Outdoor Activities

There's nothing like creating a playfort from scratch! Children love to cultivate their fort and enjoy the unique shady retreat they have made.

Create a mini-Fairy (or Elf) Garden just for kids! In the shelter of a large, shady tree, design a miniature world where fairies and elves will visit.

Make a cool, leafy hiding place! Somewhere in your garden, create a fun hiding place for kids to keep cool in the Summer!

Make a shady play tunnel in your garden!

Here are some creative ideas for marking the plants in your garden.

Invite toads to your garden! Toads eat pesky garden insects... and they are fun to watch!

Give your child a birthday gift that will last a lifetime — plant a Birthday Tree! Children delight in having their "own" tree. Encourage them to take care of the tree and watch it grow.

Cool off and keep your yard watered with these homemade water sprinklers!

Did you know you can collect meteorites from outerspace — right in your own backyard?

Enjoy the fireworks in the night sky, stargazing with your children.

Here is a fun activity to turn your rock collection into a work of art!

Want a fun way to cool off on a hot day? Here are some great ideas for outdoor water play - something children of all ages will enjoy!

Plan a night hike with your child! Children love going for walks at night. Familiar places look very different at night, and sound different, too.

Use Your Five Senses for Fall Fun! In the world of nature, every month is slightly different from the next, and so is every season. Fall is a wonderful time to use our senses to explore - it is full of discovery, adventure, and unexpected events. Wherever you live, you can find interesting things to observe. Here are some activities to make Fall educational, memorable, and "sense"sational.

Kids love to collect things when going for walks in the woods. Here is a fun way to use all the twigs, branches, leaves, nuts, seeds, and flowers they've collected.

Make a pair of tap shoes for your kinesthetic learners! Children love to make noise — and this noisy shoe idea is sure to please!

With a roll of string or yarn, you can turn outside play into an adventure!

Make a bubbly brew in your backyard... smokey bubbles multiply, powered by dry ice!

Most people blow bubbles in the warm Summer months — but we enjoy blowing bubbles all year long, especially during the cold Winter months! Here is a fun activity for making Icy Bubbles.

Decorate your yard with these beautiful ice ornaments this Winter! Children (and adults) have fun making them, and they add beauty to a Wintery landscape.

Help your children create winter treats that are just what a bird needs to create body heat and maintain energy levels this Winter.

Grow with a tree! Choose a favorite tree in your yard and designate it as "your" tree. Here are fun, creative ideas to celebrate your tree! Includes our free customized, downloadable notebook pages.

Help the birds build their nests...and make the nests easier to see. This is a fun spring-time activity for kids to do. When the birds use your bright colored nesting material to build their nests, you will be able to spot their nests easier.

Have fun preparing some interesting food right under the sun!

Kids love to design and create forts in their backyards. Here are are some ideas to inspire the most fun forts around!

Kids love to explore nature! This activity gets kids outside and helps them focus on observing the world around them.

Spring is a wonderful time of year to observe the changes in nature. This activity gets kids outside to learn about the process of spring tree growth.

Kids of all ages love to play in the rain! Here are some of our favorite ideas of things to do in the rain!

Kids of all ages love to play in the mud! The ideas below will appeal to older children, as well as younger kids! Go ahead! Get dirty! Make mud bricks!

We've gathered our favorite activities and adventures to share with you and your children, for old-fashioned fun in the garden. Grow memories... grow gardens.

"Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar." - Bradley Millar. Here are some educational bug activites you can do in your backyard.

Backyards are just teeming with exciting beasties! Here are fun activities to observe and learn about the different kinds of creatures that share your yard. A great way to measure the animal biodiversity in your area.

Birds are fascinating to watch, and it's a lot of fun to learn about how and why birds do the things birds do. Learning to understand the behavior of the birds in your backyard is similar to learning another language. A language not just of bird calls, but of body position and movement. When you get to know your backyard birds by their behavior, you'll gain a much deeper understanding of these fine feathered creatures.

Watching the birds in your backyard is a fun activity for families to do together. Help your children create Tweet Treats for your backyard feathered friends!

Love rocks? Here are our ideas of simple activities for creative thinking and learning with rocks! Perfect for summer learning!

Sundials are used to tell time, and have been around a long time. Build a simple sundial that you can use in your backyard!

Go outside and observe the moon. Chart the phases you see! This is an exciting outdoor activity that you can enjoy at night in your own backyard! A great way to teach your children about the phases of the moon.

With a little imagination and a sunny day, you can create fantastic works of art with help from the sun!

Kids absolutely love this project! It demonstrates the power of the sun, while creating fun pieces of art.