Here are some great activity ideas for your children during the summer break!
When the weather starts to warm up, there are more opportunities for fun in the sun. If you’re stumped on ideas for getting the kids outside to burn off some energy or to get creative, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we’ll share some great activity ideas for your children this summer break – the best part? They are free!
Why is spending time outdoors so important for kids?
Studies show that being outdoors can have a huge impact on many facets of a child’s wellbeing. It assists with their development by promoting imagination and curiosity. It enables them to be more confident in themselves and their abilities by exploring their surroundings. Children who spend regular time outdoors typically have stronger immune systems, lower stress levels, and a better night’s rest.
Water Play
Most kids adore water play, it can be emotionally therapeutic as well as host a wide range of benefits for development including building their fine motor skills and social skills.
When the weather is hot water play is the perfect way to keep the kids entertained. It keeps them cool, they have fun, all while learning valuable skills at the same time.
You can make water play as non-educational or educational as you like. Some fun educational activities include grabbing some heavy and light items and asking the kids whether they think they’ll sink or float.
You can use water to demonstrate volumes of water by exchanging water between different sized and shaped containers.
They can wash their toys, play under the sea games or simply splash about with some bubbles in the water – your options are almost endless!
Yoga
If you’re looking for something a little more zen when outdoors, why not get the kids to practice some yoga moves. Yoga has so many benefits and can help to calm and relax busybodies. If you have mats or towels and you want to lay them down, go right ahead, otherwise completing the poses on the grass is perfectly fine. Having their feet planted in the grass and the earth barefoot can help your child to build muscles and alignment.
Yoga teaches children how to breathe slowly, improve their balance and increase their flexibility.
If you don’t know how to do yoga, you can find tonnes of children’s tutorials and classes online or in books. Once you have a few poses down pat, it won’t take long for you to build on your repertoire, and you won’t have to refer back to your books or videos. Yoga is fun plus with all the other benefits it offers, it’s a great activity for both you and the kids. Being outdoors while doing yoga is a fantastic way to connect with nature.
Grow your own food
Kids love getting their hands dirty. Children need a lot of sensory input and getting their hands in the dirt is an ideal way to do this. Teaching them where food comes from and how it grows is also adding an educational element to being outside amongst the dirt. You don’t have to have a lot of room for your children to be able to do this. Even planting some herbs in a pot and placing it on a window sill is giving your child the same experience just on a smaller scale. Growing your own food is beneficial for many reasons – it tastes better, it teaches kids about sustainability, the lifecycle of plants, and gives them responsibility, after all, the plants won’t grow without adequate water and sunlight.
Work on their balancing and coordination through exploring the world around them
When children challenge their ability, both mentally and physically, they expand their confidence and skill set. They can work on their gross motor skills, fine motor skills, coordination and balance. Some fun activities they do while outside are climbing, balancing, jumping, running and many more. Being out in nature, especially in a place that child isn’t familiar with, provides them with a new opportunity to test their skills in the world around them.
This helps your child with their decision-making skills, can help them to access risk and builds resilience.
Make a fort
Who doesn’t love a fort? If you are like most others, you have fond memories of building a fort or two in your childhood.
- There are so many benefits to fort building, who knew! Here are some of them below:
- Building a fort enables children to create a safe and private space for them to “escape”.
- It sparks their imagination and encourages imaginative and pretend play.
- It provides a safe and private place for your child to get some quiet time, it’s something that they have created themselves, for themselves without the family having to do it for them.
- Analytical, cognitive, creative, socialisation and planning skills all come into play when building a fort. Children see building a fort as fun, little do they know they are improving so many skills at the same time.
- Building their very own customised safe place can be a form of stress release. It also provides plenty of social opportunities too.
Many items can be used to make a fort, and when it’s being built outside, your child can incorporate things from nature in the construction. Sticks, dirt, and branches are some to name a few.
Being outside is the best and kids love it! Here at Little Saints, our Burleigh childcare centres‘ focus is on the great outdoors. Check out our website for more information.