Fun Outdoor Activities for Young Kids

Get ready, parents! Summer is around the corner. Are you prepared to battle the summertime boredom blues? Here are some great ways to keep the kids occupied during those long summer days and nights without resorting to video games and television!

1. Buy some essential equipment, much of which is available at your local dollar store: hula hoops (read for fun ideas on hula hoop games), frisbees, a croquet set, bubbles, a kite, a horseshoe set, a pup tent, outdoor chalk and sidewalk paint, spray bottles (for squirting kids paint or water), popsicle molds, a bug catcher's cage (release the poor bugs later!), balls of all sorts, a badminton set, a sprinkler, and sand for a sandbox.

With these essentials, kids can do all sorts of activities, from hopscotch to spy missions, from art to an outdoor sleepover. Catch some fireflies or have a spray bottle water fight!

2. Think art! Kids like arts and crafts and the outdoors is a great place to do those messy projects with minimal cleanup! Here are some simple art projects to work on this summer. Make sure to keep your art supplies handy for those days when everyone is "so bored"! Paint a birdhouse or other you-paint-it wooden item from the craft store. Decorate your tree house or play set with chalk. (washes off!). Create a mosaic or seashell stepping stone or flower pot. Hang an old sheet up and let the kids create spray art by filling old squirt bottles with washable kids paints. (then let them create a tent or canopy with their finished art!) Use fabric paint or permanent markers to decorate old t-shirts or cheap new ones from the craft store. (have the kids come up with a summer club name and design their club t-shirts). Create pictures using items found outdoors or on the beach. (hang them in the tree house) Have them cut up copies of photos and recreate the pictures in a funny way!

3. Add adventure! Kids are adventurous and nothing livens up a summer afternoon like a good hunt. Hide some prizes around your yard and give the kids clues. Or create a scavenger hunt for teams and give the winning team a prize and the losing teams a little something for their effort. A nightime sleepover in the puptent is an adventure all in itself! If the kids aren't old enough or brave enough to sleep outside, make it an after-dark event with flashlights, a puptent, roasted marshmallows, and a firefly chase. (Make sure they release the fireflies at the end!!) Walkie-talkies, spy goggles, and other cool spy gadgets that are in the stores now can add to the mystery.

4. Get active! Create an obstacle course using the items in #1. Jump through the hula hoop, run over the bike ramp, throw the ball into the net, climb the rock wall, cross the monkey bars, etc. If you live near a school or other large empty parking lot, you can create a bike or skate rally. Set up a few cones for weaving, put up the bike ramp, use chalk to draw roads and stop signs, or better yet, have the kids create it themselves. Have races - egg toss, three-legged race, sack race, water balloon race, fill-the-bucket-with-a-ladle race (going from one bucket to another some distance away) - think "field day" activities when you were a kid!

5. Get into business! Older kids may enjoy creating a mini-business to occupy some of their time. I remember my brother and his friend excitedly building wooden planters and peddling them to neighbors. Have a lemonade stand or an afternoon ice cream stand. Start a little lawncare service...the possibilities are only limited by their imaginations!

Whatever your plans are for the summer, with a little forethought, it can be a fun and educational one. It doesn't have to revolve around the video games, computers, and TV or even shuttling kids from one organized activity to another! I'm going to make it my goal to have one special activity planned per day this summer! Kids are only little once - let them enjoy those lazy summer days (with a little help from you)!