Post written by Sherri Kruger. Follow me on Twitter.
Summer holidays are almost here. This Thursday my eldest wraps up pre-school until he returns in September. So what shall we do? Instead of looking blankly and each other day in and day out here are some ideas of things you can do outdoors with your kids to curb boredom this summer.
Water
1. Water table. There really is no better way to beat the heat than to just get wet. There are a ton of water tables commercially available but you don’t need to head to the store to start having fun. Partially fill a small Tupperware container or storage tub with water. Add some measuring cups, wooden spoons, a few bowls and some toys and your kids will be busy for hours. Or at least until they figure out tipping the container over is far more fun!
2. Sprinkler. Attach the hose to a sprinkler and let the kids run through to their hearts content. Watering the grass and garden AND having fun!
3. Wading pool. If you have a small pool fill it with water, plunk yourselves down and chat or read while you all cool off.
NOTE ABOUT WATER ACTIVITIES: Please don’t leave small children unattended when it comes to playing in and around water. It doesn’t take long and it can take a surprisingly small amount of water for children to get into serious trouble.
Art
4. Sidewalk chalk. Little minds amaze! Let your little Picasso’s have free run at the driveway or sidewalk and then let them explain to you what the drawing is all about. Teach them hopscotch if they don’t already know.
5. Finger painting. Whip out the finger paints in the back yard and lay out a large piece of construction paper or poster paper and let the little ones get creative. Pin the paper to the fence, deck or side of the house. Use fingers and hands or even dandelions as paint brushes. When you’re done pin the artwork on a blank wall in your home you’d be surprised at how much it can brighten a room.
6. Flower arranging. Walk through your garden and collect a variety of flowers and greenery to display on the dinner table.
Sports
7. Soccer. An impromptu game of soccer can be a lot of fun. Running around kicking he ball helps release a lot of pent up energy and also helps to work on their coordination.
8. T-ball. This is something I haven’t played in forever! This is another great sport to introduce your youngsters to and it also is great for developing hand eye co-ordination.
9. Tag. A friendly game of tag is a nice way to get some exercise and burn off more energy (are you noticing a theme here?) :) Just run and have fun.
Quiet Fun
10. Set up a tent. You don’t necessarily have to camp out in the tent, it can just be a cool new place to hang out. Simply setting up a tent or hanging a couple of blankets from the trees can transform your backyard into a different place. Use it for afternoon naps, reading a book or just having a bit of quiet time.
11. Have a picnic. This is one of my kids favorites. Eating outside on a blanket in the backyard or at the park is a great escape from the norm. There are no real rules and all the food is prepped and usually easy to eat. Take a bit of time to plan a picnic this summer. After the first one you may want to strive to do it once a week and maybe even daily!
12. Dig in the garden. Pick a corner of the garden where your kids aren’t going to destroy too many plants. Let them dig and drive their trucks around, make mud pies and find worms. You can get lost in an afternoon of digging in the garden and it doesn’t cost a dime.
13. Fly a kite. If you don’t already have one this is a great opportunity to make one! Use your imagination and make it a competition to see who can make the most stylish kite, who can make the longest tail, and who’s is the most unique. Head out to a local park or an open field and let them fly! Combine this with a picnic and you could have your whole day set.
14. Your turn! Please share an outdoor activity that we can do with the kids and that won’t break the bank. :)
As with most things your kids will have more fun if you participate and join in the fun. Don’t worry about what you look like, or what the neighbours will think. Get out there get wet, get grubby, laugh and have fun. Summer’s short (at least here it is) so get out and enjoy it.
If you’re looking for indoor activities for those inevitable rainy days of summer, checkout Indoor Activities For Kids.
2 trackbacks
18 brilliant commentsadd a comment
Two words – ice cream. Sure, you can make ice cream inside, but it’s a great outdoor activity too.
Buy an ice cream churn, run an extension cord, get the kids to help you mix and stir the ice cream mixture. Then, run the ice cream churn while they’re running around and playing – and doing all the activities listed above.
Nothing beats homemade ice cream on a summer day – peach, vanilla, strawberry, or whatever your favorite flavor is Yum, yum.
I know Leo advocates minimalism, but my ice cream maker is a *needed* item in my kitchen :)
What a fabulous idea Jeff this is great! Thank you.
We just bought my son a Trike for his 2nd birthday and we plan on having lots of fun with it this summer as he learns how to ride it. (If its ever stops raining here in Seattle!)
Also, my son loves slides at parks! he’ll go down over and over again!
Go for a hike and have a nature scavenger hunt. Write up a list ahead of time, bring pencil or crayon and check the items off as you find them. Also, leave all the items on the list “in place in nature”, if you play this way you can add critters like frogs, worms, bugs, etc… to the list too!
I love this! This reminds me of all the things I did as a child that I still fondly remember. These make great memories :) Along with that, my dad used to let us climb onto our garage (or we’d set out on blankets in the yard), we’d have bowls of popcorn, and we’d watch the stars come out. We’d point out the satellites, falling stars, constellations, or “ufos” that we found. It’s still one of my favorite things to do!
I love laying on the ground with my kids and watching the clouds in the sky, naming the shapes seeing how they evolve.
Also, try making your own sidewalk chalk a messy satisfying project!
Hiking – there are plenty of parks to go to. Why not take the kids to the park and hike through the trails?
Picking berries – it is a great time of year for picking mulberries, raspberries, blackberries, and mint. P.S. – if you aren’t sure if it’s mint or not, rub it between your fingers and smell it…. mmmmm! It’s great in tea! Just boil a pot of water on the stove with 2 teabags and a handful of mint leaves and a little sugar to sweeten. The kids will LOVE it!
Hide and seek – especially as it’s getting darker, this can be a fun summer game at picnics.
Lots of good suggestions here.
A couple of comments: -
*Water conservation. Great fun to play with water and at the same time keeping an eye on how much and how often water gets used. It is scarce and getting scarcer, luckily for most of us we haven’t experienced the scarcity yet but other people around the world are experiencing it right now.
*Boredom. Contrary to what people often advocate, it is good to be bored sometimes, especially for children. There really is no need to “curb boredom”. It is an opportunity for inner reflection, doodling, dawdling, germinating ideas, relaxing. In our current society parents so often feel they have to give children something to do or else they have to entertain them in some way. Parents need not worry, let your children be bored, allow them a chance to come up with something to do themselves, allow them to just mill about themselves and see what happens.
:-)
Thanks for the good ideas. My son LOVES water play!
I’d add a bucket and spade: fun for digging around in the garden (as you mentioned) or for collecting twigs, leaves, flowers etc.
Water balloon fight!
http://crafts.kaboose.com/ice-cream-in-a-bag.html
You can also use a juice to make a slushie.
Take a family walk!
We have a park connector (this is in Singapore) near our home. It is a “park” but it is in the form of a long walkway that links one place to another. We have this all over the island!
My family loves to walk along the park connector, stopping periodically to play with the exercise or play equipment that lines the way. We have also taken skates and have seen others take bikes!
Watermelon bust in the traditional sense.
We spray off the concrete driveway, then drop a watermelon. It breaks apart, and the kids LOVE grabbing whatever sized piece they want, and no one cares just how messy it gets.
Follow that with a clean-up water fight!
Wow! Love your blog, I’m new here, my sis in law always forwards me your posts, so I thought I’d pop in. I’m hooked I tell ya :) I’m actually bookmarking you and will be back frequently I’m sure.
A water sprinkler just below the trampoline, so the water will be coming up through the trampoline while the kids (and parents) are jumping, that’s a lot of fun. Especially on a hot day :)
Ice- With the children take some plastic animals (usually dinosaurs) and place them in a`plastic container. Just cover the first layer with water add food colouring if you want and then freeze. Once that layer is frozen add more dinos and water and a different colour of food colouring then freeze- keep going till you have several layers and the container is one big ice block. Make sure the kids are involved in the process the food colouring does some interesting stuff. When it is all done take the ice block out of the container. Then use various different methods (outside) to extract the dinosaurs. We use; warm water, cold water, the sun, hot concrete and a small hammer (the most fun way) to get them out. It takes a few days from start to finish and is lots of fun.
When my grandchildren, Michael and Pia visit me we heat a heavy bottomed stainless steel saucepan on the gas ring with a handful of sweetcorn kernels in it. Do it dry, no oil or salt needed. When the corn starts popping they must try to catch the popping corn with a container in their hands. It is nigh impossible, but results in a lot of shrieks and laughter.
Great ideas. I open my home to my nieces and nephews in a “Camp Aunt Patty”. We went to the barns at the local college and saw all the animals. It was really funny to see to two little ones get licked by a big Jersey cow! We did picnics each day, packed a thermos of drink and had a great time.
One other idea – check out your local library – they may have attraction and museum passes available to borrow that may get you free admission of discount admission to various places around. My nephew and I went to see Noah Webster’s home just around the corner from here. He had a great time learning about the man that wrote the dictionary and it didn’t cost a dime.