Summer is the best! But it’s also most definitely more difficult now with social distancing, having to wear masks, camp starting later, and lack of babysitters. Gone are the days {hopefully not forever} where carnivals, art shows, and waterparks are the norm. SO, with that being said, we have to get inventive! Below I’m sharing 6 creative activities you can do with your kids OUTSIDE and they don’t cost a cent!!! Get excited to have some fun with your kiddies!

Have the Kids Wash your Car!

Pull your car out of the garage, grab a bucket, some soap and rags and start washing!!!! Also make sure you have your water hose handy to rinse off the soap suds from your car!! The kids will LOVE this!

Bike or Walk to a Public Park and Have a Picnic

Pack some lunch and go for a long family walk or bike ride! Plan out your course of action in advance and find a public park with picnic tables to eat at! Or if you have room for a small blanket to bring with you, eat on the grass! It’s always fun to take a different route back home, too!

Go to a Train Station and Watch As the Trains Pass By!

If your kids are as train obsessed as mine, they will adore this fun activity! But first, you will have to do some research and find a train station where lots of trains pass through! When the trains aren’t passing, you can play eye spy or tell knock knock jokes!

Nature Walk + Nature Craft

This one needs some explanation! And it’s not my idea and I have the give credit to wear credit is due. My kids won {via a preschool raffle} breakfast with their teachers and because of Corona, they never got to do it at school! But yesterday, they did it at one of teacher’s backyards – who coincidentally, also happens to be our neighbor. The teachers picked up the boys and they walked the long route back to her house so they could find things in nature to make a craft with! The boys LOVED it and had a blast! And now we have some fun new artwork to hang in the house – which I kind of want to frame for the basement because their work was impressive!!!

Drive to a Different Neighborhood, Walk Around and Have a Scavenger Hunt

We love to do this because sometimes you just need a change of scenery, ya know?! Bonus points if you can find a neighborhood with wide sidewalks and some new construction houses going up. My kids are obsessed with watching construction workers work on houses!

As far as the scavenger hunt part of it goes, we like to take walks and I will tell the kids random things to look for. Once they find it, we move onto the next thing! Here are some examples: colorful flower, big rock, basketball hoop, a flying bird, an ant on the ground, a fence, a stop sign, a street sign, garbage can, butterfly, etc. It’s fun and they love it + it requires just your walking feet!!!

Fly Kites at the Nearest Big Field

Most families have some kites laying around but if you don’t, you can shop for them below. My advice is to do this activity on a warm yet windy day! And to find a giant field with minimal trees so the kites have room to FLY!!

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In some ways, we have to take it back to way way way back in the day when life was much more simple and schedules weren’t loaded. I, for one, don’t hate this kind of living at all! The kids are still as happy as ever and that’s really all that matters! Wouldn’t you agree?!

Oh, and I’m going to add one more thing to the list. This will cost you less than $15 if you don’t already have one, but do yourself a favor and get yourself an OLD-SCHOOL sprinkler that goes back and forth, back and forth. They are seriously my kids favorite of all favorites! They can play in it for hours without getting bored! And in addition, you don’t even have to leave your house! WIN!! {Shop the one we have HERE!}

Also shop our most favorite baby pool ever HERE. We’ve had a lot over the years and this one is hands down the best! Nothing to blow up and folds up small when not in use!

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