Welcome back to my series, 5 Days of Summer Activities with Children. If you’re visiting for the first time, you won’t want to miss:

1.  5 Summer Crafts for Children

2.  5 Fun Summer Food Ideas, Kids Edition

3.  10 Rainy Day Activity Ideas for Children

Also, at the beginning of the week, I was offering a free Father’s Day Printable if you are a subscriber to my Facebook page.

 5 Outdoor Fun Ideas with Children

 

Don’t you love it when the weather just starts changing from cold to warmer and warmer?  Right now, I’m loving the weather!  It’s been a nice 80+ degrees.  Sometimes warmer, sometimes cooler.  In times like this, the kids love to get outside.  We always seem to do the same things.  There’s the trampoline or the bike riding or the swing set.  Those are all fun, but sometimes, they get bored of them.  Do your kids do that?  I’m always confused as to why they would prefer to stay inside when there’s so much fun to be had outside!

I’ve been doing some brainstorming and came up with a list of a few things that I can encourage them to do to change things up a bit for them.

 

1.  Have a Water Party – This can be a water party just for your family or you could invite your friends.  Pull out water balloons, water guns, slip & slide, hose, pool, sprinkler, etc. and just have a ball.  If you have a slide on your swing set, put the hose on it and let them turn it into a waterslide.  What kid doesn’t LOVE playing in the water?

Here

 

‘s a handy tip:  St0ck up on your stuff at the end of the season.  Last year we bought a slip and slide for $2.  One year, we bought Super Soaker water guns, you know, the $30 ones?  They were 90% off, so we got them for $3!  

2.  Sidewalk Chalk Paint 

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We had never made this before but it was on our list of things to do for a long time.  I think I always thought it was going to take a long time or something.  Nope.  Easy.  Super, Easy!  You only mix one part corn starch with one part water and after it’s mixed, you add your food coloring.  We did 1/4 cup at a time.  The only thing is that if you let it sit for very long, it will start separating again, so you need to stir it up regularly.

3.  Play Croquet – Ever since I was a little girl, the game of croquet has been involved in my life.  Every year, we’d go spend 2 weeks with my grandparents and croquet was something we always looked forward to.  We’d spend hours out there playing.  Since then, while my husband was in the Army, we lived in post housing and we’d host neighborhood games of croquet.  We had a great time!  Now, we have a great time pulling it out with our older kids again (and the younger kids have a great time hitting it around, too).  You can buy it in the summer months at Wal-Mart.  I’ve also seen it several times at yard sales. If you don’t own a set, you should consider purchasing it.  If you don’t know the rules, you can read up on them here.

4.  Nature Scavenger Hunt – I know that I mentioned an indoor scavenger hunt yesterday when we talked about rainy day activities, but why not do the same thing outside as well?  I’ve got a free printable that I made up when we went on a hike recently.  If you’re not in a rural area, you’ll probably want to make a list a little less woodsy than that one.

5.  Blow Bubble Snakes

 

Here’s a different take on blowing bubbles.  Take a water bottle, and cut the end off of it.  Put a sock over the end of it.  Dip it in soapy water (dishsoap & Water) and then blow through the spout and watch the bubble snake that emerges.  We had been planning to do this today while it was light outside….but alas, ball games got in the way, so we tried it when we got home and actually did it indoors (gasp!).  It is messier than regular bubbles though, so I don’t recommend it unless you’re sitting on a towel or in the tub or something.

 

What about you?  What are your favorite ways to divert their attention when you send them outside, other than the normal bikes, swing sets and trampolines?

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Please join me and 20 other bloggers in our series, 5 Days of Mothering & Homemaking!  It has been so much fun to read what everyone is writing about!  This is a group of AWESOME ladies!!  Check them out by clicking on the picture below: