Simple yard activities for young children

Simple yard activities for young children 

Lockdown is upon us and I know the struggles of keeping a young child entertained completely at home, so below are some of our outdoor activities that are super simple and that my child loves. 

Mud kitchen-

We recently purchased a mud kitchen for our back yard and it is a hit with my little one! It has a pretend stove top and a working water tap! He is able to use it for constructive play, sensory play or water play, there are so many different options. One of his favourite is using rainbow rice ( dry rice coloured with food colouring) and ‘cooking’ food for his toy insects. This is a great sensory activity, you could also use lentils for this. Mud kitchen Available at Bunnings. 

Play house- 

My son loves his outdoor play house there are lots of different play scenarios we can play out, but if you don’t own a play house you can simply make a fort out of some old sheets! You child will love it! 

Butterfly hunt- 

For this activity you need bunch of fake butterflies, a net and a child sized magnifying glass. Hide the butterflies around your yard then invite your child out to explore with their magnifying glass and collect the butterflies! 

Nature hunt- 

Another activity you can do using a magnifying glass is to just to look around your garden and see what you can find. You might be amazed by how many creatures are creeping around your garden. We always fine grass hoppers, lady bugs, butterflies, beatles, geckos and dragon flies! This is a great way for you child to explore nature and learn. 

Race car track- 

Simply make a race car track out of old cardboard. My son loves placing his slide at the start of the track and racing his match box cars down. 

Bean bags and buckets- 

Place out your  bean bags and a variety of buckets for you child to throw the bean bags into. Easy as that! If you don’t own bean bags there are a lot of DIYs out there on how to make them. :)

Pool- 

A toddler pool is alway an easy and fun activity! Add in some ball pit balls to make it extra fun! 

Water table ice activities- 

My son loves his water table on a hot day but to make it more interesting add in some coloured ice cubes and a scoop. You child will have fun scooping out the ice and watching how it melts. 

Hoop and ball- 
This is such a simple one. Literally grab a hoola hoop and let your child throw or kick a ball threw the middle. Very simple, very fun for them. 

Bubble painting- 

This is a fun one. Just add kids paint, water and a drop of dishwashing liquid to a small bowl and mix. Then with a straw your child can blow into the bowl and create paint bubbles! Then with a small brush they can paint the bubbles into there paper and it creates a sort of water colour effect. ( Note* This is definitely a highly supervised activity to ensure your child does not suck up the liquid paint mixture. ) 

Nature painting- 

You can make outdoor painting more interesting by using nature as your paint equipment. We usually collect pine cones, gum nuts, sticks and leaves from around our yard or on our walks and use them to pain with to create a fun textured artwork. 

Ice painting- 

Another simple activity is ice painting. Simply place some ice cubes in a bowl and with a variety for different coloured paint your child can paint the ice. My toddler finds this very entertaining :) 

Spray Colour activity- 

This is another favourite. Fill up some spray bottles with water then add food colouring and mix. Then hang an old sheet up in your yard and your child can have fun spraying the sheet with all different colours! 

Outdoor bowling- 

We own a wooden outdoor bowling set that my son loves but if you don’t own one you can always use some old bottles or cans and any ball you have! 

Play dough- 

Play dough is always a winner with kids . This is another great material we use on our mud kitchen or you can simply lay down a blanket and a place mat outside and let your child roll, swish and create with the play dough. Home made play dough is also very easy to make. Our play dough recipe is available on my instagram highlights. 

Ok so I’ll stop there. There are so many outdoor activities I could list but the above are our most used and most loved. Being outdoors is still very important and as long as we ‘slip, slop, slap’ and stay within our yards we can remain safe and still enjoy that day! 

Take care 

-Mummy R