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
- Afternoon tea in the garden
- Blow bubbles
- Build a cardboard cubby
- Build a cubby house
- Build a fort
- Build a go-kart
- Catch bugs
- Chase butterflies
- Climb trees
- Collect acorns
- Create something
- Collect firewood
- Collect leaves and make art
- Conduct science experiments
- Count cars
- Create a bird bath
- Create a cool water slide
- Create a garden sculpture
- Create a water play table
- Create a treasure hunt
- Create a treasure map
- Create an obstacle course
Get digging!
- Dig a hole
- Dig and bury items
- Dig up dinosaurs from plaster
- Do some stargazing
- Draw with chalk
- Eat lunch outside together
- Feed birds and animals
- Find cloud shapes together
- Follow an ant trail
- Get the kids out weeding
- Hang candles outdoors
- Have a mud bath
- Have morning tea in the garden
Hold an event
- Hold a garage sale
- Hold a kids’ garden party
- Hold a street party
- Hula-hoop
- Identify garden sounds
- Install a swing set
- Jump on a pogo stick
- Jump on a trampoline
- Kick a ball
- Kick a footy
- Learn about the different trees in your garden
- Learn bird calls
- Learn Macramé
- Learn the names of flowers
- Lie on the grass together
Make something
- Make a bird feeder
- Make a cheap tyre swing
- Make a collage using garden materials
- Make a fish pond
- Make a go-kart
- Make a robot
- Make a rock garden
- Make a snowman
- Make water slip-and-slide
- Make a wind chime
- Make an ant farm
- Make and throw mud pies
- Make collages from magazines
- Make daisy chains
- Make jewellery
- Make leaf-rubbing pictures
- Make lemonade
- Make mini parachutes
- Make play dough
- Make recycled paper
- Organise garden play dates
- Paddle in a shell pool
- Paint a face
- Paint pinecones
- Photograph birds’ nests
- Photograph spider webs
- Plant flowers
Play games
- Play badminton
- Play blindfolded tag
- Play Bocce Ball
- Play catch
- Play cricket
- Play croquet
- Play detectives
- Play Elastics
- Play Four Square
- Play handball
- Play Hopscotch
- Play I Spy
- Play in the rain
- Play with toy cars, trikes and bikes
- Play Kick Ball
- Play lawn darts
- Play Noughts and Crosses
- Play Newcomb Ball
- Play random games
- Play Red Rover
- Play Simon Says
- Play T-Ball
- Play tag
- Play toy lawnmowers
- Play under the sprinkler
- Play volleyball
- Play water pistols
- Play water tag with a spray bottle
- Rake up leaves
- Read a book series over the summer holidays
- Relax on a camping chair
- Scooter on a paved area
- Set up easels and paint
- Skateboard on the patio
Start a project
- Start a herb garden
- Start a nature notebook
- Start a veggie patch
- Sting up fairy lights
- Study bugs
- Study nature with binoculars
- Study the garden with a magnifying glass
- Take photos in the garden
- Take up garden golf
- Throw hoops on targets
- Throw horseshoes on targets
- Throw stones in a pond
- Tie knots
- Touch flowers and bark
Take those shoes off
- Walk barefoot on the grass
- Walk in the rain
- Walk on a balancing beam
- Wash the family pet
- Watch the moon
