Top Tips to Get Your Child to Play Outdoors

With summer upon us, what better time to encourage your child to play outside? Playing outdoors is a great opportunity for children to learn imaginative play, fulfill sensory needs, and get fresh air.

Being stuck inside and having access to screen time may make it difficult for your child to remember what they like to do outdoors. In this post, we discuss ways to entice kids to play outside and share ideas for fun, skill-building activities. 

How to Encourage Your Kids to Play Outdoors

When we're accustomed to spending most of our time indoors, sometimes we need a little extra encouragement to get outside. These tips and activities will help make outdoor play and exploration more enticing to your children:

1. Bring your child’s favorite indoor toys and activities outside

Having favorite toys join the party outside can help to create a sense of comfort and routine, and bringing preferred indoor activities outside can help too:

• Stuffed animals can go on a hike

• Play-doh sensory play can be done on a picnic table or blanket

• Try making a fort from blankets and rope

Get creative–what do your kids love doing? Consider how you can adapt those activities to bring them to your yard or to a local park. 

2. Empower kids to choose outdoor activities

Allow for your child to choose some activities to bring outside with you; this gives kids a sense of control in a situation that may feel unpredictable.

3. Put a fun spin on activities your kids already enjoy

Consider indoor activities that could be enhanced by bringing them outdoors:

• If your child enjoys blowing bubbles, bring them outside, add food coloring, and bring some paper. You now have the fixings for a fun afternoon of bubble art! 

• The floor is lava, hide and seek, and red light/green light are all simple games that are so much more fun outside. 

4. Encourage your child to get dirty with sensory-friendly play!

There are so many wonderful sensory-friendly options for outdoor play:

• Water tables

• Sprinklers

• Water slides

• Shaving cream

• Sand boxes

• Gardening

• Scooping dirt or sand and carrying buckets of dirt, sand, or water

• Building sand castles

• Washing toy cars in a bucket with soap

• “Cooking” with pretend foods

• Drawing on the sidewalk or driveway with chalk

These activities have great tactile input, and activities like scooping dirt and carrying buckets incorporates great heavy work and provides proprioceptive input. 

“Dirty” activities help expose children’s hands, fingers, and skin to different textures.

5. Organize an outdoor scavenger hunt, treasure hunt, or obstacle course

With a few household items, you can set up a scavenger hunt, obstacle course, or sensory bin:

• Make a list of items that your child can search for outdoors for a fun scavenger hunt.

• Take your child’s action figures and bury them in a sand box or sensory bin for a quick and easy treasure hunt!

• Use objects found in nature to make an obstacle course:

  • climb over rocks or boulders

  • army crawl through the grass

  • jump over a small plant.

Get creative!

6. Set a timer and make a schedule

Set a time limit for indoor activities on nice days and then make a schedule for your children while they’re outside. Provide controlled choices (choices that you set ahead of time and are okay with). For example: bubbles, chalk, sandbox, swing.

This way, your expectations are clear and your children will understand the upcoming activities. Use pictures, a list, or just a timer to indicate what activities they can complete and for how long.

7. Take a walk around the backyard, your neighborhood, or a local park

Walking outside incorporates physical fitness, family bonding, and fun! Use this opportunity to have your child name items in nature. Collect rocks to paint later. Collect leaves and color over them on paper. Ask your child questions about things they see.

We hope you and your kids make many fun outdoor memories this summer! 

Further reading: Sensory Sensitivity Tips for Summer

Photo by Danielle Truckenmiller from StockSnap