During the summer there is no better time than now to spend time doing outdoor activities with our children. And you don’t have to travel far to enjoy nature and do outdoor activities with your kids in Central Mass because there are so many wonderful things that you can do right in your backyard. Research shows that children who spend time outside behave better and are physically and mentally healthier. What better reason is there to get outside this summer vacation and encourage some outdoor fun?
Below are some great outdoor activities for kids to get engaged and spend more time outdoors:
Do a Nature Scavenger Hunt
Going on a nature scavenger hunt is a great way to get outside with your kids. They can be fun and even include educational opportunities about the different items they find. You can easily create your scavenger hunt by providing a list of items to have them find or have them search for items based on colors, with a color-coded list that you can easily create on your own.
Color-coded scavenger hunts are very engaging and fun for younger children who aren’t able to read yet as well. Overall, these outdoor scavenger hunts can be fun for the whole family, not just the little ones!
Create a Fairy/Elf Garden or Dinosaur Garden
The enchantment of creating a fairy or elf garden with your children invites you into their imagination and allows them to create various items from the outdoors. Various items such as sticks, stones, plants, moss, leaves, and acorns can be used to create the garden. Including them in picking plants to grow and care for within their garden space is a great idea too.
Similar to a fairy and elf garden is a dinosaur garden. They can have their own Jurassic Park in the backyard by simply using plastic toy dinosaurs and creating a space with moss, stones, and different plants. My children have loved creating their own. Each time we go outside they love to add to it and change it around while also growing a love for planting with their mom.
Bounce House for the Yard
What kid (or adult) doesn’t love a bounce house? My son and I will even sit in it and read a book together or he will bring a blanket in and play with his toys while I am reading. Something different to do while just spending some time outside. I found one for a reasonable price and it allows us to spend many hours outside while also burning up a lot of energy.
Outdoor Painting
My children love painting so being able to do it outside is a must during the summer. There are so many different types of paints and craft ideas you can do together, so there are plenty of opportunities to try different ones. You will let their imagination run wild just by providing kid-friendly paints and rolling out a large piece of paper. We have even collected rocks that my son has painted to place in our garden.
Gardening
Gardening can be so much fun for kids. Not only do they get to have some fun digging in the dirt, but they can also search for worms, and bugs, or even identify plants. It’s great to even have a simple digging area specifically for your kids. Allowing them to have their little garden and pick out different items to grow will also make it more exciting and provide a great learning opportunity for little ones.
Water or Activity Space
Whenever my kids get restless, playing with water is always a win, especially on a really hot day. Whether I fill up our water table or even give them a spray bottle to help water the flowers. Even simply providing a bucket with soap and water to wash their play cars is also so much fun. Of course, water balloons are a must on those hot summer days!
Adding a water play space into a garden is a great idea too – a bucket of water and some shovels is all you really need. Even an activity table can be used as well.
Flower Sun Catcher
I have my kids pick some flowers from our garden for a fun and simple craft. This craft allows me to teach them some things about the garden. With some leaves and flowers, we created these Flower Sun Catchers to hang on our sliding door window. All we used was thicker paper, markers, contact paper, and scissors along with the flowers and leaves we found.
Clay Imprint Art
With flowers and leaves, a rolling pin, and air dry clay we were able to make awesome clay imprint art. Another idea would be to use items from a day out at the beach as well. You can use cookie cutters to make shapes before or after imprinting and after they dry you can paint them too.
Photojournalist for the Day
One of the best things I have ever purchased was a camera made for kids for my son. Originally he used it for our first family vacation, but now we can document our summer adventures together. We will then create a summer memory book of all of our adventures.
All of these outdoor activities for kids, and even unstructured time, can help encourage children to learn and grow. Spending time outside in nature is great for all of us. Let us know in the comments below what are some of your favorite outdoor activities for kids!
