Fun and free things to do in the garden with the kids!
Playing in the garden with the kids on a sunny day is one of the best things in life! Here is some inspiration for fun and free activities to enjoy with the children in the garden. It’ll keep them entertained and you can have some family fun!
Put out the fire!
Don’t panic, we're not suggesting you make a real fire and let the kids put it out! Grab some yellow, orange and red chalks and create fun flames on walls, the patio and even fences. Then, let your kids grab their buckets and water pistols and set to “putting out” the flames! Great fun for the whole family on a sunny day.
Make a miniature garden!
Use an old flower pot, bowl, seed tray, any plastic tray or even box to create a mini garden. Perfect for letting your child’s imagination run wild - a garden for the fairies, a dino stomping ground or even a mini farm! Use assorted pebbles and stones to decorate, create hills and mounds, water, moss, grass and even little structures and dens. Experiment with different levels and you can even link mini gardens together!
Make mud pies, potions and perfumes
This is great as kids love it and can often do it independently - and you get to sit back and watch their imaginations run wild! You just need a bucket and a bit of water and either some mud, or the kids can make potions (find something everyone, throw something in!) or encourage them to pick the older flowers (free deadheading service!) and great sweet smelling perfumes!
Make a time capsule and bury in the garden
One guaranteed to bring a tear to your eye when you dig it up in a few years time! You can include all different things from pictures, newspaper articles, toys, letters, pictures…(just make sure it’s nothing perishable!) You can use an old tupperware container with a good seal, and bury it in the garden. Get the kids to make a map so you remember where it is!
Nature sketching
A great one for older kids - it’s peaceful and mindful. Encourage them to sketch and really study something that interests them. A flower, feather, leaf or even a bug! Try to study it up close and draw pictures of all the parts and try to name them all.
Rubbings
If you have trees and textures in your garden then you can have a rubbing-good time! Just grab some paper and a chunky crayon with the paper removed. Place the paper on the textured surface and rub the long side of the crayon over the paper and watch the texture appear!
Create your own sports day or obstacle course
You can devise your own races and challenges, create a timetable and entry list. Maybe even make your own medals and prizes! Set up your soft toys and teddies to cheer you on. If you don’t have much space, you can create games like hooping, hopping or testing your aim!
If sports day isn't your thing, then you can use safe household and garden items to create an obstacle course.
Get messy with paint!
A personal favorite of ours. Paint an old bed sheet in the garden - you can use brushes it you like, or…fill your water pistols with paint and water mix and hand the sheet up and get spraying! Any old gutter laying around? Great, put the paper at the end of the gutter, dollop paint at the end and roll a ball down the gutter - watch it pick up the paint and roll colorful streaks across the canvas! Handprints, footprints…you go wild!
Ice cube fun
Another great one for a sunny day. Just plant ahead and the night before, grab a container or plastic bag and fill it with small toys (dinosaurs work great). You can fill it with coloured water to create a giant ice cube filled with exciting things to excavate. Give them a spoon and some eye protection and let them chisel away like real archeologists.
Create Garden Art
Get an old bed sheet or towel and gather armfuls of leaves, sticks, twigs, grass cuttings, moss, stones….whatever you can find. Use this material to create your very own pieces of art - you can make a scene, patterns…anything you like!
Build a Bug Hotel
Attracting wildlife to your garden can be a lot of fun and helps little critters. It couldn't be easier to make a bug hotel. You can go small and simple - chopping small lengths of hollow bamboo and binding them together to make a great home for bees. Or go big and create ;piles of sticks and logs in a corner of your garden and see if your bug hotel attracts critters, mini-beasts and even hedgehogs!