This post was featured by Twinkl in their 5 Sun Safety Tips Blog
Today I’m sharing some free garden games for kids to play this Summer. With the summer holidays now in full swing, it’s time to start looking for activities and crafts for your children to enjoy outside in the sunshine. One of the easiest ways for parents to entertain their little ones during the summer is, of course, with their very own garden. After all, it’s free, convenient, and easily accessible – no matter how early your kids wake up!
In this post, we’re going to be sharing some fantastic free garden games for kids to play this Summer. Activities that will keep them happily entertained for hours. So, if you’re ready to plan an exciting and fun-filled summer, keep reading.
Garden Games for Kids to Play This Summer For Free
Garden Scavenger Hunt
Let’s kick off summer with a classic game that never fails to excite young adventurers: the scavenger hunt! Scavenger hunts are really easy to set up and can be made by hand, or created on software such as Canva or Google Docs.
Create a list of items for your children to find in the garden, such as a smooth pebble, a yellow flower, or a feather. You can make your scavenger hunt into an educational activity by adding specific details, such as tasking them to find specific types of leaves or different insect species. Who says free garden games can’t be educational? Not me!
Create Your Own Outdoor Art Gallery
Let your kids unleash their inner artists by transforming your garden into an outdoor art gallery. Set up an easel, provide some paints and brushes, and watch their imagination come to life on paper. You can give your kids more focus by encouraging them to paint the flowers, trees, or insects that they spot around the garden.
If painting doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, how about sketching, painting with water, or using pavement chalk to create art on the floors and walls? How about a rainbow wall, reminiscent of lockdown? Get them to use chalk to colour each brick a different colour and create a rainbow wall or path. (Top tip: Get them to jet wash the paths clean later, for double the fun). Who says free garden games can’t be useful?!
Let’s Not Forget Gardening
If you’re going to be playing in your garden, why not combine playtime with education by getting your kids involved with gardening? You can have them help you with normal gardening tasks, such as watering the plants or pulling weeds up, or you could offer them their own small patch of soil and give them the opportunity to sow seeds and tend their own plants. Don’t worry if you need to find some thrifty garden storage ideas, there’s plenty out there.
There are plenty of easy to grow veggies that are great for kids, such as radishes or runner beans. Sunflowers, nasturtiums, and bee and butterfly-friendly wildflowers are also fun and easy for children to grow. Why not keep back some pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds from this year’s so you really can grow your own for free next year?
Set Up A Garden Obstacle Course
Who doesn’t love a little challenge? Designing an obstacle course in your garden is a fun and exciting way to engage your kids’ motor skills and creativity…plus it will also help tire them out! Use everyday objects such as hula hoops, cones, or even old cardboard boxes to create stations. Your children can crawl under tables, jump over cushions, or balance on a wooden beam.
If you have more than one child at home with you this summer, obstacle courses can be a brilliant competitive activity for them to engage in regularly throughout the summer. Time their progress and make a note of the course so that you can set it up again and again. If you want to make it more exciting, level-up to a game of, “the floor is lava”! This is one of our favourite free garden games to play with bigger kids!
Plenty Of Water Fun
When the summer heat is on, nothing beats a bit of water play! Turn your garden into a mini water park with various activities, but make sure that your kids are well protected against the sun. You don’t need a pool to enjoy playing with water in the summer, all you need are a few objects from around the house.
Try providing some buckets, sponges, plastic jugs, cups, and even water guns, then sit back and watch your children have an absolute blast. If you’re feeling brave, pick up a water gun of your own and create some epic family summer memories together.
Why not get out the hosepipe and have a mini water fight as you water the grass and plants too? Try not to waste water though, and remember that water-based free garden games aren’t free if you have a water meter!
Final Thoughts on Free Garden Games for Kids to Play This Summer
With these exciting free garden games, crafts, and activities, your kids will have a blast in the garden all summer long. From scavenger hunts to obstacle courses, outdoor art galleries to water fun, and even gardening, there’s something to keep every little adventurer occupied and happy in the sunshine.
Get ready to dust off those sun hats and stock up on suncream because this summer is going to be one that you all look back on and remember fondly as a family!
What are your favourite ways to play in the garden with your kids? We’d love to know, so feel free to drop a comment in the box below!
This guest post was written by Tina over at GirlsGospel. She’s been blogging there for over 4 years, so there’s plenty to catch up on if you’ve enjoyed this post!
