If you’ve got high-school-aged children in your family, you’ll know it can be tricky to keep them entertained and away from screens during the long summer break. To help you with this endeavour, I’ve collected together some interesting books and creative crafts to help keep their minds engaged.
These ideas are ideal for those drizzly days (much like it is here today) during the school holidays. There’s a wealth of projects and interesting things to learn in each section, so there should be something that every teen will enjoy, whether their interests are space, sewing, art, reading, modelmaking, baking, craft, poetry or simply having a giggle.
Creative crafting
The collection of Paper Paper Paper books contain everything you’ll need to get crafty this summer. Each book has pages of sumptuously thick patterned paper that’s ideal for origami, scrapbooking, quilling and card-making, providing all the materials your teen will need to start getting creative.
I’ve previously shared a DIY children’s craft activity project for the summer holidays that involves decoupage. The paper in these books is ideal for snipping up and using in a fun decoupage project, the results of which can be used to decorate and personalise their room.
If your teen is studying art for their GCSEs, perhaps they’ll be drawn to paper-cutting and collage as an alternative artistic medium after enjoying these books over the summer. Plus, it’s proven that crafting with your hands is good for your wellbeing. I’ve certainly been inspired by simply flicking through the pages of these gorgeous themed collections.
Plus, nestled amongst the pages of each book are bonus bundles of wrapping paper, gift tags and bookmarks, along with pages of notelets, envelopes, postcards and letter sheets to inspire them to start sending written messages to family and friends in the post over the summer – perhaps starting with a ‘thank you’ for gifting them this book!
STEM experiments
I’ve always been an advocate for encouraging learning during the school holidays and this year is no different. I’m a huge space geek and luckily, I’ve got high-school-aged kids in my family who are equally interested in the universe, so we have loads of fun exploring galaxy-themed events and activities together.
The Natural History Museum’s new blockbuster exhibition Space: Could Life Exist Beyond Earth runs until February 2026 and asks the question: are we alone in the universe? This would be a fun event to visit on those rainy days, and, excitingly, it allows visitors touch a fragment of the moon, snap a selfie holding a piece of Mars and lay their hands on a meteorite older than Earth.
The accompanying book ‘Space’ from the Natural History Museum is a great start for a bit of extra-curricular learning and will certainly give your youngsters a head-start with their science lessons next term. It’s full of facts and images from NASA and the European Space Agency so, if you can’t get to the exhibition, teens can still learn all about it from the comfort of your own home.
Another book that I think would be really handy for the school holidays is the Space Activity Lab, which combines scientific theory with creative craft projects. There are ideas for modelmaking so teens can craft their own International Space Station, lunar rover and much more. Remember doing junk modelling at school? Hours of rainy-day fun!
Plus, there are experiments suitable for all age groups, including making a solar oven, pinhole camera and docking station, and there’s even cake baking; making a colourful cake that shows the layers of the earth. So many options of things to do when your teens are stuck indoors.
Customising clothing
If your teens are anything like I was when I was that age, they’ll love the idea of customising their clothing. I used to love sewing on patches or tie-dying fabric during the high school summer holidays back in the ’90s.
Nowadays, adding your own twist to your clothing is essential for teens because cheap, fast-fashion means everyone is wearing the same stuff. The only way to be unique and express your personality is to upcycle the clothing you wear.
A great way to do this during the summer break is with embroidery – there’s nothing cooler than embroidered denim, is there? The book ‘Stitch’ by Amy Burt is a great place to start because it has step-by-step instructions for embroidering 20 cool designs, from symbols and patterns to fruit and animals.
I’ve noticed that the trend for tie-dye has come back around (my niece and nephew are wearing it, so it must be cool!) so that’s another fun activity that kids can do to customise their clothing. It’s especially handy for giving a new lease of life to stained white t-shirts from last year’s P.E kit. All they need is a simple tie-dye kit with everything included and they can get started.
While they’re customising, they’re also learning skills. ‘Now I Can Sew’ by Sian Hamilton teaches hand-sewing techniques that’ll not only help them to create sewn projects during the summer, but will bring them skills for life. Its suitable for even younger children to start learning to sew, so teens can practise with their younger siblings.
The projects in the book can be used as appliqué designs to add to bags and clothing plus, it offers embellishment ideas with buttons and brooches. This is a great solution for covering holes, pulls or stains on their old clothing and upcycling those pieces into something cool.
And for the little ones…
I’ve shared the book of outdoor activities in a previous post about activities for kids but this time I’d like to mention The Big Book of 100 Little Activities. This publication by Laura Minter and Tia Williams is packed with boredom-busting projects that kids from messy makes to playing and performing.
Older kids can use the book for inspiration for those rainy (and sunny!) days when they’re looking after their primary-aged siblings. The book shows how just a handful of material – most of which you’ll already have at home – can be turned into a fun activity.
Plus, poetry
I couldn’t write an article on books for youngsters without mentioning the legendary author Allan Ahlberg, who sadly passed away in July. Famous for writing the iconic children’s books Each Peach Pear Plum, Peepo! and The Jolly Postman with Janet Ahlberg, he’s an author who most of us would have grown up with.
His poetry books were a staple part of my early high school years so I hope that your own teens will enjoy reading them too. As you can see, I’ve still got my copies of Please Mrs Butler and The Mighty Slide (crumpled and repaired with tape) both of which I’ve re-read over the years. I remember learning the poem Alison Hubble to recite in my GCSE drama class and I think I can still recall most of the lines. The thing with Ahlberg’s poetry is that it is SO funny, and really relatable to youngsters.
Also, don’t miss the opportunity to get your teens into comedy with the Ha Ha Bonk Book. I bet they will roll their eyes at the jokes in there but, if they learn them by heart, that’s a life skill – they’ll always be able to tell a joke and make their friends laugh!
I recently recounted the twirly pig tail joke and my husband thought I was hilarious, until I confessed that it was a joke from The Ha Ha Bonk Book and couldn’t take credit for it. I’m pretty sure the Ahlberg’s books were responsible for developing my sense of humour at a young age and shaped my lifelong love of comedy.
I hope these ideas for creative crafts and interesting reads will help your youngsters to stay busy on wet days during the school holidays. Let me know in the comments below if you have any other suggestions for rainy day activities, I’d love to hear your plans for indoor fun in the summer break.
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Some items in this blog post have been gifted to me and the pink links indicate a gifted product, affiliate link or information source. All thoughts and opinions in this post are based on my own experience and I am not responsible for your experience 🙂
