Summer Outdoor Activities for Kids

With summer just around the corner, parents might find themselves in need of some creative and engaging outdoor activities to keep their kids entertained on a hot summer day.. Fortunately, there are plenty of fun summer outdoor activities that can help children stay active and entertained all summer long! Let’s explore some great ideas for keeping your kids outside and having fun in the sun this summer with our list of outdoor summer activities – they’re perfect for your summer bucket list.

Summertime is here and it’s time to get outside and enjoy the sunshine with some fantastic outdoor activities designed just for kids! From backyard camping adventures to gardening projects to outdoor arts & crafts sessions, there is something out there that every child will enjoy during these warmer months. These activities will not only keep them active but also help foster their creativity while teaching important lessons about nature and responsibility along the way. So grab those sunscreen bottles and get ready for some serious summer fun!

Summer Activities for Kids to do in the Garden

-Obstacle Course

Set up an Obstacle Course using play equipment such as hula hoops, play tunnels or chairs. Set it up so you can get bonus points for speed or for creating the most creative obstacle course.

-Have an Egg and Spoon Race

-Make a Flowerpot Bughouse

Decorate a flowerpot and then use corrugated cardboard and small tubes of rolled up paper and cardboard to make a bughouse.

-Make a Time Capsule

One of the fun things about growing old is reminiscing about all the things you did! Get your kids to create a time capsule and bury it in the garden!

-Make a Fairy Garden

Find a little spot in the garden to create a magical fairy garden!

-Play with a Skipping Rope

My kids love this skipping rope with lights!

-Set up a Treasure Hunt

Kids will have a great time solving clues or searching for some treasure!

-Make Giant Bubbles

Use a bubble solution to create giant bubbles. This activity is great for all ages! We love Dr Zigs for huge bubbles! You’ll also love our Bubble Activities for Kids.

-Make a Water Chute

Use a drain pipe to create a chute for toy cars or add water to the chute for toy boats too! Here’s the drain pipes we used to make our ramp.

Fun summer activities for kids

-Nature Scavenger Hunt

Summer is the perfect time together kids outside searching for signs of summer with a Nature Scavenger Hunt! See all our Nature Scavenger Hunts here.

Summer Activities for Toddlers

Get your little ones into the great outdoors with these fun summer activity ideas.

-Make Mud Pies

Playing with mud is one of those fun activities that kids will love!

-Nature Noughts and Crosses

Use pine cones, sticks or any nature items you can find and play noughts and crosses with them!

-Bark or Leaf Rubbing

Using the side of wax crayon rub them on some interesting bark or leaves to see the pattern emerge.

-Paint with Water

No need for paint – just give your kids a paint brush and some water and they’ll have fun painting the fence or patio!

Outdoor summer garden activities for kids that you can do in the garden 

-Play Jingle Jangle

Blindfold everyone except the jangler who should have some musical instrument bells or some keys tied to their ankle. The aim is for the ‘jangler’ to avoid capture – the blindfolded players need to catch them by following their jangle.

-Feed Butterflies and grow them from caterpillars

One of our favourite summer activities is to raise our own butterflies from caterpillars. Watching the life cycle of a butterfly is absolutely fascinating for kids, they love observing the caterpillars creating cocoons and they become very excited when the first butterfly emerges from its cocoon. Buy the caterpillars here.

-Gardening

While gardening may not sound like the most exciting outdoor activity for kids, it can actually be a really fun way to get them interested in nature and teach them about responsibility and sustainability. It’s a good activity idea for the entire family. Planting flowers or vegetables is a great way to make learning hands-on while they get some fresh air at the same time. Choose plants that are easy to care for if your children are younger so they don’t become overwhelmed with too much responsibility too soon.

-Sunflower Growing Competition

Sunflowers are brilliant to grow because they grow is huge. You don’t even need a garden – sunflowers grow well in a pot in a sunny spot. The idea is is to grow the tallest sunflower of course!

-Backyard Camping

One of the most popular summer activities, particularly for older kids is camping. While you may not be able to take them out to a campsite, you can still bring the camping experience to your own backyard! Set up a tent, sleeping bags, and other camping gear like flashlights or an old-fashioned lantern. You can even roast marshmallows over an open fire (following all fire safety guidelines, of course). This activity is sure to be a hit with both younger and older children alike and something the whole family can join in with.

Outdoor Activities for Kids to keep Cool in the Summer

These are the best activities to help keep kid’s cool outdoors on a hot day.

-Water Balloons

This fun activity is fun for kids of all ages and a good way of beating the heat at home – who doesn’t like having a water fight?! A water balloon fight is a fantastic way to cool down!

-Water Games

For other ideas for water play, check out this post on fun water game ideas for kids.

-Play with the Hose

-Use spray bottles

Spray bottles are fun for all kids – fill them with water to keep them cool OR fill them with watered down paint and use them to create some unique art on a canvas!

-Ice egg escape 

Freeze tiny toys in a small water balloon filled with water. When frozen, remove the balloon and get your kids to cool down by breaking their toys free from the ice!

-Make Ice Cream in a Bag

This is a fun science project activity and also cools kids down – try this recipe to make ice cream in a bag.

Summertime Fun with Outdoor Activities for Kids

-Visit a local park or splash pad

-Go on a Bike Ride

Sunny days are the best for bike rides!

-Have a Picnic on the Beach

Eating outside is what fun summer days are made of. Here’s our favourite picnic ideas for families.

-Beach Activities

Head to the beach for the ultimate summer activity! We have loads of great ideas for beach activities for kids that aren’t just building a sandcastle!

-Nighttime Scavenger Hunt

Grab a torch and head outside – check out our post on scavenger hunts to find ideas of things to spot at night!

-Play Games on a Walk

Find our favourite games here for a walk with kids! These will keep your kids walking for hours!

-Paddle in a Stream

Summer days are a good time to paddle in streams, especially on a hot day.

-Geocaching

If you like treasure hunts then you’ll love using technology to search for hidden boxes – you can do this all over the world! Read more about our top tips for Geocaching.

-Squirt Gun Tie Dye

This is a great activity idea for a kid’s outdoor party or for an outdoor group. Mix fabric paint with water and add to a squirt gun. Squirt fun designs on white t. shirts! Buy the squirt guns here!

-Rock Painting

Rock painting is one of our favourite outdoor activities for kids. Get your kids outside to hunt for rocks and stones that are smooth enough to paint. Use chalk paints or acrylic paints for a strong colour finish. Spray paint them with varnish if you want them to last outside in your garden! Try these paints that are long lasting for bright rocks and stones.

FREE summer activities for Kids

-Make Elderflower Lemonade

– Outdoor Scavenger Hunt

This one is an easy outdoor activity for kids – try our scavenger hunts for kids here.

Summer Outdoor Games for Kids

-Nature Walk

During the summer months are the best time to go for a walk – read our best things to pack for a nature walk with kids. Try this neighbourhood Scavenger hunt to get to know your local area!

-Play with Walkie Talkies

A fun summer activity is the best time to play outside with walkie talkies! Here’s our favourite walkie talkies for kids to use!

Summer Crafts for Kids

-Outdoor Arts & Crafts

If your children love art projects but you’re tired of cleaning up after messy indoor art sessions, take it outside! Set up an arts & crafts station in your backyard with supplies such as paper, markers, paintbrushes, watercolors, etc., plus a big tarp or tablecloth underneath so you don’t have any messes on your lawn afterward. Encourage your kids’ creativity by setting up scavenger hunts for items they can use in their artwork; leaves, twigs, stones, etc., then let their imaginations run wild!

Outdoor Summer Activities for Older Kids

-Water balloon painting

Try filling water balloons with watery paint – throw them at a big white sheet to make some fun art!

-Water Balloon Piñata

This idea is great for a boiling hot day! A piñata usually has sweets in it but try making one with water in balloons! Hit the balloons with a stick until they pop and you get covered in water! You can play this blindfolded for even more fun!

-Make a Go-cart

Try this plan for making your own go-kart.

-The Close Up Photo Challenge

Take extreme close up photos of things on a walk or in your garden – the rope in some friends kids to help guess what they are. For example, you could take photos of a leaf, pedal of a bike, a ladybird etc……

-Make a Parachute for your toys

Using a square of plastic bag or cut up black bin bag, hole punch the four corners of your bag and tie them with thin string to your toy. Experiment with using different sizes of bag and toy! Throw your toy (not a breakable one of course) of a high climbing frame or tree and watch it sail!

-The Matchbox 20 Challenge

This outdoor challenge is very simple – collect 20 things to fit inside a matchbox! The 20 things must be different – no duplicates!

-Explore a Cave

Caves are mysterious and exciting, make sure you take an adult and a torch and have fully investigated if it’s an appropriate cave to visit. Even better – find a cave with a guide to take you around!

-Go Foraging

Finding wild food is very satisfying – for best results use a guidebook but good ideas to get you started are bilberries, damsons, hazelnuts, sweet chestnuts and crab apples.

-Go Crabbing

Rock pools or harbours are the best places for crabbing. Find out more things to do in rock pools and how to go crabbing with kids here!

-Go Bouldering

Bouldering is a form of rock climbing without any special equipment. For more information on how to start bouldering – read here.

-Cook Outdoors

Cooking outside with kids is an easy outdoor activity and perfect for the summer when the weather is warmer. Try our fun ideas for cooking outside with kids!

-Go on a Hike

-Build a solar oven 

This is best science project ever! Cover the bottom of a shoe box in black paper. Cover the outside of your bottom of the shoe box in bubble wrap. Cover the top of the show box (to use as a reflector) in tin foil. Place what you want to cook on a glass dish or clean plastic inside the shoe box. Melting the nachos on top of cheese works well, cooking a pizza or s’mores!

-Cook Dinner in a Tin Can

Read here to find out how we cooked dinner in tin can outside!

Summer Outdoor Activities for Kids

-Nature Crafts

We have over 100 Nature Crafts for the kids to try here! These are easy and cheap outdoor activity ideas that work for kids of all ages!

-Flower Crafts

One of the best summer activities is to try one of these Flower Nature Crafts – kids will love using rose petals to make these!

-Outdoor Games

We have a whole load of fun game ideas for kids to play outdoors here which make the best summer outdoor activities with kids.

If you have older kids you’ll love our ideas for outdoor games for teenagers

– Grow a pinecone

Try planting a pinecone half in compost, water it a small amount everyday (not too much so it doesn’t rot) For more tips for planting pine cones – try this pine cone project here.

-Build a Den

This is a great idea for keeping cool on a hot day by making a den to shade in. Here’s how to make the best outdoor den for kids!

-Sun and Solar Printing 

Sun printing is a wonderful way to capture the summer sunshine. Sun prints are also known as cyanotypes, use this paper to make fun summer memories of the summer leaves and flowers or nature items you find on a summer walk with kids. Buy your sun print paper here.

-Swing in a Hammock

Have a swing in a hammock – perfect for a long hot summer’s day! This is our favourite hammock that’s easy for kids to put up.

-Fruit Picking

-Attend an Outdoor theatre production or create your own play!

–Make a windchime

Making windchimes is a lovely garden craft for kids.

-Make a Nature Raft

Nature rafts are a fun outdoor activity for kids to try on a visit to a lake or a woods.

-Flour Stencils

Make some grass stencils out of cardboard and then decorate your grass by sifting flour into the stencils – just make sure you brush the flour away before it rains!

-Stick Crafts for Kids

Check out these ideas for crafts and activities for kids to make with sticks.

-Play out in the streets!

-Egg Parachute Drop

If you have a groups of friends, this is a fun outdoor activity. Working in teams, make a parachute for an egg and package it to survive a drop. The team who’s egg can be dropped from the highest height.

-Shadow Dressing

Get one or two of your friends to make shadows on the pavements outside (try some crazy moves and poses). Then draw round their shadows with chalk and then dress them up! Do they need long flowing green grass hair? Add a bunch of flowers into their hands! Or make them a nature crown!

-Pavement Chalk Storyboards

Use chalk to draw stories on the pavement, you could turn it in a game by creating parts of a story in chalk and asking your friends to finish it off!

Need more ideas? Fun summer ideas for kids here!

-Make a Tin Can Band

Kids will enjoy making their own colourful tin can drums almost as much as they’ll like playing them! Decorate with washi tape or paint and cover with greaseproof paper after adding lentils or dried pulses to your tin cans! Red Ted Art has more handmade instrument ideas here!

-Make a Daisy Chain

Long hot summer days are perfect for lying on the grass and making a daisy chain! There are more free summer activities for kids!

-Make a Zip Line

Indoors or outdoors, an easy toy zip line is fun for kids. For a simple toy zip line set up – try this pulley system and take your toys for a ride! This pulley system also works brilliantly for hoisting toys (and picnics) up and down trees!

-Orienteering

Orienteering is great for teaching kids map skills and a is a good outdoor activity for families to do. Try more of them in this post! Find you get started with orienteering guide here.

-Make Melted Crayon Art

This is perfect on a hot day – collect together your old crayons and add them in a pattern onto some card. Leave them in the hot sun to melt and make a beautiful pattern!

Hope you love these fun or cheap summer activities for kids – if it turns out to be a typically British rainy summer holiday, then you’ll love our rainy day outdoor activities to with kids that help them to embrace the rain and love all the seasons!