There’s something incredible about spending time together as a family outside! Household chores are out of sight, as are other distractions. For some reason, my kids very rarely fight outside.
Outdoors and Active Family Time
Which is exactly why, when we were looking for a house, we picked on based on the yard instead of the actual house! I adore our stunning yard, and it makes for wonderful family time. Here are outdoor activities my kids love:
- Looking for signs of spring
- Gardening
- Playing with rocks
- Painting with homemade sidewalk paint
- Using a magnifying glass to bring the yard to life
- Building fairy villages
- Finding caterpillars
- Learning about animals
- Learning about plants
- Collecting leaves, twigs, and other items to craft with
- Playing in the rain with rain boots and umbrellas, and playing in puddles after rainstorms
- Snowball fights and building snowmen and snow forts in the wintertime
I’ve learned, though, that my kids don’t really care what we are doing, so long as the entire family is doing it together! They will walk around the neighborhood, read on a blanket in the yard, swing, or run around in circles – loving every minute!
What do you love to do outside as a family? I love this idea of going on a listening walk.
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
Today we played a game throwing a ball back and forth. I’m teaching them to throw to each others’ chests and catch with their arms out like a forklift. I don’t know where I got this idea, but I think it helps with catching. At least it gives them something to do besides throwing up their arms to protect themselves from the ball.
Mostly our outdoor activities are unstructured. My kids spend a lot of time pretending no matter where they are, and the back garden is no exception. I hadn’t thought about it, but you’re right, my kids rarely fight outdoors. And I think they behave better indoors after that dose of Vitamin D as well…
We love spending time together as a family in our yard or in the neighborhood park as well, but we also use our time together (on weekends) to go places.
Excellent suggestions. Lately, I’ve been lazy with the learning-focused activities and just let them wrestle around on the grass at the park.
That’s what I would do, if my kids were up for it…
My kids love to do just about anything outside. We just finished eating lunch outside.
That should definitely have been on my list – we love eating outside! A little cold for that today, though – it was snowing this morning!
Family time and being outside is so important! Sounds like y’all have lots of fun outdoors.