Summer Outdoor Activities for Kids

Are you ready to have those kids home for summer break?  Or are you panicking… maybe just a little?  Although I want my kids to have lots of outdoor play time, I’ve come to realize it helps to give them some ideas and/or toys to engage them and get them started.

This is an ongoing work in progress around our household.  Aside from that obvious but expensive swingset purchase, here are a few of the more affordable things we’ve come up with to encourage outdoor play at our house.

Summer Outdoor Activities for Your Kids

Garage Bins of Outdoor Toys

“That is NOT for inside play!“, mom emphatically declared.  Then stick it in the garage bin!

We keep two huge plastic tubs with balls, bats, gloves, roller blades, knee and elbow pads… really anything they play outdoors with.  Easy access.  Easy pick up.

Tire Swing

If you’ve got a large enough tree, this is an inexpensive thing you can add to your kids personal playground right in their own yard.  My kids got hours of fun and play out of our tire swing.  Until our tree died (unrelated).  But it was lovely while it lasted.

Plant Something

Can your kids have a spot in the yard to plant seeds for a garden, or some flowers?  Of course, letting them water these proves to be daily fun they’ll enjoy probably even more than the planting.

Sidewalk Chalk

So cheap!  But so fun!  Whether it’s for a game of hopscotch, artistic expression, or drawing roads for trucks and cars to drive on – both of my kids enjoy this.  Can be a little messy, but washes out of clothes easily, and the rain takes care of the outside cleanup eventually.

Sandbox

We got a plastic, turtle shaped sandbox with a lid for around $30 last year.  Sand can be purchased and easily transported in bags.  This has turned out to be very worth the cost, and again – both our 2 and 8 year old play in this for long periods of time.  Let them use some water, too?  They’ll play even longer!

Basketball

 

While we are fortunate enough to have a hoop, purchased by Nana and Grandpa… there are many things kids can play with just a basketball alone, too.   This was illustrated to me when the local girl college basketball time visited my daughter’s grade school and ran ball handling drills with the kids. The kids LOVED this, even with no hoops involved.

Try showing them some ball handling skills, dribbling, and types of passes they can practice.  That’s 3/4 of the game, and boy will they be ready when they hit an actual court to play.

Painting Rocks

We bought a cheap little strip of acrylic paints at Walmart, and my daughter absolutely loves painting smooth landscaping rocks.  This has produced a rainbow of cute, decorative rocks that we add to our yard landscaping here and there… as our rock-art garden.  If they’re hand sized and flat, a keyboard and screen are typically applied and they become rock phones.  Heavy ones.

Fly a Kite

You’d need a somewhat open space for this one, but holy cow kites are cheap.  I’ve seen them for $2 at the grocery store before, and I literally grab a handful just to have on hand.

Water!

For whatever reason, kids don’t seem to run through sprinklers anymore?  (I totally don’t get that, since we loved doing so when we were kids.)  Although sometimes if you can find a dad willing to sacrifice his lawn, a slip-n-slide is enough to up the ante and get them excited!

We found a nice, slightly larger plastic pool at a garage sale that my kids love to cool down in.

But even letting them play with the hose awhile, some squirt guns, or water balloons always goes over amazingly well.  Heck, have them wash your car.

Kids Outdoor Adventure Book

These were my family’s ideas, but for even more… check out this cool book called Kids Outdoor Adventure Book which is packed with ideas for outdoor play (“448 great things to do in nature“).  I believe it was on sale at Amazon for less than $14, and I highly recommend it.

It never hurts to equip your kids with some good gear items, both for outdoor play around the home or any adventures you are able to take.  When it comes to apparel, I like to buy gender neutral styles and colors, so that eventually both  my daughter and my son can get some use from them.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy that summer break with your kids!

What is your child’s favorite thing to play outside in summer?

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