Engaging kids in outdoor activities has loads of benefits not only to the physical growth of children but it also reinforces cognition and learning, promotes social and emotional development. Children who are always around people and nature have a better sense of social interaction, empathy, and has a stronger concept of self identity and self-worth.
We have been trying our best to expose our children outdoor and encourage them to be active and interact with peers. The need to be active is especially important for our children as they are asthmatic; they say asthma is a modern-day disease. Although modern medicine has provided us with effective asthma treatment, having a sound body and a healthy lifestyle would certainly make a load of difference.
Going out is something that my husband and I are not accustomed to doing as we are home-buddies and introverts. However, having children is a whole new story, especially that the kids have a rather outgoing personalities. The activities below are those that are available around our community. Some may not be possible with you however we hope that these could give you some ideas.
So here are some few of the things that we have been doing to get the children out of the house and catch some rays.
Kayaking. is another great family outdoor activity. It is something different from what children usually do, so they would find this exciting. Although there are few risks to think about, but if the water is not too rough, it is pretty safe for kids.
Bicycle around the house or neighborhood. Now that my son already knows to ride a bicycle, he’s excited to go out of the house and go on an adventure as he would call it.
Walk along the beach and collect some shells. Our house is just a block away from Chalatat beach and Samila Beach. So it’s so easy to stroll on the beach, collect some shells, and breathe in some fresh sea air after school.
Figurine painting with water color. Another favorite activity that my children love is painting at the beach.Plant some vegetables. I’m keen on growing our own produce and so I thought of a garden in the city. Our place is tiny, but we managed to turn a portion of the patio into a mini garden. My kids caught up and planted their own vegetables. Now one of their favorite household chores is watering plants.
Go spelunking caves. Thailand is extremely abundant with natural resources like caves, jungle, and waterfalls. These are great places to explore and experience the beauty of nature with your family. In one of our trips in Satun Thailand, we visited Phu Pha Phet Cave or the Diamond Cave. Unlike Tham Luang Cave in Chiang Rai, where a young soccer team was trapped for 18 days, this cave is big and super spacious inside, as well as dry and dusty.
Enjoy a waterfall. As mentioned there is no shortage of waterfalls in Thailand. One particular waterfall we like is the Wang Sai Thong in Satun Thailand, the entire waterfall basin and paths have high deposits of calcified limestone. So the place is not slippery. Pretty safe for super active children.
Chill out at the beach. Whether the purpose is to swim or simply hang out there, a beach is an awesome place and children love it. Aside from swimming, my kids love to feel the sand and build sand castles. A nice way to reconnect with earth, and boosts your child’s immunity by contact with microbes living in sand. They enjoy swimming greatly that a swimming pool is one of the things we look for when booking a hotel to stay for a short staycation or vacation.
Going to museums. A museum is a great place to explore and experience so many things about history, arts and crafts, sciences, and many others. What’s awesome with some of the museums here, is that they are situated in pretty interesting sites like on top of a hill, park, and temples.
Family time at the park. For city dwellers city parks are the closest to nature one could get. And there are so much stuff kids could do, like play with their Frisbee, fly kites, bike around, explore the place and find different plants and insects, or may be just run around while Mom and Dad are chilling out with their read.
Camping, may it be day camp or an overnight camping, is an exciting outdoor activity that would surely encouraged children and adults alike especially if they do this together with peers. This is a great venue for them to interact with others and exercise their learnt interpersonal and social values.
Nature photography is another great outdoor activity families could engage to bond, learn, and have fun. Our daughter is showing interests in photography and is following dad’s footsteps. Below are some of her photos during a day trip to the zoo.
Corner: Following Dad’s Footsteps[/caption]
Take self-defense lessons like Taekwondo. Apart from self-defense, children can also develop motor coordination and balance.
Play basketball, football, or any sports your kids are into.
There is nothing like bike riding for the kids Ms. Elle. My niece is still a bit too young for it, but is asking for her first bike. Gotta love it.
This is a great post! Children should enjoy diverse outdoor activities at a young age so they continue to do so as they grow up. I see way too many children on technology more than enjoying the outdoors.
Parents should bring kids outside more often for this reason. However, as easy as it may seem, parents nowadays are burden by so many work thus we struggle to do this, including me of course.
It is all the more important these days for kids to get out and play.
I’ll let my younger bro do these useful and meaningful activities rather than watching TV all the day. Thank you!
Nice advice. I pass this to moms who need outdoor activities this summer. I strongly advise people to take tae-kwon-do. It’s amazing and you get a lot of it.
Thanks so much
Thanks Aisasami! My son who used to be so uncoordinated in terms of physical moment has actually learn to balance more and what’s more is that he learn rhythm.
This is a great list of activities. My favorite was walking along the beach and collecting shells while I was a kid
Nice
Was your place near the beach?
hey! I just love your ideas. It is really important for us to give time to our kids. Going to outings and playing with them makes them feel so loved.
True. With parents busy schedule, children are craving for attention.
Awesome photos. These two babies are so cute. It’s very important to always give time and expose kids at younger age how beautiful and fun it is being in the outdoor.
These things help keep the child active and utilize his brain power to the maximum. Reminds me of my childhood days-Good days
Such a fun post. These days kids are so much over burdened with studies and extra curricular that they do need time for refreshment and the activities you have mentioned are best. I have a nephew who is five years old and he loves cycling and collecting sea shells by the beach. So kids love outdoor activities.
Hi Ishani, you’re certain about children being burdened by so many things. They are no longer having fun.
Kids now a days they love to use gadget instead of playing outside 🙂 these activities are the great thing to go kids outside 🙂 especially going to the museums 🙂
They are so cute and seems they have so much fun! All the kids they love to go to the beach
adults too..
good to get the kids away from technology and the internet to do more active and hands on actvities. Great post!
That’s is so correct! Nowadays parents are looking for ways to get children away from the internet.
Nurturing kids with these fun activities is way better than just giving them tablet Nice post!
Thank you so much
Thailand is one of my dream cities! I think it is such a beautiful country, I think because of the cave situation that happened recently I would skip it but everything else you mentioned yes!
Interesting read for me. Wonderful pics of children reveling in outdoor fun.
Thanks Indu. We are into photography as well, so we enjoy taking photos.
Those activities are superb! I bet all the kiddos would love these activities very much!~
I like all your ideas and love doing things outdoors. Kids definitely need be outside more this days.
Thanks for all the tips and ideas.
Yep, that is so right. It has a lot of benefits.
These are gr8, pinning them for later when i have kids 😀
hahah thanks Wajiha
This is great you understand your children’s personality and you have don’t stuff to cultivate that. That’s great.
I really enjoyed this post. I do not have any children but I do have a niece and I would definitely try some of these activities with her before summer ends. It’s good to forget about technology for a while and just enjoy the beautiful earth we live on!
couldn’t agree more Katherine
Great activities! It’s so important to get the littles outside! I try to do something new with them at least once a week, (I’m a SAHM,) but sometimes we just end up doing the same old, going to the park and hanging in the back yard.
We are not perfect Marie^_^, and parenting is such a huge and sometimes tiring endeavor. So doing the same old things is totally fine.
great to see the kids being active outside and away from electronics.
Yeah that’s right, very important nowadays
I love everything about this post! I am a staunch advocate of getting kids to put away electronics and get outside and create their own fun.
Thanks so much Debby
Children aren’t getting outside enough these days so I think these ideas are wonderful for both the kids and the parents to enjoy!
Correct! thanks
These are such great activities that kids will love.
Thanks
Everything mentioned here are great activities to keep the kids entertained.
thanks
Some fun activities for kiddies to engage and also use up all their energy. Really like the vibe and composition of your photos too!
Thanks Reuben
What a cool post! These seem like some awesome activities. I’d love to garden with my children. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
These are such good tips. Children will love such outing.
Having fun outdoors is the best thing you can do for your kids. Painting by the beach is a cool idea
thanks
outdoor activities are really important and beneficial for a kid mental and physical growth, i try to take my kids out often
That’s great. They must be loving it.
Such a good Ideas! I’d even love them Lolol so guna put these to practice when baby gets bigger ☺️
Alright, thanks.
Great suggestions!!! I struggling getting outside with my 3 kids (5 year old and 2 year old twins) because we’re in the city so it’s a big outting just to go across the street to the park haha! But I need more creative fun ideas to get us (me) excited!
Right, that’s one of the challenges of city life.
so many great things to do! I am a big lover of the outdoors so my kids spend a lot of time enjoying the outdoors and the simple activities.
Awesome. Thanks for dropping by.
I think it’s very important for children to stay outdoors whenever they can instead of sitting at home and playing computer games. I love your ideas! 🙂
Thanks so much.
we should always encourage children for outdoor activities i think it is the very good way for children to do outdoor activities.
Thanks
I am jealous that we don’t have caves and waterfalls over here. We do the rest in your list otherwise. Thanks for sharing.
You might want to travel here and get to experience them.
This looks like so much fun! I love having my kids outside. I think somewhere between my generation and the current kids forgot what it is like to actually play outside, with video games and social media some just dont even bother. i think it is super important to spend time outside as much as they can!
That’s right. It is time to re-educate kids.
Great tips! However as long as my Daughter is still a baby, I can’t use many activities from the list 😉 But I also do all of my best to spend time outside with her. What we usually do is going to park/beach, organising swimming pool in the garden, hiding in tent, “baking cakes” from the sand, playing with snow in winter or going to playground with other parents and babies… When I’m in Istanbul and I need to shop, I’m going to Watergarden. The shops have the exit to outside, there’s a big playground and each hour there’s a fountain show. Bibi really enjoys it! 😀
Thanks Bibi. Yep there’s always time for everything. But it is great that you and your daughter still get to go outside and enjoy the sun.
I love taking the kids on outdoor adventures. Always a good time.
These sound like great adventures! We love being outdoors as a family!!
You have a lot of great ideas here! I will definitely try out some these before the summer ends.
Thanks Mary.
My little sister’s favorite thing to do outdoors is bike riding! We love going out the park and just riding along the trails.
Wow..great post! I love everything on this list. chilling at the beach is really nice.
Biking is my fav thing to do in the world! so good! and a great work out! chilling at the beach is amazing too!
Absolutely love these ideas to play with your kids outdoors. There’s so much outside of our homes to engage and inspire them. You’re winning the mom game!!
Wow thanks Shanelle!
My kids LOVE being outside and we’re at the beach constantly. It’s definitely going to be fun to be able to do more outdoor activities when they’re older.
It sure is fun to be outside the house and be active.
These are all great outdoor activities children must experience that would mold their character and well being over time. I remember when I was a little girl, my parents would let us wander around our grandparents farm. They let us explore new things we don’t get to experience in the city.
All the activities are really very enjoyable for kids. Apart from playing only on mobile phones, They should be taught more about such outdoor activities. Very Well wriiten 🙂
Thanks.
This list is wonderful! I wish I had a beach nearby as that would be my favorite. I only have one little munchkin and he is 1 1/2 years old, we do go outside quite a bit though.
Thanks Sammi. In a few months, he’ll be wanting to explore the world too.
So many fun things to do, and none of them involving a tablet or phone! I love getting my kids outside as often as possible and just going and doing and learning!
Absolutely right! Thanks
Yes – get them outside where they can explore and be physically active. Such great ideas here.
Thanks so much Laurie.
My favorite childhood game is Chinese Garter. Haha! How fun it is to be a child. No responsibilities. Your list is really good.
Oh my Chinese Garter! The same here.
These are such good ideas to help keep the kids occupied outside of the house! These are great especially for the summer and long weekends to help make sure the kids aren’t getting too much screen time.
You’re definitely correct! Whenever my children are in the house, they are in their pads; so these really give them the needed break.
It is good to engage children in diverse activities. It expands their outlook and enhances their abilities. Really liked the photographs.
Thanks so much.
These are some things even our family would do. we live going to museums and farms and it really helps kids and parents to connect. great tips
These activities are great ways to connect and bond with family and friends. Thanks
Thanks for sharing! Everyone loves waterfalls and the beach! So fun for when the kids are out of school 🙂
That’s right. Thanks
I try to get my kids outside as often as possible. This is a great post with some good ideas.
Thanks Scott
I love everything on this list! My kids do love going to museums. And we love waterfalls. We’re in Texas, and it’s hot here, so any way we can cool off is a plus.