15 No Hassle Summer Events for Your KidMin

How to have a great summer, even though it is about to start!

I know, today as I am writing this it is only a few short days away from June, which, in my mind marks the beginning of summer. But let me tell you that it is not too late to start planning a great summer!

For KidMin, summer can be very disappointing. We live in Minnesota, where it is too cold to do anything outside for most of the year, but during the summer, everyone and their brother goes to the cabin on the weekends.

Last year, my KidMin, which was already small to begin with, as we were a church plant, became a ghost town during the summer months. Between sports, family vacations, and the cabin, we had mostly staff kids on the weekend services.

That is not even mentioning the volunteers that dropped like flies as well.

Out of necessity we came up with a great plan.

So, what could you do, for little money, no volunteers, and not a lot of planning?

I am about to tell you.

I don’t even really have a name for it, so I am going to make one up. NoDoughNoHelp Events. hmm, needs work.

Anyways, I will explain to you what we did.

We planned events where we didn’t have to plan anything except show up. Sounds too good to be true? Its not.

Our first event, we planned it for right after church. We meet at a local beach, that had a small delicious hot dog stand. We met there for lunch, and the kids got to go play in the lake. It was perfect. It did not cost the church a single dime, and it encouraged community and engagement.

The second event we did, we met at a local splash pad. Another event we planned was we met at the State Fair.  For Minneapolis, the State Fair is a huge thing. Everyone goes to it, sometimes several times. So, we planned a meet up. Told everyone to meet in front of a specific landmark. I think this year we are going to do a scavenger hunt/bingo.

Here are some more ideas that we had:

• Meet a a local free zoo.
• Park meet up
• Meet at a baseball game. Our local baseball team has a family night, and a spirituality night. Two great options to meet up at
• Have a Dodgeball tournament
• Meet up at the pool
• Meet at a trampoline park
• Meet at the mall
• Have a picnic in the park. Tell everyone to bring their own food and a blanket
• Watch a parade together
• Nature walk
• Meet a the fair
• Movies. Some movies theaters show free or very low cost kid movies in the mornings during the summer
• Feed My Starving Children
• Board Game night. Everyone brings a board game and snacks
• Fishing, bring your own fishing gear

Have a meeting with your volunteers, be sure to include a parent or two. Have them brainstorm ideas that you could do, or even just mention places in your town that could work to do this. Bonus points to get your youth and preschool departments involved as well. Think about the parents who have have a teenager, grade school and preschool aged kids. So many schedules to keep track of.

It may take some training for parents to know that this events are not a drop off event. But these are family oriented that requires family participation.

Do you plan NoDoughNoHelp Events too?

Can you think of a better name?

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