Summer Garden Activities for Kids

Posted July 30, 2018by David Beecher

With so many distractions such as TVs, video games, and toys, it can be difficult to encourage kids to spend time outdoors in summer. Parents wanting to take advantage of the glorious weather we’ve been having will be pleased to hear that incentivising children to spend time in the garden just got a whole lot easier with these fun summer garden activities.

We know parents can worry about clean-up, especially when children are getting creative at home. That’s why we recommend playing in an artificial grass garden or even creating a small play space with a large patch of artificial grass that you can re-use as and when you require it. Almost all spills on your artificial grass can be hosed away. For more stubborn spills we recommend cleaning with mild soap and water. Contact us for a sample and enjoy a worry-free day in the garden with your children with activities such as…

Arts and Crafts:

Aside from being bundles of fun, arts and crafts have been proven to be beneficial to children’s personal and physiological development. Arts and crafts help young children hone their fine motor skills by encouraging them to use both hands together, something they will need to develop for skills such as shoe tying and typing.

For simple arts and crafts try water colour painting, paper crafts, and making sculptures out of clay or playdough. For more intricate activities why not try your hand at papier-mâché? Or making a dream catcher. There are tonnes of arts and crafts ideas available via Google search or on Pinterest, so you can be sure your little ones will never be bored in the garden.

Water Play:

Paddling pools, water balloons, and even bubble blowing are all fantastic ways to enjoy water games this summer. You’d be surprised at the hours of entertainment something as simple as a bucket of water and a couple of plastic toys can provide for younger children. Older children might appreciate more structured tasks such as water balloon fights or games like duck, duck, splash.

You can make your own bubbles at home with a simple solution of soap and water. Adding a small amount of sugar or corn starch makes for thicker, longer lasting bubbles. You can even add food colouring for a splash of colour. If you don’t have any spare bubble wands laying around at home, you can make your own out of pipe cleaner!

Treasure/Scavenger Hunt

Treasure hunts and scavenger hunts are longer, sometimes all day, activities that will keep children active and engaged. “What’s the difference between a treasure hunt and a scavenger hunt?” you ask. Well, a treasure hunt involves hiding items around the garden and giving children a list or treasure map to help them find them. These items can be toys, trinkets, decorations, or even sweets. A scavenger hunt makes use of the items you can already find in your garden, such as twigs, leaves, stones, flowers, pine cones, and even garden ornaments.

Scavenger hunts don’t have to be competitions but if you’d like you can assign a winner based on how many items they managed to collect within a set time frame. Once your children have collected all the items you could make a display out of them or even incorporate them into arts and crafts.