When the season calls for it, there will be many opportunities to spend time and bond with your kids. Fun activities for kids shouldn’t be limited to the indoors, where you might be tempted to spend long hours in front of the television, your smartphone, or your family computer. Rather, you can revisit the fun things you did as a child—from swinging on your backyard monkey bars to eating delicious food at an outdoor picnic—with your own kids, all in the safety of your home garden, playground, or neighbourhood park!
Here are six delightful outside activities for kids:
1. Old-fashioned playground time. Visit your community’s nearest playground or construct one of your own in your backyard with slides, swings, or monkey bars for kids. Playing on different playground structures can improve your child’s strength, jumping power, reflexes, and spatial intelligence; if they play in groups with their peers, they can also cultivate their social skills by taking turns, sharing, and having a good laugh.
2. Garden camping.Alternately, you can ask your kids to help you set up a tent, roll out some sleeping mats, and toast marshmallows over a small fire with a simple garden camping activity. Your kids will love learning about outdoorsmanship, will feel good about being included in the prep, and will relax when it’s time to do some stargazing.
3. Picnic. Pack a picnic basket with utensils and your kids’ favourite drinks and snacks, and you will be ready to host an outdoor picnic at the location of your choice! You can ask the kids for help in preparing picnic-appropriate foods—such as sandwiches, trail mix, fruits, and healthy drinks—and you can achieve some good clean fun over an enchanting outdoor meal.
4. Outdoor arts and crafts.Regardless of whether your kids are the artsy type or not, there’s a whole lineup of fun arts and crafts that they can do outside. Encourage them to be creative, imaginative, and expressive through activities like finger painting, tie-dyeing, pottery with ordinary clay, or making necklaces and bracelets out of beads.
5. Nature walk. Most children are very curious about nature, so why not stoke their curiosity by taking them along on a nature walk to the nearest park or trail? You can assist them in collecting leaves or rocks, looking at interesting land and water formations, or identifying the area’s indigenous animals. Just make sure to follow all the park and trail rules!
6. Water gun or water balloon fight.The more competitive among your kids can engage each other, or some of their friends, in a water gun or water balloon battle. This is the perfect activity to beat Australia’s notorious summer heat! Encourage everyone to fight fair and not to hurt each other.
Entertaining your kids and keeping them occupied need not be difficult on the parents. Try variations of the activities above, and put your own spins on them, according to what you and your kids would like!
