Kaboutjie SA Mommy Blogs by Lynne Huysamen
Surviving with a toddler indoors can be such a difficult task. Confining your kid indoors hugely limits his curiosity and walking space.
Outdoor activities are thus the best way of honing toddler’s skills and keep them physically active. We put together the most fun activities we could find!
Remember, it’s easy to forget to strap your kid into the car seat before heading out to these activities. Instead of leaving your home in a rush, think about your child’s safety first.
Well, below are some of the simple activities your kids can engage in outdoors.
- Playing hopscotch
Skills developed: Physical strength and basic mathematical knowledge
Requirements: colored chalk
How to:
- Draw hopscotch on a solid ground
- Number each grid according to its position or randomly
- Instruct the kid to jump to specific numbers.
- Fastest rope pullers
Skills developed: muscle dexterity, team-building, and gross motor skills
Requirements: a long and soft rope and a tricycle or a small toy car
How to:
- Best played with a group of children divided into two teams
- Tie one end of the rope to a toy or tricycle and other end to the team of kids
- Ask the toddlers to tug the tricycle/toy as fast as they can
- Garden hide and seek
Skills developed: basic cognitive and social skills
Requirements: the toddler and your partner
How to:
- Find a good place such as a park
- Your partner and the toddler hide as you seek.
- Your partner should encourage the kid to find hiding spots e.g. bushes, thickets
- The sliding ball
Skills developed: social and team-building skills
Requirements: a slide and plastic ball
How to:
- Should be played in a park with a slide
- Played by a team and involves passing the ball down the slide
- The ball is then recollected and passed by toddlers back to you
- Spray painting
Skills developed: art and painting skills
Requirements: non-toxic paints, paint brushes and a chart paper
How to:
- Mix the non-toxic paint with water
- Guide your toddler to dip the brush in the paint and spread it on paper
- Repeat with other colors
- Escape the water jet
Skills developed: physical strength and family bonding
Requirements: water hose
How to:
- Attach hose to water outlet, stand a distance and aim the water to the little one
- He/she has to escape from the water spray
- Prick the soap bubbles
Skills developed: vision and body movement, tracking skills
Requirements: soap bubble maker, your partner
How to:
- Use bubble-making gun to make plenty of bubbles
- Ask your toddler to prick as much as he/she can
- Mud hand impressions
Skills developed: tactile sense development
Requirements: toddler, mud/sand
How to:
- On sand, show the kid how to make a hand impression
- Let the toddler repeat the same
- Sandbox play
Skills developed: creativity, imagination and family bonding
Requirements: sandbox and toddler’s toys
How to:
- Place the sandbox in the garden with all the kid’s favorite toys
- Let the kid sit on it and play with the toys
- Walking race
Skills developed: physical strength and motor skills
Requirements: toy
How to: Stand a distance and let the kid come for the toy
- Stack and balance the rocks
Skills developed: fine motor skills
Requirements: small rocks
How to: help the kid balance the rocks
- The car race
Skills developed: fine motor skills
Requirements: toy cars, chalk
How to: draw track lines and ask your kid to push the toys within the lines
- Hula-hoop challenge
Skills developed: muscle dexterity
Requirements: hula-hoop
How to: show the toddler how to rotate the hula-hoop and let them try
- Pass the ball
Skills developed: number counting
Requirements: rubber ball
How to: played in a group, the toddler holds the ball, says one and passes to the next who says two and passes further.
- Treasure hunt
Skills developed: curiosity and teamwork
Requirements: edible treats
How to: hide some treats in the garden and let your toddler search for them.
- Painting stones
Skills developed: creativity
Requirements: medium-sized stones and paint
How to:
- Arrange stones in the garden
- Ask the toddler to paint the stones with different colors
- Catching the Frisbee
Skills developed: gross and fine motor skills
Requirements: Frisbee
How to: throw the Frisbee to your toddler, prompting him to catch
- Riding a tricycle
Skills developed: cognitive skills
Requirements: tricycle
How to: help the toddler ride in the tricycle. Maintain safety standards, i.e bicycle helmet
- Sand shapes
Skills developed: visual interpretation
Requirements: plastic shovel, bucket
How to:
- Take your kid to the beach
- Make shapes with the bucket
- Alphabet game
Skills developed:
Requirements: group of toddlers
How to:
- Sit the toddlers in a circle
- Let them say letters of alphabet in sequence
- Musical chairs
Skills developed: motor skills
Requirements: musical chairs
How to:
- Chairs should be one less
- Toddlers walk around with music playing
- When music says stop, they stop and sit in the closest chair
- One who doesn’t get a chair is eliminated and one chair reduced.
- In the end, only one chair remains with one toddler
- Sow some seeds
Skills developed: sensory and motor skills
Requirements: shovel, gloves, and seeds
How to: help the kids sow the seeds in the garden
- Sponge bull’s eye
Skills developed: vision-body action and physical strength
Requirements: soaked sponges and chalk
How to:
- Draw a bull’s eye on the ground using colored chalks
- The toddler stands at a distance and throws the water dipped sponge aiming at the center
- Collecting seashells
Skills developed: finger dexterity
Requirements: a plastic container, shovel
How to:
- Take the toddler to the beach
- Show the toddler how to dig and find seashells
- Nature trail
Skills developed: social skills
Requirements: an entire family
How to:
- Take your kid to for a walk in the pack.
- Show all the trees, birds and flowers
Outdoor activities are certainly fun to kids. However, ensure that you maximize the toddler’s safety.
About The Author
This guest post was written by Isaac Atia, Founder at 10BestRanked.com, an authority blog where he reviews home and outdoors products. Read his latest review on his blog.
