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Summer is finally not too far away (I say as the rain is bucketing down and the wind is howling), and we are all starting to get back outside more and enjoy the sunshine and fresh air.
Last year we spent so much time in our garden during the warmer months; playing games together, chilling out with a cold drink and just having a nice time. Our garden is only small, but I know how lucky we are to have one and especially during lockdown, to use as a family.
We were very lucky with the weather last year so we spent so much time in our garden, even taking some schoolwork out there for my daughter making it a little more bearable for her to do! Hopefully this year we will also get plenty of lovely weather so we can spend time together in the garden playing and having fun.
Outdoor play is so essential for kids’ mental and physical health; helping them to move their bodies, release energy and frustrations, get fresh air and improve their mood and manage any anxieties or stresses they may have.
Unfortunately, since lockdown, children have been spending much less time outside overall. A survey by Natural England, published in October 2020, revealed that six in 10 children have spent less time outdoors since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is why Regatta have created a campaign to try and encourage children to get outdoors this Spring and Summertime. They have asked children to design their dream outdoor space so that they can discover what features they look for when outdoors. Then Regatta are bringing them to life in 3D visuals!
You can see some of the kids’ cool ideas here: Kids’ Ultimate Green Space – I particularly like the purple one with the zip wire!
There are so many fun (and mostly free!) things you can do as a family in your own garden or in any public park, so if you’re stuck for ideas for keeping them entertained whilst getting them outdoors here are some suggestions!
Gardening – kids tend to love getting involved with some gardening and even little ones can help with planting seeds and watering the plants. It also has a great educational aspect to it especially if you are planting some veg and watching them grow and then hopefully getting to eat them too! Plus it can be a very physical activity as well.
Playing board games – we spent hours and hours playing loads of fun games together last summer. Any cards games are good, things like Dobble, Monopoly Deal, (for slightly older children), Frustration, Connect 4 plus more physical games like Twister are all lots of fun for kids (and adults depending on the game!!).
Garden games – you can buy games such as rope toss and giant Jenga, but you can also use any ball and some bottles to play skittles or any kind of small soft object to throw into buckets and compete against each other.
Make a butterfly garden or a bird feeder – we got this butterfly garden a couple of years ago, where you get sent some live caterpillars to look after and watch them metamorphose into butterflies and then you release them when they are ready. Ava really enjoyed the whole process and still talks about ‘our’ butterflies now. It’s such a good learning experience for kids and lots of fun too.
But if you don’t want to buy anything you can make your own butterfly feeder at home to attract butterflies to your garden as well as bird feeders which can be made quite simply. It’s creative and fun and gives you lots to talk about with any creatures that are attracted to your garden!
Paint rocks – painting pretty and fun designs onto rocks is great fun for kids and doing it in the garden limits the mess! Hiding these painted rocks around your local area is a pretty popular thing to do now and you can hide yours around your area for others to find and spend time looking for some too.
Blow bubbles – kids always love blowing bubbles and you can make your own solution with washing up liquid and water if you run out/your child tips it all over the floor!
Hula hooping/Lolo ball/Roller Skating/Skipping – They don’t seem to be quite as common nowadays, but I have such fond memories of bouncing around on my Lolo ball when I was young! It’s great exercise and fun and the same goes for hula hooping too. If your kid has roller skates then that can be fun in the garden too if you have a flat area, especially if they are just learning.
Have a water fight – this one calls for nicer weather (unless you’re particularly hardcore) but I’m pretty sure all children love to have a water fight, especially with their parents who may not usually join in!
Paddling pools are also so much fun on hotter days and you can get a little one to splash about in very cheaply. It helps to keep them cool on those red hot days, plus burns lots of energy.
Scavenger hunt – make a list of things for your children to spot in and around your garden – a ladybird, a rock shaped like an animal, a bird – there’s loads you can add. Your garden doesn’t have to be big for this either, ours is small and there are still loads of different things we can hunt for.
Make a bug hotel – Ava absolutely loves getting a little plastic container and adding some leaves to it and finding bugs to put in there and watching them for a while. She’s happy to do it by herself so it keeps her entertained for a bit, which is always good. We obviously let them go if they want to and don’t put a lid on the container!
Hide and seek with toys – if your children have some little toys like figurines or anything small like that hiding them around the garden will keep them entertained for ages. I’ve played this with quite a few little kids and they all seem to absolutely love it and don’t want to stop! It’s not quite as much fun for the adults though!
Make a fairy garden – give your kids a plastic seed tray type thing and some soil and get together some little things they can add to it, such as an old small mirror (makes a great pond!) some bits of wood, little cuttings of plants or anything small from their toy collection that is washable so they can design their own fairy garden (or dinosaur, or whatever they like)! I remember doing this with my sister and step-sisters (I wasn’t even that little!) and we had lots of fun and were very proud of (and competitive about) our creations!
Have a garden picnic – I’m not sure what it is about putting a blanket on the floor and putting plates of food on it but kids always seem to love a picnic, whether indoors or outdoors! It also means an easy lunch or dinner for you to make as you can just use whatever you have in and chuck some crisps and things into bowls!
Paint plant pots and then plant them up – let them get really creative and messy with some of your old plant pots and create their own designs on them and then plant them up together. Kids will love that you have something they’ve made in the garden.
Chalk drawings – if you have any patio area give your kids some chalk and let them write and draw all over it! The rain will wash it away.
Ice digging – freeze some little plastic toys like dinosaurs in a tray with some water and then once it’s all frozen the kids can use a spoon or other safe tool to excavate the ice and dig out the dinosaurs!
Take photos of plants and flowers or different insects – then later on they can look them up and try and find out what they are and information about them.
Lay and the grass together and find shapes in the clouds – perfect for a sunny but cloudy day. Lie on a blanket together and see who can find the most animals or objects.
All of these things are great fun for kids to do either with you or on their own in the garden this summer, plus get lots of fresh air, exercise, get them thinking and off tech for a while too. Hopefully, this has inspired you to get out in your garden or to a local park together and perhaps given you a few new ideas!
Don’t forget to check out the fun ideas that kids have created at Regatta.com.
This is a paid partnership with Regatta.
Welcome to Birds and Lilies! I'm Lou: mother, blogger and freelance writer. This is my lifestyle blog, where I talk about motherhood, infertility and IVF, beauty, my love for food and wine, as well as my thoughts about stuff, and our real-life and travel adventures.
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