Simple Outdoor Activities for kids:All the things that we learn in our childhood remain with us for a long time to come. Whether it’s what we learn at school or at our homes, the memories will have a long-lasting imprint on us and have the power to shape up our character and persona as we grow up to face the challenges that life will throw at us.
Playing cricket under the hot sun, Gilli danda with our friends, those bicycle racing with our cousins and much more are some of the fond memories that we will always cherish even after so many years.
This article talks about simple outdoor activities for kids, and we are talking about improvement in the kids character and persona through these activities.
First, let us understand a few things before we give you the list of outdoor activities for your kids
Why outdoor activities are important for kids?
In an era where smartphones and tablets have become the norm of the day, it’s difficult to keep kids away from the digital dose. Right from breakfast time to bedtime, kids are immersing themselves with games on their mobile phones and tablets. Whether it is summer holidays or winter holidays or in their free time, they are on their gadgets all the time.
Yes, you heard that right; kids of this generation have their own gadgets.
All we had in our childhood was kitchen utensils to play with!
Don’t get us wrong, we are in no way saying these gadgets are harmful to them. It is no doubt that they are useful in many ways. They help in efficient education for children and help them learn in a creative and fun way. But anything and everything under the sun has limits and so does technology in our children’s lives.
Hence we argue that digital detox is important. And here’s why
Socialize
Simple outdoor activities for kids help them make real-life friends (not just Facebook friends) and this helps them improve their social aptitude. They will meet children from different walks of lives. It’s important that children are exposed to all types of people in their childhood.
Friendship
It is by playing sports and games that make you sweat and fight with each other, which makes that friendship bond strong. Children tend to make friends easily outdoors, and more often than not these childhood friendships last a lifetime.
Exercise
While apps, games and gadgets give a kid mental exercise, it’s only by playing outside will a child obtain the required physical exercise. To help them inculcate a healthy lifestyle, simple outdoor activities for kids should definitely include homely exercises.
A getaway
Given the competition and the rigour with which children study their academic education these days, outdoor activity as often as possible will help them get away with the everyday monologue and fatigue.
Relationships
Schedule of children nowadays is tighter than that of their parent’s. From schools to extra classes to co-curricular class, they will hardly have any time for family. Outdoor activities with parents will help them mingle with family and develop inculcate family values and bond. Indoor activities for kids can also be done for family time.
Now that we have learnt why outdoor activities are important for children, we will now mention useful simple outdoor activities for kids that every child should do.
Children will have different desires and aptitudes and needs to be nurtured accordingly
Hence we have divided these activities into three categories
- Physical activities
- Science activities
- Social activities
Outdoor activities for children
Physical Activity for kids
The below-mentioned activities are designed and structured in such a way that it helps kids improve their physical capabilities.
Hula hoop race and catch
It is a very simple and fun activity that parents can have with their kids. You will need multiple hula hoops. Take the children to a park or any area with plenty of greenery and open space. Hold the hula hoops vertically and whirl them with force directed towards the ground. Through this game, children should run and catch the hula. Repeat the game until the kids are tired, or more accurately put, bored!
This game improves hand-eye coordination for the kids.
Such games help them improve their concentration power and improve their focus while having fun with their loved ones.
Hide and seek
This is an extremely popular game amongst kids. It has different names across different regions in India. It is also sometimes called as police and thief. It is a fun activity to be played in open areas
The rules of the game are simple
a. One person counts to a hundred by closing his or her eyes
b. While the first person is counting, the rest of them has to hide from their view
c. Parents need to set up rules so that kids don’t end up hiding in unsafe places
d. Once the count is over and everyone is hiding safely, the person has to catch the thieves now
e. Every time he catches one, he needs to shout their name and location of their hiding, so that they come out in the open
f. Anyone who succeeds in hiding within the allotted time is the winner
A game like this will help kids improve their cognitive skills including attention span, executive function, memorisation and good team spirits.
Chalk obstacle course
If you want your kid to have good sleeping patterns, good brain power and memory power, play this game with them. Simply draw an obstacle course on the pavement with a few learning stations.
a. Firstly, start with footprints going in various directions so the child has to jump forwards, sideways and backwards. There will be plenty of learning stations and child should shout them out.
b. Walk along the twisty path to get the next group of letters to practice balance and coordination skills. The child reads a different group of letters out loud.
c. Kids are made to jump from circle to circle to get to the next group of letters.
This game encourages
- Motor skill development
- Coordination skills
- Receptive input
- Vestibular inputs
Science Activity for Kids
These activities are designed to help kids improve their interest in science and nurture them accordingly.
Gardening
One of the best things you can teach your kids is how to garden. All the gardening chores should be done to teach them the importance of greenery around them. Activities, like digging the dirt, sowing the seeds, watering the plants and weeding, can have a good exercise for the kids
However, parents should be careful as a garden is where one can find lots of bugs and mosquitoes. Equipment such as mosquito repellent and full cup sweaters and socks and shoes should be worn all the time.
Gardening is one of the best things that we can teach children. While having fun doing this activity with their friends, they can learn the importance of nature and greenery.
Sand Volcano
Do you want your kid to be the next Albert Einstein or Neil DeGrasse Tyson?
Then include science activities like these your for kids.
Take an empty plastic bottle and build a sand volcano ( mountain type structure around the bottle). Add a dish liquid and some kind of colouring agent to the bottle. Fill the brim of the bottle with water and two teaspoons of vinegar. With the help of a large spoon, blend the baking soda and add a drop of tap water to moisten it, and then quickly empty it into the bottle.
And there you, a wonderful volcano will come out so does a beautiful laugh on your kid’s face!
While performing this activity, you can teach a thing or two about volcanoes, the different ingredients used to make it. These simple outdoor activities for kids are sure to create excitement and curiosity.
Walking water
This experiment is extremely easy when it comes to materials and preparation. To set up for this experiment, you will need the following:
- Two drinking glasses, preferably of similar sizes
- Tap water
- Food colouring agent
- Paper towel
Take a paper towel and cut it in half. Then cut the same lengthwise in the quarter. Stick one end of the paper towel into the coloured water and one end into the empty jar.
Then see the magic of capillary action the water. The water movies from one glass to another and because of the added colouring agent, we can see it flow. Like magic!
This is one among simple outdoor activities for kids which needs a very low maintenance experiment. It’s a perfect activity to do with your children when you have some free time.
And while you do this experiment with your kids, you can teach them a few things about water and gravity.
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Lava Lamps
Have you ever seen a lava erupt right in the middle of your living room?
Well thanks to this, you can see one
Take an empty flask and,
Use vegetable oil to fill the flask
Fill the rest of the flask with water.
Use any colouring agent and fill it in the flask
Use Alka-seltzer tablet and break it into a few small pieces and put them in the flask gradually price by piece.
Watch your lava lamp erupt into activity!
Lava lamps are a fun way to learn about science.
Social Activities for Kids
These activities are designed to help children socialize with people.
Memory game
This game helps improve memory retention capacity
You keep a list of items on the table. Say, 15 to 18 items should do the trick. Let the kids see the items for 2 mins. Then cover the table with a clothe and ask the children to tell all the items kept on the table in the same order, left to right
Memory region will pave a long way in a child’s career.
Imagine having to mug up tons of syllabus in our university education? If only we had played memory game in childhood to improve our memory retention capacity!
Dumb Charades
Its obviously a popular game in many countries and is known by various names across the world.
The game is simple. A single person would act out a movie name or a word or any particular word or [phrase from the chosen topic, while the rest of the group guesses it. This game helps children read expressions and mingle with kids in a fun and engaging manner.
Guess the storyline
This game is all about inducing storytelling nature in your kid. You, as in a parent, narrate a story to a kid and stop it at a cliffhanger. Ask the kid which direction the story will go next. Put in such 5 or 6 cliffhangers and each time you come at that junction of the sorry, ask the kid about the next plot of the story. This is a beautiful game to help students gather information on the previous plot of the story and help them make a calculated guess on what would happen next.
Talk about critical and logical thing abilities through this game!All these activities will help the kids excel well in their future.
Good luck and happy parenting!