5 Outdoor Projects To Get The Kids Excited

We are constantly fighting with our kids to get them outside in the fresh air, rather than stuck inside with their eyes glued to a screen. According to the World Health Organisation we spend around 90% of our time stuck indoors – but finding ways to get your kids outside can prove difficult.

Here are five outdoor projects that will have the kids discarding their technology and desperate to get outside. Once in the garden they won’t only realise how much fun it can be and they will also get all the benefits that come from fresh air!

Craft with natural materials

Kids love to get messy with paints and glue – while making something they can keep in the process. Where better to do this than in the garden, where they won’t leave you with a huge mess to clean up or coloured stains on your cream carpet? Send them on a scavenger hunt to find natural materials they can use for their crafting – pine cones, leaves, stones and so on. Once they have built up their collection, set them up at the table and they can start creating something new.

These were our home made Stick Men from a couple of years ago. The children loved this activity so much that they still talk about it and it was just with sticks we found in the park, some paper, stickers and glue!

Give them a section of the garden

Children with love to get their hands mucky in the dirt as they get stuck in digging and planting. So, let them have a section of the garden that is their own – here they can plant their own flowers – perhaps something pretty like these patio roses or a sunflower, which they can watch as it grows taller then them. They will learn the importance of caring for something and that they must water them regularly in order to help them grow.

Welcome wildlife

Kids will love to see the garden come alive with wildlife – from birds and squirrels to ants and worms! Work together to make sure yours is a space that welcomes them – build an insect hotel or a bird house, put up a bird feeder and give your child the job of ensuring it remains topped up; research which plants are best for wildlife and perhaps create a pond, which will attract creatures you otherwise would not have.

There are so many ways you and your child can work together to welcome wildlife in to your garden – which will be both fun and informative for your little one!

Why not build a big hotel! — Why not build a bug hotel!

Grow your own dinner

If you asked your child where the carrots on their dinner plate came from would they know, or would their answer be the supermarket shelf? This may not be wrong exactly, because as far as they have seen this is where they do come from!

But why not save yourself a few pennies in the shops and help you and your kids eat healthier by growing your own dinner? Kids will love watching as the food they have only ever seen on their plate grows out of the ground. Where once they may have pushed vegetables around with a fork as you insisted they eat them, they will now want to eat them as they can proudly say they grew them.

Create an outdoor game

Games are always a great way to get kids excited, so use your outdoor space to create one. How about using chalk, the pavement and a little bit of imagination to create different games that will provide hours of fun? Use household and garden items to create games – empty bottles become skittles, perhaps? Or take the indoor games out by creating a giant snakes and ladders or cardboard ring toss!