We’re on day two of a lovely spring snow here in Lyons and it is making us think of ways to get outside, have fun, and make ourselves useful once the snow melts and dries.
On warmer days, we’ve been doing some weeding around the house in addition to the clipping, clearing, and cleaning all our planting beds and garden spaces need. We’ve already tackled a few landscaping projects too. Just little things, mostly. The kids have helped out here and there. It’s been nice to get outside and spend some time in the sun together.
Just go outside and have some fun
It reminded us of when we were young; a few balloons and some mischief or a magnifying glass and some curiosity would almost fill an afternoon. We love simple stuff like sidewalk chalk for open-ended creative fun, but we’re also determined to make a birdhouse before the end of spring. With all of this in mind we went looking for ideas and happened on all kinds of things you can do outside; some fun, some silly, even some you can learn from. Speaking of fun, we decided to make a little game out of the list at this first link and see who can check off the most the fastest.
You could always make something you can learn from
The list above includes some projects like making a water table, painting with fly swatters, and drawng a treasure map, which got us thinking about other fun stuff we could make. We found a cool list with some fun science-related projects like a solar-powered oven and a bacteria zoo. We like this list because it’s a bit more difficult, but it looks like we have almost everything we need to do all of these.
Or build something you can play with
This next list had a few projects like yard dice and the kerplunk game that we’re pretty sure we could make with parts and pieces we have on hand. We like the list because it includes everything from things you could do in the next five minutes to projects that might take a day or two or more depending on how much free time you have.
What else?
Did you all ever make kites? Or playdough? Or shrinky dinks? We made quite a few ramps, but we almost lived on our bikes for a while. Hiking and biking are still allowed in a lot of places. We’ve snagged an article on what to keep in mind if you’re going to adventure in your neck of the woods. You can check that out here.
What’s your favorite outdoor family thing that you still get to do? What’s the outdoor thing you can’t do right now that you can’t wait to do when things get back to somewhat normal? Let us know in the comments. We love to hear from you!