Have the Kids Watch These Summer Movies for a Season Full of Entertainment

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You can bet your bottom dollar that most kids will find any excuse to be outside in some way, shape, or form this summer. There are too many fun activities to partake in and plenty of family beach trips to plan! And with so much time and energy spent in the sun, the kiddos are bound to get tired at some point. When (or if) that happens, the perfect indoor activity is to have them watch a kid-approved summer movie!

This list caters to kids of all ages, with Disney films like Luca and The Little Mermaid for the littlest members of your family, and more mature selections for teens and tweens like Now and Then and The Goonies. These best summer movies are kid-friendly, yes, but adults will love them just as much—for the feel-good factor as much as the nostalgia factor. Face it: you will probably be watching these movies right along with your kids! After all, you probably remember a lot of these summer classics from when you were a child yourself.

In all, summer can feel like one big action-packed adventure, but there are plenty of rainy days and lazy evenings where you'll need to fill the time. Now you'll have a list handy when the kids inevitably ask: "Can we watch a movie?"

Because Of Winn-Dixie

It feels like any Kate DiCamillo novel was destined to be a feel-good movie, especially ones like Because of Winn-Dixie. It tells the story of a young and lonely girl in the countryside, and how her newfound friendship with an adorable dog named Winn-Dixie helps her come out of her shell a bit. The world can be a beautiful place, and sometimes it just takes one friend to show you that!

Summer Eleven

Middle school is about to change everything for this group of friends. That's precisely why they choose to make the summer before their most unforgettable one yet! This is the season where they make the best memories and strengthen their bond like no other.

The Kids Who Saved Summer

Pro tip: don't ever try to tear down a local playground, especially during summertime. You may just run into a determined and passionate group of kids who happen to have a lot of time on their hands!

Cheaper By The Dozen 2

The Baker family is a fun (sometimes unruly) bunch! They've proven to have each other's back no matter what, which is especially important one summer vacation on the lake. Why? Well, there's a new family across the water who think they're better than everyone else—and the Bakers need to prove that that's not true!

Holes

Stanley is a young boy who never seems to have any luck—and he can probably blame that on the "family curse." So when he's wrongfully sent to as brutal summer camp, he's not necessarily surprised. Still, he's not happy about it, and neither are the kids that are sent there. For some reason, the warden keeps having the kids dig these holes in the dessert, and it's weirding them out!

Camp Rock

There's no camp like Camp Rock, that's for sure! It's where the most talented and musically inclined teens go for a summer full of fun and competition! Can Mitchie, a first time camper, handle the heat of it all? (Literally and figuratively.)

Daddy Day Camp

Speaking of camps, watch as two fathers set up their own Daddy Day Camp! It's exactly what it sounds like, a summer babysitting company run by dads who seem to think they have what it takes. They immediately regret that decision when the pool of stubborn and adventurous kids role in, making for one stressful summer.

The Great Outdoors

Family vacays should be fun, but when your distant and spunky relatives decide to crash unannounced, the excitement quickly dissipates. Especially when the dangers out the outdoors prove to be too much for some family members to bear!

Secondhand Lions

Preteen Walter is sent to live in the country with his two uncles, Hub and Garth—two men who would rather be left alone! Things are off to a rocky start, but they all eventually learn to get a long, which makes for a heartwarming story after all.

My Girl

Vada is an 11-year-old girl who is unfortunately deemed the weird girl in town. Her best friend (a boy named Thomas) doesn't seem to care, and is always at her side. Yes, even when she devises a plan to wreck her father's chance at love!

The Parent Trap

When these identical twins who were separated at birth come face to face at summer camp, they hatch a hilarious plot to swap places and reunite their parents.

The Sandlot

This beloved coming-of-age movie follows Scottie Smalls and his group of best friends as they spend the summer of 1962 playing baseball in the sandlot.

The Baby-Sitters Club

Introduce your kids to all your favorite characters from the bestselling book series by watching this fun film. In it, the babysitters start a summer camp for their clients and have lots of warm-weather adventures.

The Goonies

This classic follows a group of misfits known as "The Goonies" who embark on a treasure hunt to help save their homes from a greedy real estate developer.

Luca

Luca and his friend Alberto are having an unforgettable summer in their seaside town on the Italian Riviera. Only one thing could come between them and a good time: the fact that they're secretly sea monsters!

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Four inseparable friends are spending their first summer apart. The one common thread is a magical pair of pants that somehow fits each girl perfectly.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid 3: Dog Days

Everybody's favorite wimp can't wait to spend his summer playing video games with his friends. The only thing standing in his way is one very disappointed dad.

Now and Then

This coming-of-age dramedy follows four pre-teen best friends as they share a pivotal summer in 1970. Flashing back and forth between that summer and a reunion 21 years later, this film shows how the events and friendships of our adolescence shape the people we become.

Flipper

This sweet adventure film follows Sandy Ricks (Elijah Wood) as he spends the summer with his uncle in the seaside town of Coral Key. It's there that he meets and befriends a very special dolphin named Flipper.

The Karate Kid

This beloved classic is set in Southern California and was a huge hit in the summer of ‘84, so yes, we're sneaking it onto this list! Watch the original with your kids and then segue into the popular Netflix sequel series Cobra Kai.

The Little Mermaid

What better time to jam out to "Under the Sea" than in the middle of the summer? This fun Disney film will have the whole family singing along.

It Takes Two

Here's another '90s flick involving identical twins who discover each other at summer camp. In this one, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olson scheme to get their parental figures to fall in love.

Judy Moody and The Not Bummer Summer

Based on the popular kids' book series of the same name, this fun film follows Judy Moody as she works her way through a list of thrilling summer dares with her family by her side.

Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown

The Peanuts gang is back and this time they're on a summer camp adventure! Charlie Brown, Lucy, and the rest of their friends are competing in a river raft race but some bullies are making things very difficult for them!

Hotel Transylvania 3

Drac, Mavis, and the rest of the gang are on a monster cruise vacation and everything seems to be going swimmingly—until they discover that their boat is being commandeered by the monster-hunting Van Helsing family.

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