Treasure Hunt in the Dark! (& Outdoor Play Party)

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Welcome back to another Outdoor Play Party!  If you've been outside with kids this week then why not link up what you've been up to?  Our Winter so far has been very mild, but very wet and it gets dark by about 4.30pm, so its not my ideal outdoor play environment to say the least!  But, today I was determined to get outside rain or shine and enjoy the darker evenings.

What to do outdoors in the rain? (& Outdoor Play Party)

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Welcome back to the Outdoor Play Party!  If you've been outdoors playing with kids then please do link up, we'd love to share your ideas.  It's done nothing but rain here recently and I've been a bit stumped for ideas for outdoor play in the rain, so I've had a dig through the archives and come up with some great activities that we've done before that we are going to do again!  Read on to find out more....

Treasure Hunting (& Outdoor Play Party)

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Welcome to another Outdoor Play Party!  If you've played outside with kids this week then please do link up.  This week we've been treasure hunting, we walk a lot and this activity is guaranteed to keep our Pre-schooler walking!

Leaf Play (& Outdoor Play Party)

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Welcome back to another Outdoor Play Party!  If you've been playing outdoors with kids this week then don't forget to link up your ideas below.  This week we've been playing with leaves!

Blackberry Splat Painting (& Outdoor Play Party)

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Welcome back!  It's another exciting Outdoor Play Party, if you've been outside with kids then please do link up your activity ideas below.  This week we've been taking advantage of the last few wild blackberries around and have done some berry splat painting!

Sprinkler Fun (& Outdoor Play Party)

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Welcome to another Outdoor Play Party!  I've finally got internet up and running after our house move just in time for the latest Party, phew!  If you've been playing outdoors with your kids this week then why not link below?  In one of the rare outbreaks of sunshine this week we broke out the sprinkler for some water fun.  This is how we got on......

Dragon Hunting (& Outdoor Play Party)

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Welcome to another Outdoor Play Party!  If you've been outside playing with your kids this week then please do link up below.

This week we've been Dragon Hunting!  This activity was all Hubby's idea and involved catapults and colouring, this is what we got up to.....

Gardening with young kids (& Outdoor Play Party)

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It's Outdoor Play Party again and we've been gardening.  If you've been outside with kids then link up below.

Last year Champ really enjoyed growing tomatoes, then at Preschool he began to enjoy digging up potatoes and declared that he loved gardening so to encourage his new found 3yr old passion I decided that perhaps this year I too should learn to garden.  

It's been fun, we've made lots of mistakes, but I've also learnt lots too namely how to garden with kids.  Here are my top tips for gardening with young kids.

10 Super Simple Ways to Play Outdoors (& Outdoor Play Party)

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Another great Outdoor Play Party today, if you've been outdoors with kids then please link up below or read on to find out my 10 ten simple things to do with kids outside.

We try to get outside everyday, but sometimes I get stuck for things to do.  On those days its always worth remembering that kids love the simple stuff so here's my top ten super, unbelievably, incredibly simple things to do with kids outside!

5 ways to play with tires (& Outdoor Play Party)

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Welcome to another Outdoor Play Party, if you've played outside this week then please do link up below.   

Recently we had to replace several tyres (tires) on our car, Hubby was not impressed, but having seen lots of exciting play ideas from Learning for Life and Let the Children Play and knew the boys would have great fun playing with the tyres.  This is what they came up with...

Cotton Ball Quick Fun

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In need of a quick activity for the boys and having a few cotton balls lying around from our Spiders web game, cotton ball painting and cotton ball land I grabbed some drinking straws and set the boys up for some quick cotton ball fun.

How to make a water wheel (& Outdoor Play Party)

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Welcome to another Outdoor Play Party!  If you've been outdoors playing this week please do link up below.

We've very much been enjoying the warmer weather, it makes it so much easier to get outside, plus we got the opportunity to test out a project Bud has wanted to do for a while - make a water wheel.

Boing Painting (& Outdoor Play Party)

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Welcome to the Outdoor Play Party, if you've been playing outside this week please join up below.  Recently we did some outdoor 'boing' painting, this was originally inspired by some Yo Yo Painting from Irresistible Ideas for Play Based Learning and I've also seen similar recently at Toddler Approved when they did Splat Painting.

The basic idea is to put something heavy in tights (pantyhose), we used Plasticine  dab it in paint and 'boing' it up and down onto paper.  Here's how we got on....

Chalk Monsters (& Outdoor Play Party)

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Welcome back to another Outdoor Play Party, we'd love to see your outdoor play, this is what we've been up to....

We love getting outdoors and as the weather is getting a bit better I thought we'd brave the cold, but didn't have any activities planned so needed a quick simple idea to entice the boys outside.  I pulled out our chalks which we haven't used for ages and told the boys there was a monster in the garden big enough to eat them.  Then we headed out...

4 toy free games for kids to play

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We have way too many toys, so sometimes it's good to get back to basics for some good old fashioned games for kids.  You may know these games already, but sometimes it's good to write them all down together so next time you're in a restaurant (like we were) and desperately trying to distract the kids, these kids games will spring to mind.  Bring on the classics.....

Easter Egg Hunt (& Outdoor Play Party)

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Easter eggs are in the shops and even though it's still chilly the sun has been shining so we headed outside for an Easter egg hunt.  We love getting outside, if you have an outdoor play idea I'd love to see you link up below.

Simple Spiders Web Game

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We really enjoyed our cotton ball throw painting, so much so that I thought we'd try another cotton ball activity, but this time a little less messy.

As I over bought cotton balls the other day I created a cotton ball activities Pinterest board and discovered a spiders web game from Almost Unschoolers and I also remembered a similar spiders web activity from Hands On As We Grow.

I taped some sellotape to the patio door so that the sticky side was facing out, this was to be the web.  I also added a paper spider just for fun.

Then I gave the boys some cotton balls each and they had a great time throwing them on to the sticky spiders web.

To make it a bit more interesting we also started to stand a bit further back from the spiders web and improve our throwing skills.

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Cotton Ball Throw Painting (& Outdoor Play Party)

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It's been a while since we did some outdoor painting so when the weather turned a bit warmer today I thought we'd try out some cotton ball throwing that I discovered at The Little Bird Studio.

I taped a tarpaulin to the back of a garden chair then taped some large paper onto it.

Then I let the boys dip cotton balls in paint and throw them at the paper, great for burning off some excess energy.

That lasted for a while, then the boys took a more direct route and started painting with the cotton balls directly on to the paper.

Even little hands could do this activity.

I gave this activity a two star rating as despite being outside things did get a bit messy, oh and the paper wasn't the only thing to get paint on them....

We love outdoor play, and love to find new outdoor play ideas.  If you've played outside with kids this week why not join our Outdoor Play Party?  

Last time we had loads of ideas linked up, this one was my favourite - The Wicked Big Storm from Fireflies and Mudpies.  It really made me laugh, so much snow!  The fun we could have with that much snow!

Why we love mud

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Mud, mud, glorious mud!  It's taken me a while to get over my couch potato ways, but slowly and surely I've come to love outdoor play and especially muddy play.  Crazy, huh?  What about the washing, the muddy carpets, the grubby fingernails, well I think the benefits outweigh the extra washing powder and clean up, here's why........

1 - It's Outside

Getting outside is great, the fresh air, exercise and being out in nature and let's face it unless you really, really love the mud you're going to keep it outside.  And, 'yes' there is plenty of other ways to play outside so why else do we love mud?

2 - Fewer boundaries means less rule breaking

Once outside, there's no precious ornaments to break, no walls to mark there's just space - to run, play, have fun.  Once we're outside I find there's only two rules left 1) staying in certain areas (away from roads, open water etc) and 2) not getting dirty.  If you rule out the not getting dirty then there's very few rules to break, less rule breaking means I can relax more, engage with the kids then the fun really starts.

3 - Mud encourages 'yes' parenting

If I can say 'yes' to mud and dirt, could I say yes to some shaving foam painting, some indoor water play, how about we put our feet in some jelly or make some gloop?  Maybe we could have dinner in the dark, or have a picnic in the snow?  Saying 'yes' can open up a whole new world of play and adventures.

4 - Exploring kids equals confident kids

If kids have the ability to explore with fewer boundaries, because they know it's OK to try stuff out like jumping in muddy puddles or rolling down hills then hopefully this will encourage their natural confidence and risk taking.  Not an expert opinion by any means, but something I've seen in my kids.

5 - Mud feeds the imagination

With no toys, just yourselves and the great outdoors mud (and sticks, trees, leaves etc) feeds the imagination.  We've eaten mud pies, lived in mud houses and met mud monsters!  The added bonus for me is that this imaginative play makes for kids that can entertain themselves indoors and out.

I hope you've enjoyed today's post and you too enjoy mud play!

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