Outdoor Activities with your Kids
- Wild Dirt
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Not sure what outdoor activities you can do with your kids to make the most of the good weather? No worries! We’re here to help you choose the best option for your children and you won’t even have to leave your hometown.
Hopefully, you already know about the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics’ Seven Principles, but, if you don’t, we’ll briefly explain how they can improve our impact on the natural world around us. Choosing an outdoor activity for kids is an easy task, but choosing an activity that will leave no trace is more about a commitment than a decision.
Here’s the list of the Seven Principles of Leave No Trace:
If you go to their official website you’ll find a load of resources and courses for everyone to learn how to truly leave no trace when doing activities outdoors.
So, back to the subject, what activities can you do with children in your hometown enjoying the surrounding nature?
Hometown outdoors activities with children
1. Take a map of your hometown, let children explore it and let them choose a nature reserve, a famous lake or a recreational area they would like to visit in your hometown.
2. Make a list of random plants or flowers in your hometown and let children go around with a camera and take a snap wherever they find one of them. You can get more creative and list rivers, waterfalls, monuments or whatever you think would be easy for them to find.
3. Choose a nature route and go on a riding bike day with them.
Every city/region I visit, I try to "make it smaller" by familiarizing myself with the geography of the area. Biking is my second favorite way to investigate, explore, and kind of memorize the surroundings.
4. Time to clean your environment! Choose a beach, a lake or even a park. Go there with trash bags, gloves and sticks, and collect as much garbage as you can. Children will take this action as a competition but by the end of the day they will realize the good action they’ve done. In fact, if you plan and prepare well for this adventure, you can even have a picnic date together once you’ve finished.
5. Make it simpler. Choose a nature spot, take some blank notebooks and a bunch of crayons. Let your children create and draw whatever they see or whatever it comes to their minds in the woods. It will be a beautiful time to show them how to get inspired by their surroundings and they will take time to appreciate what they’re staring at.
6. Have you ever gone for a night walk and ended up stargazing? Well, if you have, now you can do it again with your children. They will find it exciting to go outside at night and share stories and feelings under the stars. You may appreciate it more than they do, but having a little bit of time to listen to their feelings and thoughts will reopen a memories box within your heart.
7. Finally, if you have run out of ideas, you can just check your local state community free activities and join your neighbors in an already-planned adventure.
Don’t overthink it, just take action and enjoy some free time with your children. Now is the time to have fun together and explore your natural surroundings.
