Summer is just around the corner and here are a few of our favorite must-have summer essentials to set families up for some fun!
- Quality Beach Towel
- Sunscreen
- Beach Hat
- Snack Containers
- Water Bottles
- Beach Bag
- Driving Games
- Sun Umbrella
- Sunglasses
- Fun Water Toys
- Back up Phone Charger
11 Summer Essential Items for an Amazing Summer Day
1. Quality Beach Towel
Beach towels are essential for summer fun at splash pads, spray, and water parks and at local outdoor spaces. We were gifted a Teselate towel and it immediately became our very favorite towel. We love it because it is sand resistant even when wet, dries rapidly, super absorbent, and is compact.
Plus Teselate towels come in XL for our large family. Also, Teselate was founded on Bondi Beach in Australia, so you can trust their craftsmanship. They offer free two-day shipping and comes with a lifetime guarantee. I plan to use ours for picnics too!
2. Sunscreen
Sunscreen is a summer essential for outdoor time. Here are some important tips with what to look for on sunscreen labels. Of course, Environmental Working Agency is always a good place to start before purchasing sunscreen.
My personal favorites are Elta MD for the face, Babyganics sunscreen, and Blue Lizard sunscreen.
3. Beach Hat
You can never go wrong with a hat in the summer. It protects eyes from squinting and skin from it’s harmful rays. When our son was a toddler he loved this SPF hat and now this will be our go-to sun hat. Our nearly 4 year old daughter loves this SPF hat. She also wore it as a baby/toddler in a different size.
My husband and two older children wear baseball hats. I need to get a hat!
4. Snack Containers
SNACKS! We need snack containers and love them for snacks and lunches on the go. This is our favorite snack holder for our toddler. We also think these versatile, washable snack containers are great too.
5. Water Bottles
Water bottles are essential for time away from home exploring nature or parks. We have several kinds, but our main goal is that they are easy to use for children and that they don’t spill. Here are the ones we have for our four children that we love. Share your favorites in the comments!
- 11+: ThermoFlask is great, holds a lot of water!
- 6-10 year olds: CamelBak BPA free and Contigo stainless steel have been go-to water bottles for years.
- 3-5 year olds: As mentioned, we love CamelBak and think they are easy to use for little hands.
- Toddler water bottles: We loved this Munchkin water container for our toddlers over the years. We introduced our youngest child to water with this Munchkin container and loved it!
6. Beach Bag
We can’t get far without all of our gear. If you have gobs of items, you may need to invest in a collapsable wagon cart which can hold everything including some children! Or an IKEA bag is huge and works well for all.the.things too. We love this cute, functional XXL striped beach bag!
7. Travel Games
Kids in the car without something fun for them to do could make an hour trip feel like three hours. Here are a few of our favorite toys to keep kids engaged and happy on car trips.
Also, if we plan to go on a longer flight, I love to pop by the Dollar Tree to get stickers, books, small crafts, coloring pages, etc. so we all stay sane and have fun. To make things even more fun, you can wrap each item in gift wrap. If and when things start to get a little cranky, you can pull out a “gift” for them to open. This really helps tremendously and keeps things exciting and fun for everyone!
Here’s our list of travel games:
- magnadoodle
- art supplies like stickers, colors, markers, stencils, and paper
- paint by sticker
- 1 container of play dough (keep it neat though!)
- small activity books
- $1 play packs from Target or Walmart
- small games and mazes
- etch a sketch
- magnetic puzzles like this or this
- a baggie of magnatiles (the best because it is always played with!)
Of course, there is nothing wrong with an iPad, but I do love to let me kids get bored so they are forced to use their imagination.
8. Sun Umbrella
A sun umbrella or beach tent helps prolong outdoor time since it offers respite from the sun and a place to rest (and a private area to change a diaper!). We have a tent like this, which we love, since it offers plenty of room for our family. However, it does take a few minutes to set up, so we plan to get this sun umbrella for summer! It seems easy to set up and is colorful and fun!
9. Sunglasses
Sunglasses are a must for outdoor time in the summer. We love these sunglasses for babies, sunglasses for toddlers, and sunglasses for bigger kids. My all-time favorite glasses are Bailey Nelson from Australia (my sis lives there) and were also founded on Bondi Beach just like Teselate towels!
10. Fun Water Toys & Gear
Some summer essentials we can’t forget are water toys for children! Here are a few of our personal favorites.
- Reusable Water Balloons
- Squirt bottles (we have one per child and use these to spray plants, one another, and more!)
- Large pool
- Inflatable floating tube
- Puddle jumper (not a toy and children always need to be supervised, but we love it!)
- Slip n Slide
- Water Squirter (these are great to give to friends as a little summer gift too!)
- Water Balloons
- Water Table or large Tupperware with measuring spoons and smaller Tupperware
- Sand Toys
- Super Soakers
- Goggles for younger kids and bigger kids (we love these and even have back-up pairs in case we forget them at home or someone needs to borrow a pair!)
11. Back up Phone Charger
Anyone else have a phone that seems like it is about to die?! My backup charger has saved the day several times when we are on adventures. Right when I am ready to capture a memory at a beautiful space my phone always seems to be running low, so a back-up phone charger is a must for us!
What are some summer essentials that you must have?
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