Getting outside is really good for us. That just feels like common sense, but Harvard Health has backed us up, saying that being outdoors is good for:
- Making sure we get enough Vitamin D – important for growth and development
- Getting more exercise – we move more when we’re outside
- Being happy – more light outside means a lighter mood
- Better concentration – children with ADHD have better focus after spending time outside
- Improved healing – patients who were exposed to natural sunlight reported lower levels of pain and healed faster.
All that, plus being in the great outdoors is a whole load of fun! So it’s good we parents are constantly urging the kids to “go outside and play,” right? Because outside is exactly where they should be. Of course, one of the quickest ways to get the kids outside is to go outside with them… lots of us need reminding of that from time to time.
Here are 10 more ways to entice them out the back door and into the fresh air:
1. Create a scavenger hunt
I am a huge fan of scavenger hunts for kids (I wrote about them here, here, here and … well, you get the idea). There are loads of reasons I love them:
- They encourage kids to work together to solve a problem
- They allow for independent play
- They are suitable for any age
- They are a ‘set and forget’ play solution for busy parents
- They offer a sense of achievement for kids
- They are super-simple to put together
- Who doesn’t love a collection!?
These school holidays we are going to have a different type of hunt each day. Try these ideas for inspiration:
- Pool scavenger hunt
- A simple shades of colour hunt
- Nature treasure hunt for non-readers
- Nature treasure hunt for readers (with poem)
- The colours of nature hunt
- Make a summertime observational walk around the garden
- A hunt to photograph all the colours of the rainbow
- Take a counting number find walk
- We’re going on a word hunt
Click here for loads more ideas.
2. Set up camp
Even if the kids don’t sleep out there, set up the tent, drag over a few chairs and create a fun little cubby house for them to enjoy. You can use a play tent or a real tent, or make your own by draping a sheet over a small table. Add some cushions and blankets to make things cosy. You can further inspire their camping play by bringing out some props to encourage different creative play:
Box 1 – Safari adventure
Binoculars; magnifying glass; old camera; stuffed animal toys
Box 2 – Campfire play
Sticks and red / orange / yellow cellophane to make their own campfire; marshmallows; tin cups; cloud identification tool
Box 3 – Wild West pretend
Feathers; bandannas; dress ups; rope for lassos; a broom for a horse (or make your own)
Box 4 – Deserted island fun
Blue fabric for the ocean; paper fish; coconuts; volleyball (hello Wilson!)
3. Get into wildlife
The backyard has a surprising number of insects, bird life and mini-beasts. Encourage the kids to explore by recording what they find in a nature journal. Arm them with a pair of binoculars, magnifying glass, camera and their journal and see who can find the most mini-beasts in an afternoon. Make a pine cone bird feeder together to really up the chances of finding birds in the garden. To record their sightings, the kids can make a simple journal from a single sheet of paper:
Find the full set of instructions here.
4. Climb a tree
Kids don’t climb trees like they used to, but there is bound to be at least one tree in your garden or a neighbour’s garden that is begging for a child. My dad hammered small planks of wood into the side of a tree so we had some steps to climb up to the nearest bough. This is an easy thing to do and as far as I know, no tree was harmed in the making of our tree house! Be sure to test each branch that the kids are allowed on before they go up. Other things that trees are great for are:
- Being ‘base’ for a game of hide and seek
- Decorating with leftover Christmas decorations
- Painting with chalk paint
- Adding a fairy door to the base
- Collecting the nuts and berries that drop
- Suspending a swing from
- Adding a rope ladder for climbing
- Holding one end of the rope for a skipping game
5. Make art from nature
Collecting bits and pieces to make art is a relaxing way for kids to walk around the garden. Then you can set up an art table under a tree and help them get busy creating something special. The great thing about art outdoors is that the kids can get as messy as they like. Get the paints out! Here are some ideas to get the kids started:
6. Let them get really, really dirty
Dirt is only dirt and if the kids are in their swimmers or a set of old clothes, there is absolutely nothing that mud can do that can’t be undone. Children just love getting squishy in the mud and it’s easy to make a corner of your backyard the ‘mud corner’. Rake up a load of dirt and set up lots of plastic containers, sticks and spoons for the kids to make their own mud kitchen. Then just add water! A mud pie kitchen is an easy thing to set up to really make the mud corner fun. Make two even stacks of bricks, set a plant of wood between them, draw a stove and sink on the plank and then add some old plastic cups and plates from the kitchen. Be prepared to eat lots of mud pies!
Click here to see a great mud pie kitchen made by Learn With Play At Home.
Other activities that might like to try in the dirt include:
- Building mud castles
- Building walls with LEGO and dirt mortar
- Painting the fence with mud
- Burying things for each other to find in the mud
- Planting a leaf and branch garden in the mud
- Making mud shapes and seeing what happens when the mud dries
- Playing with plastic animals in the mud
- Making mud foot and hand prints on the cement
- Throwing mud at a chalk target on the fence or footpath
7. Give them their own patch
Kids love getting their hands dirty in the garden and school-aged kids are ready for the responsibility of caring for their own patch. Use string to rope them off a little corner (or a whole bed if you can spare the room) and allow them to plant whatever they wish. Starting with sunflowers is a good idea as these are so easy to grow and they start growing within the week for fast reward. The kids could also plant some bulbs, make a herb garden or grow their favourite vegetables. If you’re short on space, container gardening is an option. You can use any kind of container to grow herbs and vegetables. The kids will love helping you fossick for the perfect vessel. Here are some suggestions:
- Tyres laid on the ground and filled with potting mix
- The bag the potting mix comes in (just cut a square out of one side of the bag and plant straight in)
- Old food vessels like tins, fruit punnets, egg cartons, plastic jars
- Old kitchen containers like colanders, plastic tubs, bowls and teapots
- Drawers from old cabinets (check the side of the road on clean up day)
- Old bathtubs and sinks (your local salvage yard might have something for you)
- Old toys like dump trucks, wheelbarrows and carts
8. Make your own backyard geocache
Your kids can use a smartphone to hide treasure and set the coordinates for their siblings to find it. Hide something small in the garden and use your phone to display the latitude and longitude coordinates of the hidden location. Record the degrees, minutes and seconds using the Compass app in your phone:
- Turn Location Services on by going to Settings then Location Services then flicking the button to ‘on’
- In the apps listed in Location Services, make sure Compass is on
- Press the Home button to exit Settings
- Open the Compass app
- Put the phone right next to your hidden geocache and the GPS coordinates are displayed at the bottom of the screen.
You then give these coordinates to the kids and encourage them to use the Compass to find the geocache. It might be tricky for them the first couple of times, but once they get the hang of it, there will be no stopping them! Remind them to be creative with what they hide in their geocache container, or even where they hide it. You can buy in a few small toys for them to hide for each other or they can hide some sweets, a note, a drawing, a joke or even a secret.
Click here for step-by-step instructions for making a ‘real’ geocache.
9. Make an obstacle course
You don’t have to build anything to get an obstacle course going in the backyard. Think of all the ways kids can go over, under, around and through what’s already set up. They will enjoy racing each other or a timer. You can change the obstacle course around as regularly as you please, but you can also use the same course over and over, just racing to beat their personal best score. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Race around the clothesline five times, back to touch the back steps, jump 10 times up and down, race over to touch the tree, do five star jumps, come back to the back steps and touch each step three times, run back to the clothes line and FINISH.
- Walk backward for 20 steps, turn around three times, crawl over to the back fence and touch it three times, hop to the clothes line and spin it around five times, walk backwards over to the tree and hug it and FINISH.
- Run five times around the whole garden, walk once as fast as you can, crawl from one side to the other, race around three more times and FINISH.
You can add things in, depending on what’s in your garden. Under the trampoline is a good one. Leaping over the herb garden another.
10. Bring on the water works
With kids, just add water for fun! You might be lucky enough to have a pool for instant backyard fun, but it’s not the only way to enjoy water at home. Check water restrictions and then try some of these ideas for instant holiday fun:
- An empty plastic bottle, a large tray and some coloured water are all you need for a water table
- Run the hose and whip it back and forth for the kids to jump over the ‘snake’
- Take a backyard bath – fill the toddler pool with warm water and pass the soap
- Fill water balloons and have a fight
- Make some oobleck
- Let the kids paint the back fence with water
- Play with a simple bucket and hose
- Try some old-fashioned pool games
What’s your kids favourite outdoor game?
Do you head outside with them?
{This post is a modified version of an article I wrote for Kidspot}
Let’s play!
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Bec @ The Plumbettr says
Can I just say I love the new blog header! This post is so good for me to read because I’ve sometimes struggled with outdoor play with my girls but they love nothing more than playing in the sun. These are great suggestions and I’m going to definitely do the scavenger hunt and collecting nature items to make an art project. One I have done before is collecting rocks, sticks and flowers and creating an island by using play dough and sticking the sticks and etc into the mound of play dough.
Maxabella says
The pictorial scavenger hunt would be perfect for Esther and Magdalene, Bec. They would also enjoy gathering leaves and grasses into a posy to put in jars to decorate outside (my girls loved this when they were little). I can’t stress the joy of a mud pit enough, though – that’s where the magic really happens for kids. You’re lucky to live in a climate where you can just hose them off before they set foot inside too!! x
Bec @ The Plumbette says
Loving all this! I have heaps of jars so will get them to do this this week! X
Wendy from Beachstylemum says
Thank you for so many great outdoor ideas!! I am definitely doing the tent in the yard soon and a scavenger hunt (love the nature for non-readers one thanks) and I will be telling my nephews about the geocache concept – fantastic! I have a 4.5 yo boy and an almost 3 yo boy. They love playing with their octonaut toys in buckets of water but I just might add some dirt next time 🙂
Maxabella says
Get the mud happening, Wendy! Minimal clothes and then a big bucket of warm water is all they need to undo the damage too. Thanks for stopping by! x
babs - Patchwork Cactus says
This post warms my heart! Yes to outside, yes to sun, yes to mud!
Mandy, Barbie Bieber and Beyond says
Bron, the new site looks fantastic and what a great post for the holidays! Just wondering if you did the redesign yourself or if you had it done, who did you use, thinking of a change myself!
Maxabella says
Hi Mandy – Kelly Exeter moved me over from Blogger to WordPress. The ‘design’ is mostly just a template and the little touches (header, sidebar, etc) are all me. x
Bec says
Some lovely tips – they even made ME to want to go climb a tree or play in the garden!
Maxabella says
Well I think you should get onto that first light tomoz, Bec! x
Penny says
I’ve been meaning to pop by since Problogger and say how wonderful it was to meet you in person! Can my excuse be that I’ve been camping out in nature with the family?
This post was so fun to read. I’ve been doing a lot of those tips this past month, especially getting dirty. A camp fire does that to a gal (and three little gals too). I think we looked and smelt quite prehistoric when we got home.
Our patch is looking a little wild. I think we better get onto that one though!
Maxabella says
It’s lovely to hear from you, Penny. I have been enjoying your writing since Problogger immensely. I told you that your blog would be right up my alley and I was right! We are going to make those lovely nature pom poms to decorate our trees tomorrow. The girls will be so excited. x
Vicki @ Knocked Up and Abroad says
My Vicklets just have to spend a decent amount of time outdoors every day. Winter here is no fun (for everyone especially for Mumma). They love time in the sandpit, time getting filthy dirty, getting wet, playing ball, playing chasey – but never have we tried a scavenger hunt! Thanks for the list of super ideas!
Maxabella says
Oh you’ve just gotta do one (or two, or three or… they are totally addictive). I should post more of the fun ones we do on the blog. We’ve got a ‘bear hunt’ one that I reckon the Vicklets would love! Thanks for stopping by, Vicki. x
Mrs W says
I’m saving this one for later! Lots of great ideas here. I especially like the idea of setting up a tent or fort outside, that would keep my daughter happy all day!
Some of the things we like to do outside together are watering the plants and vegies (in fact she reminds me to do it a lot of the time!), or simply just kicking a ball or throwing a frisbee.
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