In the Spring, Mother Nature brings us beautiful flowers, green grass, and warmer weather! Children are excited to explore the great outdoors and parents can join in with fun activities that are bundles of fun and will become cherished childhood memories. Below are some suggestions that promote physical fitness, learning, and family time. Let’s get outside and enjoy the sunshine, fresh air, and some family fun!
- Limbo games can be a blast to play. Place a limbo set in your backyard and turn on some fun music. There are different limbo sets on the market, some are wooden, while some are inflatable. The inflatable ones are easier to store; however, I still prefer the wooden ones as the inflatable limbo tends not to stand properly when there’s wind.
- Bowling with water bottles is fun and an easy way to reuse them as bowling pins before recycling them. Simply rip-off the labels on the bottle and fill them with water. You can add a few drops of food coloring to each one. Your kids can learn about primary and secondary colors and work on coordination, too. Now you have a set of colorful bowling pins.
- Potato sack races are an easy way to get your kids moving and is very inexpensive. You can use old pillowcases and have your kids decorate them to get their creative juices flowing and make them individualized. Invite the neighborhood children to participate, too.
- Three-legged races are great aerobic activities while teaching kids about teamwork. You will want to use something soft like a scarf or bandana and not an actual rope since it could be too rough.
- Observing and learning about insects with their own eyes. Provide them with a magnifying glass and let them explore the different kinds of insects in your backyard. At the same time, you could explain to them the behaviors of various insects and their role in the ecosystem. For example, why do worms come out of the ground after a heavy rain? How will they enrich the soil? What kinds of foods does a cricket eat? How do ants carry their food? Not only that, there could be meaningful life lessons to learn by observing the insects. The “never give up” attitude of spiders: no matter how many times you destroy their webs, it will always rebuild it. The teamwork and community spirit of ants is fascinating. They’ll be amazed that ants are such great architects when you see how they build their homes. If they are old enough, they could even keep a small journal of their observations that leads to discussions about what they learned.
- Making a backyard time capsule could be a unique activity for you and your family. There is no strict rule on what to include. You could put in a family photo, a letter you wrote to your child in the future, a picture that your child drew, a piece of today’s newspaper. Basically, you could include whatever that is memorable and interesting. Since the capsule is to be buried underground, make sure to choose a container that is waterproof and weatherproof. A stainless time capsule would be a good option.
These are just some ideas to help jump start the fun. The physical and learning activities are endless. The most important thing is to create long lasting memories with your child while enjoying this time of year. Sometimes we need to unplug from our electronics to recharge our batteries, and family time is the best way to do that!
