Summer Activities for Siblings: Ideas to Help Children Play Together
Simple activity ideas to help siblings, cousins or friends play together.
Some days, children play beautifully together. Other days…
You might need activities for siblings that help everyone play together without turning it into a full-time refereeing job!
If you have reached the “can you just play nicely for five minutes?” stage, this guide is for you.
These activities for siblings, cousins or friends are designed to help children work together rather than compete against each other. They will not prevent every argument, but they can give children a shared job, a shared goal or a shared bit of silliness, which often helps during long summer days at home.
In this guide:
- Give them a same-team challenge
- Try a pass-it-on activity
- Guide each other across shark-infested waters
- Start a mini business
- Make something for someone else together
- Try a multiplayer game on Busy Things
- More sibling activities with Busy Things
1. Try same-team activities for siblings
When there’s one shared challenge, it naturally shifts things from competing to working together.
Instead of “Who can build the tallest tower?”, try “Can you build the tallest tower together?”
Tiny wording change. Big difference.
Here are some same-team challenge ideas:
- Can you build the tallest tower you can together?
- Can you make a bridge that a toy can cross?
- Can you create a restaurant for dinosaurs?
- Can you build something together using exactly 20 pieces?
- Can you create a tiny town with roads, houses and shops?
- Can you make a castle with a secret door?
- Can you build a marble run, train track or road together?
- Can you make a den together?
- Can you create a theme park out of things you can find in the garden?
- Can you make a zoo?
To give it a clear finish point, you could add:
“Can you build it before lunch?”
“Can you make it strong enough to hold this toy?”
“Can you show me when it’s ready?”
Even if it buys you five peaceful minutes before someone says, “That was MY piece!”… that’s a small win!
Try it on Busy Things: For a shared challenge, children could try a jigsaw or puzzle activity on Busy Things, such as Countries of Europe. One child can look for the country names, another can help match the shapes, and they can work together to complete it.
2. Try a pass-it-on activity for siblings
This works well when they both want to join in, but need a bit of structure.
One person starts. The next person adds something. Then you keep swapping.
Pass-it-on drawing – One child draws a shape, line, head or object. The next child adds to it. Keep going until it becomes something ridiculous.
Pass-it-on story – One child starts with one sentence. The next child adds the next sentence.
For example:
“Once there was a penguin who hated snow.”
“Then he packed a suitcase and moved into our shed.”
Pass-it-on building – One child adds five bricks, then the next child adds five more.
Pass-it-on monster – One child draws the head, one draws the body, one adds legs, one adds accessories and someone gives it a name. Everyone gets a turn, but nobody has to come up with the whole idea on their own.
Try it on Busy Things: Fashion Fun could work well for a pass-it-on activity. One child starts the outfit, the next adds to it, and they keep going until they have created a whole clothing line together.
3. Guide each other across shark-infested waters
Set up a simple obstacle course using cushions, blankets, chairs, toys or pieces of paper.
The floor could be lava, shark-infested water, a pirate island, a swamp, a secret spy tunnel or anything else that makes it feel more exciting.
One child is the guide.
One child is the explorer.
The explorer wears a blindfold, closes their eyes or promises not to peek.
The guide’s job is to get them safely from start to finish using very clear instructions.
Before they start, make the roles clear:
Guide: “Your job is to give careful instructions and get the explorer safely to the other side.”
Explorer: “Your job is to listen carefully and only move when your guide tells you to.”
Good instructions sound like:
- Take two tiny steps forward.
- Stop.
- Turn a little bit to your left.
- Take one big step over the cushion.
- Move sideways towards the sofa.
- Put your right hand out and feel for the chair.
- Walk slowly around the chair on the window side.
- Take three steps forward.
- Stop before you reach the lava.
- Now do one giant step onto the island.
Then swap roles.
The fun is that they have to trust each other, give clear instructions and actually listen, which is harder than it sounds.
Try it on Busy Things: This links well with coding activities on Busy Things, where children practise giving instructions, following sequences and thinking step by step.
4. Start a mini business
Another shared project to bring them together (and potentially clear a bit of clutter in the process!).
This can be pretend, real or somewhere in between.
For a pretend set-up, they could create:
- a teddy café
- a toy shop
- a bracelet stall
- a mini art gallery
They could make signs, menus, price labels, tickets, posters or play money.
For a real-life version, they could help with:
- a car boot sale
- a handmade card shop
- a bracelet stall
- a lemonade stand
- a garden stall
They could sort toys, price up books, make bracelets, create labels, photograph items for selling online with your help, or choose things they no longer use.
It is a good way to practise teamwork, money skills and decision-making. And yes, if they sell their own things, getting to keep the money is usually a very powerful motivator!
Try it on Busy Things: Children could use Busy Publisher to make posters, menus, price lists, signs or adverts for their mini business.
5. Make something for someone else together
Sometimes children cooperate better when the focus is on making something for someone else.
They could make:
- a card for a grandparent
- a poster for someone’s bedroom door
- a welcome sign
- a joke book for Dad
- a picture for a friend
- a certificate for someone in the family
- a treasure hunt for someone else to follow
- a menu for tea
- a mini show for later
You could also try a “teach each other” version.
One child teaches the other a dance move, football trick, song, drawing trick, clapping game, card game, bracelet pattern or building idea.
It gives them a shared reason to work together, without you needing to referee every single decision.
Try it on Busy Things: Busy Publisher is useful here too. Children could make a card, poster, certificate, invitation, menu or mini book together.
Try a multiplayer game on Busy Things
If children enjoy a bit of friendly competition, try Miner Birds on Busy Things.
This is one of the easiest Busy Things activities for siblings to play side by side.
It is a multiplayer maths game, and each character can be set to the right age or level for that child. That means children of different ages can play against each other more fairly, without one child being completely outmatched.
It works well for this guide because they are sharing the same game, taking turns, reacting to each other and playing side by side.
Busy Things works best on a tablet, laptop or desktop computer.
More sibling activities with Busy Things
Busy Things is full of playful activities for children aged 3-11, including creative projects, quizzes, puzzles, printable activities and multiplayer games like Miner Birds.
For a limited time, families can get 2 months of Busy Things for the price of 1, giving you more ideas for summer days at home, rainy afternoons and those “can you just play nicely?” moments.
Busy Things works best on a tablet, laptop or desktop computer.
More activities for siblings…
You might also like:
- 10 Stress-Busting Activities For Kids That Actually Work
- 10 Best Drawing Ideas For Children Incl. FREE Drawing Activity Pack
- Football Activity Ideas for Children | FREE Printable Pack
For more outdoor inspiration, the National Trust’s 50 things to do before you’re 11¾ has lots of activity ideas children can try together.
More Busy Summer guides
This post is part of Busy Summer, our collection of simple activity guides for real summer holiday moments, including more activities for siblings, travel, rainy days and quick independent play.
Try another summer holiday moment guide:
- “I’m bored!”
Boredom-busters for when everyone has run out of ideas. - “Are we nearly there?”
Travel activities for long journeys, waiting around and holiday downtime. - “What can I make?”
Making, drawing and craft ideas that do not need a huge set-up. - “The weather’s had other ideas”
Rainy day and heatwave ideas for when outdoor plans are off. - “I just need ten minutes”
Independent activities for when you need a short breather.