Fun Outdoor Activities to Try this Summer with Kids*

We’re just starting the third week of the summer holidays and according to my mum, the hot weather it on it’s way (I’ll believe it when I see it) so I’m still hanging onto my plans to try and do as much as possibly outdoors with Little Miss. She spends way too much time playing indoors due to cold weather or because we’ll be heading out to pre-school at some point in the day. I have a huge list of some ideas I have and I thought i’d share these with you today. Please let me know if you have anymore!

Go for a picnic
One of the simplest activities you can do outdoors is to pack up your lunch and head out for a picnic like we did on Friday! It doesn’t need to be fancy, just make up some sandwiches, or a pasta salad. Grab some biscuits, crisps and juice, a blanket or towels to sit on and go for a walk. When you find a nice patch of grass in a public area (I don’t mean someone’s garden!) Take a seat, dig out your lunch and enjoy! This is especially fun if it’s sunny. You can even make a day of it by taking a ball or a book.

Walk along a beach
I live beside a beach so this is something we do all year around but if you have a car and don’t live too far away from the coast it’s a really nice outing. The British Isles has some beautiful areas of coastline that are a pleasure to walk along whatever the weather. Also there really isn’t anything better than a sea breeze to blow the cobwebs away. Again, if you want to make a day of it, the beach is wonderful for families. You can go paddling, rock pooling and even just build sandcastles.

Fly a kite
“Lets go fly a kite, up to the highest heights, lets go fly a kite and send it soaring!” Come on, there really is nothing more awesomely retro than going out to fly a kite. As a kid my sister and I used to make kites out of A4 paper all the time and fly them on the green outside our house. Now you can pick up really good ones for cheap from places like Amazon. I favour the traditional diamond shape, especially if you get one that’s brightly coloured. This is something LM and I have recently added to our summer bucket list since our most recent watch of Mary Poppins.

Have a mini photoshoot
We had a trial run of this one inside today as I really want to be ready for when the weather picks up. This one is great for young children who are still happy to pose in front of the camera. Although I have in the past paid to have professional photos taken of LM, there is nothing better than the feeling that I have captured some wonderful ones myself. With so many people owning fancy cameras these days, why not head out with your kids to somewhere picturesque and capture some memories. We’re hoping to do it to showcase all LM’s beautiful dresses to take on our next Disney adventures, but really you could let your kids dress up in anything! Why not head to the beach for a pirate adventure, or go into the countryside rocking some dungarees?

Visit an adventure playground
This is really the one that inspired this whole post. Not long ago my mum discovered this amazing adventure playground in our town and the kids love it. It’s free but unlike the parks we usually visit it’s much bigger with more to do. There are even picnic tables so you can combine it with the idea of going for a picnic that I suggested above. I love the fact it’s pretty enclosed so I can always see LM but big enough she can run off the excess energy that she normally uses up at pre-school. Some days she’s climbing the walls but a couple of hours at the adventure playground and she’s ready for some down time.

Hold a sports day
When I was a kid my mum always suggested this as something we do, every single summer. Back then I hated it (mainly because I hated sports) but Little Miss seems to love it. She’s a real go-getter and loves joining in so anything competitive or team related she’s there. You can base it on a traditional school sports day with egg and spoon, the sack race, running race ect, or you could maybe try an team sport like football. My mum loves tennis so our old go to was something similar like badminton or even rounders.

Are you planning on trying any of these out this summer?