If encouraging your children to go outdoors and play doesn’t come easy to you, or your just looking for some simple outdoor activity ideas. Here are 8 totally fun free activities for kids that you can get started with right away!
These Activities for kids are free, fun and extremely engaging. The unfortunate thing about children these days is that getting them to play out and get fresh air doesn’t seem to have the same priority as it used to do years ago, like when we were kids. I for one personally think it’s a real shame but as parents we can get them back on track.
I believe computer games and home comforts, mixed with parents being scared to allow their kids to go out and play contribute to this massively!
The only Kids activities some children do these days seems to ONLY consist of walking upstairs and playing on their computers far too often for my liking.
A childhood spent indoors is not only sad, but a total waste. Don’t you think?
Getting your kids out boosts vitamin d levels and helps prevent other health & social risks too. I know being a parent is hard at times. The easy option of allowing your kids to fester in their bedrooms gives us parents a little rest bite, but I am sure you do not want your children growing up indoors either!
Why outdoor Activities for Kids is a must!
Before blogging and not that long ago, I was a Teaching assistant and a Nursery Nurse. I have witnessed first-hand the fun kids can have whilst playing and having adventures outdoors. I have enjoyed countless days with my own boys in our garden, turning a it into a place of great adventure. This has kept them both active and social, and they know how to entertain themselves outdoors as a result.
Don’t get me wrong. Outdoor Activities did not come naturally to my kids, but with a little guidance and help it became like second nature for them both, eventually.
10 Outdoor Activities for Kids
Get ready to have some fun with your children with these 8 activities for kids ideas that are fun and totally free things to do with kids of all ages.
1. Make a Shaded den
Pop up tents are great, but I have found from experience a clothes horse covered with sheets makes a superb hide out. You can even throw a sheet or blanket over your garden table and decorate your area with Flowers, Twigs, pebbles, in fact anything that takes your child’s fancy.
Let their imagination run free. Letting your children work as a team to create their dream hideout can often help squabbling siblings put their differences aside whilst being creative together.
2. Sand Pits and Paddling pools
Sandpits and Paddling pools are great for splashing around and having fun. They are also very educational, take some ducks or balls (ball pit type) and take it, in turn, to catch them with a net, similar to ‘hook a duck’, and count the amount you have caught. Grab your girls swimwear and boys’ trunks and get splashing in the pool!
Sand Pits are great for learning measuring skills and my son always loved driving his Trains over the bridge in his sand pit and hiding things in the sand.
Hide painted stones in your Sand-pit, that your children have previously created and hunt for treasure. Even older children love this!
3. Outdoor Craft area
Use your outdoor garden table or a sheet on the grass and make a craft area; this is fantastic for us parents, keeping all the mess out of the house!
Make homemade stampers out of potatoes or paint hands and feet and make a gigantic picture on an old roll of unused wallpaper.
Count the number of hands and feet on the picture and play ‘Guess who the footprint belongs to’.
Even sneak a little literacy in there too and have them write their names across their own hands and feet, and even the words ‘Hand’ and ‘Feet’.
4. Reading Corner
Make a shaded reading corner, filled with a selection of books, puppets and cuddly toys, fill with cushions and try to encourage older children to relax and chill out with a good book in here too.
Encourage children to write a book review or draw a picture of their favourite character or they could even invent a character of their own.
5. Teddy Bears Picnic
Enjoy lunch outside with a Teddy Bears picnic, Play count the teddy bears or put them in size order, sing songs and nibble on your favourite snacks on an oversized blanket.
6. Get Gardening
Get Gardening and watch their empathy grow! Children feel a real sense of achievement when watching their plants grow. I have found planting strawberries are great, watching my son pick his own fruit and having them for desert was priceless. All you need is some soil, seeds and small pots, you can plant no matter what size your garden is or if it is only a window box!
Decorate a cheap, easy to find birdhouse, fill with seeds, and let them watch with binoculars at all the different birds that visit their new home! You can always build a birdhouse free if you are handy with a hammer and have some spare old wood around.
7. Going on a Bug hunt
Arm yourself with a washed out coffee jar, a net and bravery. See what creatures your fearless ones can find hidden amongst the rocks and in soil.
8. HopScotch
A handful of chalks and a small paved area EQUALS great fun! Watch their imaginations go wild and see what they can create. You could always draw them Hopscotch and see if you can remember how you used to do this in your garden.
I have found the play to be much more relaxed and exciting outside. There is no worrying about the house becoming messy. No computers or TV to tempt and distract your kids. Just simple, no fuss play and fantastic Fun!
Your turn what fun activities for kids do your kids enjoy?
These are all brilliant outdoor ideas and things I did when I was young. its amazing how much fun you can have for free or on a tiny budget and in the home. Being unwell, we do spend a lot of time at home and i have to get creative so i do think i’ll be referring to this during the week! I’ll also add it to my pinterest board!
thanks for linking up to #Positivelyposted over at daysinbed.com
Angela xx
we spend a lot of time in the garden and have done most of these on the list. I definitely like to do arts & Crafts outside – so much easier to clean up any mess!
Hi
We have done most of these too; another favourite is to hide play people in the garden. WE have also done this in the house; I had a list of jobs (dusting, setting the table etc) for the kids to do and when they found the playperson as they did that job, they then chose from the rewards list I had made (park, baking cakes, painting, snack, £1.)
The painting was a bit messy, I didn’t think of doing it in the garden but £2 for four bottles of paint at asda cannot be sneezed at.
Thanks for your blog
SOme great ideas thank you! 🙂