Free Outdoor Activities

We’ve had this gorgeous summer weather for the past two weeks yet all I seem to hear from my kids is “Can I play a video game?”

I realized that when my kids start asking to play electronics too often, it just means they need a little motivation to go outside. So I have come up with a little list of things that occupy their time, entice them outdoors and entertain for hours (okay, so maybe only thirty minutes, but happily playing children for thirty minutes can feel like hours to a mom in need of reprieve.)

Here are a few free or next-to-nothing activities to get the kids playing outside:

Piles of wood.  I pick it up at construction sites (there’s usually a dump bin that you can pull wood out of for free) or I go to the back of the local hardware store, to their lumber department, where there is “clearance” wood…usually 50 cents for a 2 x 4. Here are some things we’ve done with our wood collection:

• Leave it in the dirt in the back yard: they’ll build construction sites, cities, and forts simply by piling the wood up.  The older two will make roads for The Little Mister to drive his cars on. Once we used the wood to build an obstacle course.
• Buy some cheap paint and let them paint the wood.
• Give them some nails and a hammer (adult supervision if they’re young) and let them pound away.

Cardboard:  We go to our local Costco and get these sheets of free cardboard that we turn into all sorts of things.  You find this cardboard in between the “cases” of toilet paper.  Their warehouse-brand toilet paper comes in on a pallet and between each row is a sturdy layer of cardboard that is approximately 4 ft x 2.5 ft (other brands of toilet paper have a less-study cardboard layer that I don’t recommend for fort making).  Anyway, every time we go to Costco, we get a few pieces of cardboard sheets.  Give them to your kids with some tape, some markers, and a knife if your kids are old enough, and the ideas are endless.  We’ve built boats, forts, fire engines, houses…the list goes on.   They even invented a game that transformed the pieces into imaginary “islands” that we had to jump to.

Cardboard boxes:  Another freebie from our warehouse store.  After we check out, we check out the supply of boxes that are kept near the cash registers.  Last week we snagged a few boxes that are now serving as homes for two dogs (stuffed) and a Zuzu pet.  With a few markers, cardboard boxes can also transform into fire engines, barns or houses.

Rocks: One of our all time favorite outdoor projects: coloring rocks.  When they’re young (say The Little Mister’s age), we use chalk.  As they get older, they graduate to watercolor paints and then tempura paints.  Keep a small box of paint supplies handy and when the kids need something to do outside, bring out the box and let ‘em go.  If you play your cards right and collected a box on your last trip to the warehouse store, you will also have a place to store these painted rocks.  Incidentally, if you don’t have rocks in your yard you can buy them at a gardening store or, even better and cheaper, pick some up next time you’re at a park or beach that does have rocks.

Play Picnic: Grab a couple boxes of crackers, cheese, water and pickles (or whatever your kids like to eat) and have them set up a picnic for themselves (and you.)  I have a plastic tub that contains an old tablecloth, misc plastic silverware and plates and a few odds and ends Adrienne has added to the box.  I ask them to please set up a picnic for our afternoon snack anywhere they choose. Once you head out to the picnic they’ve prepared, be sure to bring a read aloud book with you; it’s a nice way to spend the afternoon and reading outside just has this fun feeling to it that can’t be topped.

My point in all these ideas is that sometimes your kids just need a little boost to get their imaginations going. A few easy to find (and inexpensive to obtain) items are all you need to make your summer afternoons times of adventure and exploration.

-posted by Donna Venning, whose children are setting up an outside picnic as she writes this article.  Now it’s time to go enjoy the fruits of their labor….