Getting outdoors with the family can be incredibly fun and create unforgettable memories. If you are stumped for ideas, here are a few of the best ones to get you and your family out and about in the great outdoors.
Trip to the Beach
If you live near a beach, it is one of the best places for a trip with the family. Beach games, swimming, water sports, picnicking, and exploring can all be done at the beach, and it is great for kids of almost any age.
You can also pack your fishing shorts and tackle box and try to catch some fish; you can build sandcastles or even go a step further and take a metal detector if you want to turn it into a treasure hunt.
Hide & Seek
Hide and seek, especially if you have a relatively large property, is one of the simplest games for the most amount of fun. Not only is it great for your kids, but you can also invite their friends over to play too.
It is also the perfect game to get your kids outside and do more physical activity, as they won’t even notice they are exercising.
Nature Walks
Nature walks are not only a way to relax and become closer as a family, but they can also be used to teach your children about different plants, animals, etc. While a walk on its own is great, you can take it up a notch and turn it into a game.
Before you leave, you can make a checklist of some of the things you might see, and your kids will need to explore and maybe get their hands a bit dirty if they want to find everything.
Camping
Camping is another brilliant family activity that is still somewhat underrated. You get to relax, unplug from the “real world,” explore nature, and everything in between. It is also a year-round activity, although you should be more careful when camping in searing heat or the dead of Winter.
If you don’t want to travel to far from home, you can also do garden camping. Pitch a tent in the garden, fire up the barbecue, and spend the night outdoors. It’s like regular camping but with all the bells and whistles you may miss about home.
Create a Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunts are another simple and completely free activity you and your family can do at home. Make a list of things you and your family need to find, activities you must do, or both, and whoever finishes first can win a prize.
You can also take it up a notch by including clues and puzzles, making some of the things trickier to find.
Outdoor Escape Room
The beauty of an escape room is that you don’t necessarily have to do it indoors. You can easily invent or adapt escape room puzzles to fit the outdoors and make something entirely unique that your whole family can enjoy.
While you’re not “escaping” per se, there can still be an overall goal and several clues and tricky puzzles to complete for you to be successful.
Build a Fort
Building a fort is a classic for a reason: it is inexpensive and, most times, completely free; anyone can do it, and it can be something your kids use long after the day you first built it.
While building one in your garden is ideal, you can also build one in a nearby forest if you so choose.
Almost all the materials you need can be found lying around outside, and besides maybe a few pieces of rope and maybe a cover sheet or an old piece of tarp, you can make one that can withstand the elements, too.
Play a Game
In this day and age, it is very cheap to buy a basketball hoop, or a badminton or volleyball set off the internet. You don’t need anything fancy, but a very small investment can lead to years of enjoyment and the possibility of your kids picking up a new hobby they love.
The great thing about a basketball hoop or volleyball net is that you don’t need a lot of space to set them up, and as for the latter, you can easily take it to a park or the beach and set it up to play there if you don’t have the space at home.
Start a Vegetable Patch
Starting a vegetable patch has multiple benefits. Not only is it fun and enjoyable to start, but it can teach your kids about responsibility and allow you to grow your own vegetables or herbs in the process.
You can also go as big or small as you want and assign different jobs to your children that they need to do daily or weekly.
Picnic
Finally, the humble picnic is another classic that more families should do. There are few things better than packing your favorite foods and drinks and heading to a beautiful park, the beach, or a forest and sitting and enjoying lunch out in the sun.
Once again, picnicking is another activity you can do almost year-round. A cold drink and a sandwich under the sun are just as enjoyable as a hot chocolate or bowl of soup in the snow.
