101 Fun Free Activities

1. Start a collection of: Stamps, rocks, shells, baseball cards, butterflies, stickers, buttons, coins, etc.
   
2. Teach your mentee any special talents you might have:  sewing, photography, carpentry, knitting, playing a musical instrument.
   
3. Work on a special craft project together, use it as a gift during Christmas, Hanukkah, or a birthday, Mother's Day, or Father's Day.
   
4. Make homemade play dough, string beads, and take turn painting faces.
   
5. Offer mentee to make something special for his or her room, i.e., a wall hanging, framed picture etc.
   
6. Keep a journal of your relationship. Share entries you both have made on a occasional basis.
   
7. Instruct your mentee on telephone etiquette and the use of emergency phone numbers.
   
8. Plant a vegetable or flower garden together.
   
9. Go grocery shopping together.
   
10. Teach yard maintenance, i.e., cutting grass, raking, seeding, fertilizing.
    
11. Help your mentee check for jobs in the newspaper or neighborhood.
    
12. Research career choices or colleges together.
    
13. Take your mentee to read a recipe, using measuring utensils, read a thermometer.
    
14. Introduce your mentee to new foods and tastes- make a special meal, favorite recipe, try different ethnic foods, eat at a nice restaurant.
    
15. Take your mentee to local concerts, recitals, school plays, parades.
    
16. Help your mentee obtain a library card.  Visit the local library and check out books of interest.  Teach your mentee to use the card catalog and other resources.
    
17. Teach your mentee how to use a computer or share computer knowledge.
    
18. Work on school projects, help with homework, and discuss study habits.
    
19. Fly a kite or throw a Frisbee.
    
20. Teach simple first aid
    
21. Teach bicycle safety.
    
22. Take a long walk together with a memento bag to collect interesting leaves, rocks,etc.
    
23. Make a bug cage and catch bugs together.
    
24. Eat lunch with your mentee at school.
    
25. Together make a collage of your mentee's life using pictures cut from magazines.
    
26. Paint an original t-shirt for a special occasion.
    
27. Visit a hardware store and explain the function of various tools.
    
28. On the mentees birthday, ask your mentee to lie on butcher paper and trace around him or her. Repeat process each year to show how much he or she has grown.
    
29. Take your mentee to a sports event at the high school that he or she will attend.
    
30. Write a letter to your mentee on your anniversary telling what you have noticed about him or her in the past year.
    
31. Help your mentee make homemade potpourri with dried flower petals.
    
32. Wash a car together.
    
33. Make snow angels.
    
34. Make a calendar of the big events of his or her year.
    
35. Feed the birds.
    
36. Get a book of animal tracks and explore a pond of trail together to see what animals live in the area.
    
37. Go on a camera scavenger hunt together. Make a list of things you want pictures of before the hunt. Let the mentee take the pictures
    
38. Go on a newspaper scavenger hunt. Give your mentee a list of 10-20 items to find in the newspaper.
    
39. Read a biography of people who did great things and let your mentee know they are no different from him or her.
    
40. Check out a tree identification book from the library and discover which ones are in your neighborhood.
    
41. Using the letters from a long word, see how many smaller words you can create.
    
42. Role play meeting new people so your mentee will have more confidence in unfamiliar situations.
    
43. Invite someone who has lived in a foreign country over for dinner to talk about life in that country.
    
44. Build a log cabin together with popsicle sticks.
    
45. Teach your mentee to use a fire extinguisher.
    
46. Squeeze fresh orange juice together.
    
47. Tape record your mentee reading a favorite story.
    
48. Go to the airport for lunch and watch the planes take off and land.
    
49. Show your mentee photographs of movies of you as a child.
    
50. Roast pumpkin seeds in the oven.
    
51. Take your mentee with you when you vote and explain why you selected the candidates you did.
    
52. Get some lumber, hammer, and nails, and encourage your mentee to be creative.
    
53. Volunteer to visit your mentee's class to tell students about your profession.
    
54. Build and paint a birdhouse.
    
55. Buy a yo-yo and learn how to do tricks with it.
    
56. Help your mentee make a video.
    
57. Using play money, show your mentee how to spend the money you earn.
    
58. Visit a music store and learn about different types of musical instruments.
    
59. Visit a college.
    
60. Make pancakes from scratch.
    
61. Learn to identify three constellations.
    
62. Learn CPR together.
    
63. Teach your mentee how to operate a washing machine and to sort and fold clothes.
    
64. Paint an old piece of furniture together.
    
65. Learn 10 new words in a foreign language.
    
66. Do something nice for an elder.
    
67. Learn to use a real camera; one in which nothing is automatic.
    
68. Go to an airport or military air show.
    
69. Go tubing or sledding.
    
70. Make a dinner for your mentee's mom and surprise her on her birthday.
    
71. Surf the internet. Look for web pages of companies that your mentee would recognize.
    
72. Sit a nursing home and read or sing to the residents. Or, ask them to describe what life was like when they were your mentee's age.
    
73. Whack golf balls at the driving range.
    
74. Assemble a model or bookcase.
    
75. Work on home improvement project together-painting walls, wallpapering, or remodeling a spare room. It provides great talk time and quite a few laughs.
    
76. Make foods from around the world and learn how the people live in those countries.
    
77. Have a carpet picnic on the living room or floor and watch a movie.
    
78. Check out programs for kids on weekends at your local civic center.
    
79. Maintain a scrapbook of all things you do together. Include ticket stubs, menus, pictures, brochures, programs and other mementos.
    
80. Research an important event or issue at the library. Tour big university libraries.
    
81. Make a homemade pizza.
    
82. Bike along a trail. Stop to make dandelion necklaces or to search for bird nests.
    
83. Tell each other stories. Start by giving the other a starting sentence, such as "I was walking to school the other day when I saw..."
    
84. Visit all types of museums: art, science, nature, geology, and so on.
    
85. Make an art class together.
    
86. Feed the ducks at the park.
    
87. Play basketball, football, volleyball, badminton, croquet, or some other sport.
    
88. Go hear a story teller.
    
89. Go boating or swimming.
    
90. Visit a rock-climbing wall.
    
91. Rollerblade at a skate park.
    
92. Build a bonfire and roast hot dogs and marshmallows.
    
93. Give your pet a bath.
    
94. Go fishing.
    
95. Play a board game.
    
96. Run errands together.
    
97. Play billiards.
    
98. Give each other a manicure.
    
99. Play Cards.
    
100. Go Camping.
     
101. Attend a sibling's sport activity.
     

Page last updated on 07/17/2007