Swimming, camping, and skiing all seem to be given outdoor activities to do as a family. However, we often don’t have enough time to plan whole camping or beach trips.
Play Eat Grow recommends a bunch of activities that won’t need a more extended leave from work, but we’ve also come up with a short list below of outdoor activities you can also enjoy as a family:
- Go Biking
Besides just fun and exercise, biking is also a pretty handy life skill that kids will eventually need to learn.
If you don’t know how to bike, then this can be an even more interactive family activity that gets everyone involved. There are numerous advantages to cycling with your kids, not just for them but also for you, which you can learn more about by reading Beginner’s Guide to Cycling with Kids.
If you’re all bike-ready, take a drive around the neighborhood or choose a destination you can all get to.
This doesn’t just give everyone a healthy adventure, but it can also be a perfect way to bond, build communication, and simply relish each other’s presence.
- Visit an Aquarium
If your love for the ocean can’t be fulfilled as it might take more time to visit the nearest beach, then a nearby aquarium might just suffice.
Take your kids with you to visit one and get them to learn about marine life.
- Play Giant Board Games
If your kids enjoy board games at home, then they’ll surely love giant outdoor board games like the Jumbo Connect-4, which you can bring with you to a park or even your own backyard.
This is a great way to elevate board game afternoons and add to the fun.
- Join a Clean-Up Drive
Fun can also be fundamental. You can check out scheduled clean-up drives within your area and sign up for one that you and the whole family can participate in.
Clean-up drives won’t just give the whole family something to do outdoors, but more importantly, it is a chance to engage the entire family into awareness and action about the world around us.
We gain better awareness about the big and small things we can do individually-but more powerfully as a collective to address the climate crisis when we rethink what the environment means, or change from the image of nature towards practically everything that surrounds us.
- Have a Picnic
A picnic is a lovely excuse to go offline and take a breather.
You can pack your snacks and drinks, a book to enjoy reading in the park, a frisbee for the kids to play with, and even bring your pet with you to have a quick run.
It’s also a tried and tested activity that isn’t just fun but can also deepen your family time together on the kids picnic table.
- Have Fun in the Dark
Outdoor activities can be taken to another level of fun with glow-in-the-dark or LED-powered games.
The kids will certainly enjoy playing capture the flag or bocce on your lawn at night, especially if their energy is still high.
- Visit an Animal Shelter
More than visiting zoos, visiting and volunteering to help out the nearest animal shelter can be a great time for the whole family.
This teaches kids that animals aren’t just cute but that they also need commitment for care.
Additionally, this prepares them to rethink humane ways of caring for pets and animals, as well as the responsibilities that come with adopting stray animals.
- Participate in a Donation Drive for Old Toys
Cleaning up the house and helping others can be a family activity that can happen at the same time.
By organizing a donation drive for old toys, you can get your kids to pack up their old toys, ones that are still in good condition but that they aren’t playing with much anymore, and bring them to the nearest collection center for recycling.
This teaches them the principle of giving things that are still good, teaching them as well to avoid hoarding, and that fun can be shared even indirectly by their generosity.
- Have Some Ice Cream
Though you can always have ice cream at home, taking a break from the indoors to enjoy a scoop or two in a nearby salon wouldn’t hurt, too.
Take them out to a nearby ice cream parlor and treat them to a flavor that they might find interesting and new.
Go offline and catch up with each other. A visit to an ice cream parlor is always a sweet time for both children and adults, anyway.
- 10.Enjoy a Drive-In Movie
Wanting to visit the cinema, but not all of your children are already vaccinated?
Scared of exposing them to crowds for that risk? Worry not; drive-in or drive-by theaters are still a thing of today!
Look for one that you and the whole family can visit and take streaming a movie or cinema visit to a different level that brings both the movies and safety within the confines of your own car.