Summer activities | 130 garden adventures for kids

Summer activities for kids are cheap if you open the back door and set the kids free. The garden is an amazing adventure playground! In the days before digital kids were happy to dig a hole in the garden. They were content to study a snail in the wild or jump on a trampoline until the sun went down.

Summer activities in my childhood included silly acts like eating cake and collecting up prickles in our t-shirts. When we had enough ‘ammo’ we’d throw them over the neighbours fence until we got told off. We’d play Elastics until someone cheated and we’d make up silly songs. We had a long list of songs including one about the most sickening foods ever. We’d stage dress-ups and talent shows in the garage to songs like ‘We’re the kids in America.’

These days I spend my weekends delivering a small gang of children into the great outdoors. These kids include two of my own, two kids from next door and one kid from across the road. They grace our living room most Saturday afternoons. It is my job to get these kids off their digital devices and into the garden. Alternatively, I will send them to the park next door to rustle around in the trees or hang around the monkey bars. But as I bid goodbye to this fresh-eyed gang of spirited kids, I catch them sneaking iPods into pockets.

They think, in all their worldly knowledge, that this ole’ lady won’t notice.

I’ve become Army-Sergeant-like about these kids and line them up on the porch. Each child will pass me their respective iPod with a look of dismay or sadness. I’ve even had resentment. That came from my three-turning-thirty, but I forgave her because she doesn’t know what she’s doing yet.

As the iPod-Sergeant, I feel like one of my old Aunties. The one who wouldn’t let me have the second helping of Upside Down Pineapple Cake because I was ‘getting too fat.’ Except I attempt the whole Army Sergeant routine in a comical, non-threatening way, which involves not calling anyone a name or fracturing any young person’s hope at self-esteem.

At the very least, when these kids grow up,  I hope they won’t blame me for any of their adult hang-ups. I’m picturing a gangly googly-eyed spectacle-wearing iPod-loving therapist bad-mouthing me during a weekly session with one of these kids.

That wouldn’t be good, for the kid anyway…

Anyway, after their return from ‘the wild’ (i.e visit to the park), the faces of these kids are fresh. They look rosy-faced and alive after their humble game of chasey and making daisy chains in the sun, for, in their words, ‘way too long.’  They would admit to me what fun that was, if I was anyone other than the woman holding their precious iPods for ransom. But what these little cherubs don’t know is that I’ve got a cheat sheet (a very special weapon) that is going to keep their iPod-loving gang busy well into their teens.  And they think they can pull the wool over my eyes because they’re so hip and ‘digital.’ Mmmm…..

So here is that long list I’ve created.

130 garden adventures for kids

Stick this list on the fridge over the holidays as a quick reference. Access it for cheap and quick summer activities to keep kids refreshed and to give them a digital break. (Pssst…you can access the list on your phone too – just don’t tell the kids.)

Of course, if you have any great ideas yourself – please submit them in the comments!

Your ideas will help grow more kids with creative minds and vivid imaginations!

Lookout Minecraft! Here come a new wave of mothers and we are ready for YOU 🙂

In the backyard

1. Afternoon tea in the garden
2. Blow bubbles
3. Build a cardboard cubby
4. Build a cubby house
5. Build a fort
6. Build a go-kart
7. Catch bugs
8. Chase butterflies
9. Climb trees
10. Collect acorns
11. Create something
12. Collect firewood
13. Collect leaves and make art
14. Conduct science experiments
15. Count cars
16. Create a bird bath
17. Create a cool water slide
18. Create a garden sculpture
19. Create a water play table
20. Create a treasure hunt
21. Create a treasure map
22. Create an obstacle course

Get digging!

1. Dig a hole
2. Dig and bury items
3. Dig up dinosaurs from plaster
4. Do some stargazing
5. Draw with chalk
6. Eat lunch outside together
7. Feed birds and animals
8. Find cloud shapes together
9. Follow an ant trail
10. Get the kids out weeding
11. Hang candles outdoors
12. Have a mud bath
13. Have morning tea in the garden

Hold an event

1. Hold a garage sale
2. Hold a kids’ garden party
3. Hold a street party
4. Hula-hoop
5. Identify garden sounds
6. Install a swing set
7. Jump on a pogo stick
8. Jump on a trampoline
9. Kick a ball
10. Kick a footy
11. Learn about the different trees in your garden
12. Learn bird calls
13. Learn Macramé
14. Learn the names of flowers
15. Lie on the grass together

Make something

1. Make a bird feeder
2. Make a cheap tyre swing
3. Make a collage using garden materials
4. Make a fish pond
5. Make a go-kart
6. Make a robot
7. Make a rock garden
8. Make a snowman
9. Make water slip-and-slide
10. Make a wind chime
11. Make an ant farm
12. Make and throw mud pies
13. Make collages from magazines
14. Make daisy chains
15. Make jewellery
16. Make leaf-rubbing pictures
17. Make lemonade
18. Make mini parachutes
19. Make play dough
20. Make recycled paper
21. Organise garden play dates
22. Paddle in a shell pool
23. Paint a face
24. Paint pinecones
25. Photograph birds’ nests
26. Photograph spider webs
27. Plant flowers

Play games

1. Play badminton
2. Play blindfolded tag
3. Play Bocce Ball
4. Play catch
5. Play cricket
6. Play croquet
7. Play detectives
8. Play Elastics
9. Play Four Square
10. Play handball
11. Play Hopscotch
12. Play I Spy
13. Play in the rain
14. Play with toy cars, trikes and bikes
15. Play Kick Ball
16. Play lawn darts
17. Play Noughts and Crosses
18. Play Newcomb Ball
19. Play random games
20. Play Red Rover
21. Play Simon Says
22. Play T-Ball
23. Play tag
24. Play toy lawnmowers
25. Play under the sprinkler
26. Play volleyball
27. Play water pistols
28. Play water tag with a spray bottle
29. Rake up leaves
30. Read a book series over the summer holidays
31. Relax on a camping chair
32. Scooter on a paved area
33. Set up easels and paint
34. Skateboard on the patio

Start a project

1. Start a herb garden
2. Start a nature notebook
3. Start a veggie patch
4. Sting up fairy lights
5. Study bugs
6. Study nature with binoculars
7. Study the garden with a magnifying glass
8. Take photos in the garden
9. Take up garden golf
10. Throw hoops on targets
11. Throw horseshoes on targets
12. Throw stones in a pond
13. Tie knots
14. Touch flowers and bark

Take those shoes off

1. Walk barefoot on the grass
2. Walk in the rain
3. Walk on a balancing beam
4. Wash the family pet
5. Watch the moon