Camp Highlights: Summer Camp Fun, at Home!
By: Highlights Editorial
With its endless days and late nights, summertime gives kids a chance to relax and unwind from the school-year grind. But as we all know, too little to do in the summer leads to the whine we all cringe to hear: “I’m BORED!”
Nip boredom in the bud by planning a homegrown summer like the ones you remember — with Camp Highlights! Camp Highlights is a 12-week, DIY home-based camp full of screen-free fun in 4 categories of engaging challenges. Each week features 2 new challenges for kids, plus success badges for kids to earn, print and color with each completed challenge.
Kids get all this, plus parents get the reassurance that summer will be set with activities created by childhood experts, with children’s developmental needs in mind.
So, sit back, grab the camera and get ready for some classic camp fun: The summer of Highlights has arrived!
CAMP HIGHLIGHTS WEEK 1
Set the stage for your child’s summer of fun and discovery! Your challenge this week is to explore the schedule of summer camp activities and introduce kids to the 4 kinds of badges they’ll earn. With the flexibility of Camp Highlights activities, you can even keep camp going during road trips or family visits!
How it works
Each week of Camp Highlights features two simple, screen-free challenges that encourage curiosity, discovery, confidence and independence. These challenges can be done on their own, or with family or friends.
When your child completes the two weekly challenges, print the corresponding badges for kids to color however they like — bright, wild, doodled or detailed!
Follow along each week and watch your child’s collection grow (along with their accomplishments!) all summer long.
Camp Highlights Badges
Read through the descriptions and each activity badge, talk to your child about what excites you most and get ready for your summer camp activity adventures!
Download Camp Highlights Badges
Think Big Badge
The Think Big badge encourages kids to think critically, which helps them develop curiosity, form opinions and improve problem-solving skills. Kids can earn this badge – and make lasting memories with family and friends – when they find their voice through these camp activities:
- Host a Talent Show or Outdoor Concert
- Write and Perform a Story
- Put on a Show with Monster Sock Puppets
- Play Improv Comedy Games
- Take a 15-Minute Daily Reading Challenge
Create Badge
Let creativity run wild with time-honored summer camp art activities and recipes using household objects and tons of imagination. Kids can earn the Create badge with these challenges:
- Design Creative Upcycled Planters
- Create Rubber Band Crafts
- Prepare Apple Smiles Snacks
- Make Scrappy Bugs
- Build Homemade Interlocking Blocks
- Craft and Decorate a Picture Frame
Play Badge
Screen time will be just a small part of the equation as kids earn their Play badges with these old-school camp contests:
- Unplug with Old-School Family Games
- Play Kindness Bingo
- Hold a Backyard Games Competition
- Play Tag — with a Twist!
- Solve Hidden Pictures Puzzles Printables
- Play Glow-in-the-Dark Bottle Bowling
Explore Badge
These simple, everyday adventures and explorations can turn lazy summer days into meaningful moments and new family traditions. Campers can earn their Explore badge with these summer camp activities:
- Plant a Butterfly Garden
- Have a Summer Scavenger Hunt
- Go on a Color Walk
- Play a Nature Sound Observation Game
- Build a Rube Goldberg Machine
Download Camp Highlights Badges
CAMP HIGHLIGHTS 2
Kick off Camp Highlights with outdoor camp fun that celebrates the creatures and community around you.
Explore Badge Challenge: Plant a Butterfly Garden
Encourage colorful critters to visit your yard, balcony or other sunny outdoor spaces with native plants and flowers that attract both butterflies and caterpillars. Plan, draw, research and get to work to create a very special outdoor space.
Think Big Badge Challenge: Host a Talent Show or Outdoor Concert
Create community at your family summer camp by rounding up friends and neighbors for a backyard talent show or concert. Creating the program, the stage and even the instruments is all part of the fun!
CAMP HIGHLIGHTS WEEK 3
This week is all about tradition. Old-school games and summer scavenger hunts bring back the classic summers that you remember.
Play Badge Challenge: Unplug with Old-School Family Games
Plan some screen-free downtime or spice up a rainy day with these 7 nostalgic games for families. Each game includes a second variation for double the fun!
Explore Badge Challenge: Have a Summer Scavenger Hunt
There are so many interpretations of this fun summer camp activity! Search online for a hunt local to your community, visiting your favorite locales and discovering new ones along the way. Or print an activity scavenger hunt board and cross off each fun endeavor as you complete it!
CAMP HIGHLIGHTS WEEK 4
These thoughtful summer camp activities for kids encourage them to nurture and appreciate both themselves and the world around them.
Play Badge Challenge: Play Kindness Bingo
Find ways to be kind to the people, pets and places in your community and in the world! Choose from 4 printable bingo cards to and spend the day seeing how great it feels to bring empathy and joy to others.
Explore Badge Challenge: Go on a Color Walk
Make the most of outdoor summer camp activities by practicing mindfulness and active learning with a scavenger-hunt style color walk. Have each person choose a hue, and then seek out as many items as you can find of that color during your outing.
CAMP HIGHLIGHTS WEEK 5
Let’s get creative this week! Your camper will come up with characters and stories to share through spoken, written and visual media. It’s a perfect mid-summer check-in on your child’s feelings, mindset and big ideas.
Think Big Badge Challenge: Write and Perform a Story
What story lives inside your child’s head? It could be about interesting creatures from far off lands, or a simple tale of a kid just like them. Encourage them to put their thoughts to paper, and then perform the story for a group large or small. Doing so can help your child process big feelings, spark imagination, develop empathy and build confidence
Create Badge Challenge: Design Creative Upcycled Planters
Turn everyday recyclables into creative upcycled planters with this simple craft from Highlights magazine. These planters can be made into the shapes of faces and people, combining a lesson in nature with an artistic re-imagination of your child’s favorite characters.
CAMP HIGHLIGHTS WEEK 6
We’re back outside with this week’s camp activities, which provide easy ways to turn boredom into opportunities for fitness, learning and fun.
Explore Badge Challenge: Play a Nature Sound Observation Game
Wrangle your campers and step outside for a quiet observation of the nature noises around you. Bring a notebook to list all the sounds you hear. If you can’t identify them, record them and look them up later using an app or website. See how the sounds differ in different locations — or from day to night!
Play Badge Challenge: Hold a Backyard Games Competition
What’s more quintessential camp fun than an Olympics-inspired games competition?! Set up a course, create some yogurt-lid medals and watch your kids have summer fun like in the good old days.
CAMP HIGHLIGHTS WEEK 7
This week’s challenges are low-effort and high reward — all you need are socks and rubber bands for hours of fun! (Remember when your kids once preferred cardboard boxes to actual toys?) Children’s brains were designed to invent!
Think Big Badge Challenge: Put on a Show with Monster Sock Puppets
These charming puppet crafts (and the corresponding puppet performance) help your campers have a blast on rainy days or during indoor play. For bonus points, use a big box to create a personalized performance theater before staging your show!
Create Badge Challenge: Create Rubber Band Crafts
Turn rubber bands of all sizes into a ton of fun camp activities for kids. Create these four crafts as an afternoon project, and then use the finished products throughout the rest of camp!
CAMP HIGHLIGHTS WEEK 8
Calling all super-silly camp activities for kids! Your campers will get a kick out of these humor-inspired challenges. Get out your cameras and memory journals — this week at Camp Highlights will be one for the books.
Create Badge Challenge: Prepare Apple Smiles Snacks
Start your week with these silly yet super tasty apple smile treats. They’re simple enough for kids to make, and delicious enough for campers big and small to enjoy.
Think Big Badge Challenge: Play Improv Comedy Games
These free-form comedy sketch starters will get the giggles out and get creative juices flowing. Each person takes turns suggesting playful ideas, and the rest of the troupe makes up (and acts out!) a comedic storyline on the spot.
CAMP HIGHLIGHTS WEEK 9
Back to school is a distant destination, but you can keep campers’ minds and bodies sharp with these fun challenges. You’ll build social skills, improve language development and work on physical fitness, all at the same time!
Play Badge Challenge: Play Tag — with a Twist!
Kids have been playing tag since forever. Spice up this classic summer camp activity with 5 variations that get legs moving and hearts pumping. Your campers might even be inspired to create their own version!
Think Big Badge Challenge: Take a 15-Minute Daily Reading Challenge
Reading for a short 15 minutes every day can improve children’s comprehension and learning skills dramatically. Even better, reading together creates warm family memories that last a lifetime. Let your child choose the type of reading that’s most interesting to them, and snuggle up to read aloud or silently together!
CAMP HIGHLIGHTS WEEK 10
These little camp activities make a big impact! Finding hidden objects and making mini-bug crafts will help kids practice the concentration and fine-motor skills they’ll need as they start school in a few weeks.
Play Badge Challenge: Solve Hidden Pictures Puzzles Printables
Sometimes we all just need to sit and take a break. For a bit of a different take on the typical summer camp art activities, try a printable Hidden Pictures puzzle! Kids can find the hidden objects, then color the pages for a brain-boosting quiet-time treat. There’s even a version for “camp counselors”!
Create Badge Challenge: Make Scrappy Bugs
Have a bug hunt during your next outdoor jaunt, then come back inside to cool down and re-create new insect friends. This easy bug craft uses household scraps and common craft materials to blend STEM with creative play.
CAMP HIGHLIGHTS WEEK 11
This week’s challenges are satisfying projects that give kids confidence to create and build — and provide endless fun to play with over and over again!
Create Badge Challenge: Build Homemade Interlocking Blocks
These blocks are fun for kids to make and even more enjoyable to build things with! Plus, they’re easily portable to use wherever your camp activities take you.
Play Badge Challenge: Play Glow-in-the-Dark Bottle Bowling
Your quest for the perfect summer camp activity? Check, done! Create this all-ages ten-pin game during craft time. Then put it to glowing use during an evening bonfire or campout.
CAMP HIGHLIGHTS WEEK 12
Send off summer with a bang by creating a craft that helps you remember all the camp fun. Plus, you’ll make a mind-bending, machine-building, problem-solving challenge that will give kids the confidence they need as the school year approaches.
Create Badge Challenge: Craft and Decorate a Picture Frame
Memorialize your favorite moments from the summer by creating artistic, handmade frames to display fun photos and art projects from your time at summer camp.
Explore Badge Challenge: Build a Rube Goldberg Machine
Help your kids channel their inner engineers by building a wild and wonky chain reaction and other simple machines using household objects. Your kids will be amazed at the working contraptions they can come up with!
Get more summer camp ideas for kids by following Highlights on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. While you’re there, be sure to share with us how you and your kids are making the most of summer with your own take on Camp Highlights!
