Soon schools will be out for summer, and the search for entertainment to fill those long weeks begins for parents!

There can be a pressure to spend, spend, spend but remember, simply getting outside in the garden can be a creative (and free!) way for your children to enjoy their summer break!

The world’s most trusted outdoor app, AllTrails, have shared 10 fun-filled, low to no cost activities that will encourage your little ones outside.

Go for a picnic together 

Make a mealtime the activity –   picnics encourage family bonding and social skills. They can also promote healthy eating habits in a relaxed environment.

Skip some stones

Whether it’s on the beach or on a river, skipping stones has been fun for generations. It also develops hand-eye coordination, patience, and understanding of physics principles like trajectory and force.

Create a photo-only scavenger hunt

There are so many plants, insects, fungi, and sights to discover when outdoors. Create a list with things that can be found in the area, such as an acorn, a beetle, a twig, a flower, or a pinecone. Instruct the kids to take photos of each or draw them as they find them.

Outdoor arts and crafts

Unleash creativity under the open sky with a vibrant outdoor art station  where kids can paint, draw, and craft using nature as their inspiration. Set up with washable paints, chalk, brushes, and natural materials like leaves and rocks, this colourful corner invites children to explore their artistic side while soaking up the sunshine. Ideal for back gardens or parks, an art station promotes sensory play, self-expression, and a deeper connection with the environment. With every brushstroke and splash of colour, young artists turn the outdoors into their very own gallery.

Build a den

Finding time to set up a ‘base’ outside can allow kids to explore and interact with natural elements.

Back garden camping

Later in August, the evenings will begin to get darker a little earlier, but it’s still warm enough to spend a night under the stars. If there’s a clear night, you can set up camp, toast marshmallows and gaze up at the stars. It fosters a sense of wonder and curiosity about the outdoors and the universe. Learning the location of the North Star in the night sky could prove useful one day!

Get Gardening together

Gardening is such a great activity for the little ones to get involved in. Whether it’s digging in soil, sowing seeds, or picking flowers, it creates a caring and wonderful awareness and curiosity for the world around us.

Build a Bug Hotel

Use sticks, pinecones, and cardboard to create a cool new habitat for insects. Create a colourful sign, invent a fun name for your hotel, and see what regular visitors your garden attracts! It’s not just creepy crawlies we can protect in the garden. Butterfly Conservation, the UK charity dedicated to saving butterflies, has shared some research that 80% of butterflies have declined since the 1970’s, so creating a wildlife haven in your garden can massively help their numbers bounce back!

Butterfly Conservation’s ‘Big Butterfly Count’, running from July 18th to August 10th, invites everyone in the UK to count the butterflies they see, and to create a wildlife-friendly garden to prevent a further Butterfly emergency!

Create an Obstacle Course – Lay out flowerpots, ropes, sticks and stones in a fun route, and READY… SET…GO!

Nature Collage – Collect fallen leaves, petals, twigs and foliage from around the garden, and arrange them – perhaps draw a flowerpot and create your own arrangement on paper or colour over the leaves with acrylic paint! It’s a creative masterpiece!

Weather Diary 

Create a journal of the weather and draw the cloud shapes of the day. Is there anything more calming than watching the clouds drift and making out shapes?!There will be an elephant shaped one up there, if you look hard enough!

Create a Fairy or Dinosaur Garden

Dedicate a specific area, bed or pot for the fairies or dinosaurs (or whatever fantasy character your child is into!) You can gather miniature figures, moss, stones, create magical doors out of cardboard or wood, and let imagination take over every time you step outside!

If you don’t have a garden yourself that you can make use of, then there are plenty of places that run gardening activities for the whole family to enjoy, make sure to check around!

Let’s Go Outside!

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