA model.
42. Collect an assortment of household objects and investigate how they were made.
Indoor/outdoor activities (suitable for both environments)
43. Extract some dinosaurs from a block of ice.
44. Wear your heart on your feet, with this mindful 'shoelace wishes' activity.
45. Build your own water xylophone and play it load for all to hear.
46. Tell stories by torchlight, with these fantastical shadow puppets. All you need is a torch, a wall and a pair of hands.
47. Cook some bonfire bananas and toffee apples over a toasty fire.
48. Get set for a game of human hungry hungry hippos.
49. Turn your living room into an obstacle course, by playing a game of 'jungle crossing'.
50. The world is at your fingertips! Have a go at no-brush painting.