50 Fun things to do outside at home

You really don’t have to go very far to do some great outdoor activities for children. There are so many fun things to do outside at home. I’m going to share my favourites with you today. You don’t need a big garden either. I’m going to share ideas that you can do even if you have a small yard (Our first house only had a paved yard and we still found ways to enjoy the space with a toddler).

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50 fun outdoor activities to do at home

My children are 3 and 7 years old. We spend a lot of time outdoors both at home and on days out and walks when we can. I strongly believe children thrive with as much time outdoors as possible. I’m going to share some of my best ideas for fun things to do outside at home with kids. There is a mixture of creative activities, outdoor learning, outdoor play, nature activities and so much more.

Some times my kids are really good at free play. Open the door, put them in the garden and they will play well for ages. Other times though they need a little more direction. That’s when I draw on these ideas below. Often they just need one focused activity and then their imaginations take over and they start making up their own fun.

Outdoor play ideas

• Create an obstacle course with outdoor toys and other items like chairs, buckets and sticks. Older children will love to create obstacle courses for younger children.
• Give them a football to play some ball games like football, catch or piggy in the middle.
• Set up a teddy bears picnic.
• Make a den or set up a kids tent or similar. We have a cheap 2 man pop up tent that our kids love.

• Play hide and seek.
• If you have space, get out scooters or bikes.
• Get them to have races or even set up a mini Olympics where they can help decide what events should be included.
• In hot weather, how about a water fight?

Nature activities for kids

• Start gardening with children. You can plant seeds and watch them grow. Kids will love helping to plant and water the plants. You can grow some seeds no matter how small your outdoor space. We’ve grown strawberries in hanging baskets, flowers and salad leaves in containers.
• Encourage birds into your garden or yard. Put up a bird feeder (you could even make your own pine cone bird feeder) and wait for the birds to come. You could even try to identify them or keep a record of the birds that visit.
• Go on a bug hunt. Grab a magnifying glass if you have one and head outside to see what you can find. Try looking under plant pots or rocks if you have them.

• Get up early to watch the sunrise.
• Watch the sunset.
• Make some seed bombs and throw them on your next walk.

• Put up an outdoor thermometer and monitor the changing temperatures.
• Make a simple rain gauge and monitor how much rainfalls. We made ours using a plastic bottle with the top cut off near the top. We drew some marks to measure rainfall on it and added a few rocks to the bottom.

• Collect some flowers and press them. Either use a flower press or between sheets of paper and heavy books.
• Plant sunflower seeds and watch them grow. It’s a great maths activity to monitor and record the growth of your sunflowers.
• Make a simple bug hotel.

 

Creative things to do outside

We love creative activities and the bonus of doing them outside is the clean up is a lot easier!

• Paint rocks, shells or sticks. You could even hide some rocks on your next walk.
• Paint pictures. Whether they choose to paint what they can see or whatever they like. All you need is paper, paint and paintbrushes.
• Paint with nature. I gave my children a sheet of paper some paint but no paint brushes and told them to find things in the garden to paint with.
• Find more ideas in this post, 30 fun things to do with sticks.

• Make a DIY paper bag lantern and take it outside after dark or at dusk.
• Take play dough outside and add flowers, leaves or sticks.
• Make your own fairy wings and wear them on your next walk.
• Use chalks to draw on your drive, patio, fence or pavement. We use chalks to draw, practice mark making, draw games like hopscotch and practice spellings. Find more summer art activities to try this year here.

• Messy play is perfect for doing outside. One of my favourites is coloured rice sensory play.
• Make potions with water and petals.
• Freeze some small toys or petals in ice and let your child try to extract them.
• Another great messy play idea is rainbow spaghetti sensory play.

• Water is the ultimate outdoor messy play. We love our water table.
• Paint with water. All you need is a small pot of water, a paintbrush and then let your child paint fences, brick walls, patios, anything that changes colour when it is wet.
• Wash the outdoor toys.
• Make coloured water with food colouring and freeze in ice cube trays. Then use them to build towers,
• or paint with them on paper.

• Make a boat from paper or sticks and float it in a bowl of water.
• Play sink or float. Can your child guess which objects will sink and which will float?
• Make a water wall from recycled bottles.
• A washing-up bowl of water, perhaps with some washing-up liquid and they’ll find all sorts of things to do.

• Make a fairy garden
• Make mud pies. My kids love their mud kitchen but you don’t need a mud kitchen. All you need is mud and a selection of pots, pans and utensils. See what you have at the back of your cupboard or pick up some bits from the charity shop.

• Use nature to make a picture on the ground.
• Make mud or clay faces.

Other ideas

• Have a picnic. Put out a picnic blanket and your kids will love it.
• Cook outdoors. Either BBQ or with a camping stove.
• Camp in the garden. We’ve done this a couple of times and our kids think it’s a real adventure. It’s a great test before camping with toddlers.
• Read books together.
• If you have older kids, you might find this guide useful – Things to do at home with teenagers

More great ways to get kids outside

Find 100 ideas for things to do outside with kids here.#

Summer outdoor activities for kids are some of my favourites.

I’ve written a post with lots more great ideas for fun things to do on a walk with kids.

Here is a post packed full of things to find on a walk

Looking to add to your bookshelves? Find my favourite outdoor activity books for kids here.

Find out what you can do outside in the rain here.

Want to share ideas with like minded parents? Join Wildling Explores the free facebook group for parents who love to get their kids outdoors.

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