5 Awesome Outdoor Green Activities for Kids

It’s that time again! The days are getting longer, the temperatures are creeping upward, and the kids are home from school. Instead of letting them hole up inside, though, summer is the perfect time to sneak in some lessons about the importance of preserving our environment and how they can help do so. Added bonus: they’ll be spending their days outdoors and not inside.

Here are five ways to teach the kids a little about living a greener life and how fun it is to play outside not inside:

Gardening

This summer instead of letting the kids’ zone out in front of the TV playing video games, spend time together in the backyard cultivating a garden. Not only will you have fun trying to grow different plants together, but they’ll be able to do what kids do best: get their hands dirty! Plus it’s a great time to teach them about the benefits of growing your own fruits and vegetables.

Hiking

Hiking is a great way to get outside and enjoy the outdoors together with little negative effect on the environment. Make it a challenge to see how many different birds and animals you can find, and collect interesting rocks or leaves along the way. An environmental bonus: take a trash bag with you and collect trash you find littering the path. This way you can teach your kids about the importance of not littering, and they’ll be able to see how much it detracts from the natural beauty of our earth.

Camping

Looking to spice up a weekend with the kids? Turn off the AC, all of the lights, and the electronics in your house and take the kids camping for the weekend. Bring meals that require little prep work and spend the days playing in the great outdoors and the nights sitting around a campfire roasting smokes. They won’t miss their favorite TV show one bit because they’ll be having so much fun!

Create art from nature

For the crafty kids in your household skip the finger paints and take your art outside. Find pretty flowers and unique leaves that will make interesting artwork. Press and dry them and then glue them onto canvas or paper that you can frame.  You’ll have beautiful, homemade artwork that came straight from nature itself!

Go on a nature scavenger hunt

Compile a list of different things for the kids to find and then send them out on a nature scavenger hunt. From pine cones to different shaped rocks to various types of flowers there is no shortage of interesting items that they can pick up along the way.

The younger we can get kids interested in spending time outdoors and preserving our environment the better. If we can teach them at a young age to be environmentally aware then both our society and our earth will be better off.

This guest post is contributed by Debra Johnson, blogger, editor & a knowledge gainer of  being full time nanny.  She welcomes your comments at her email Id: – jdebra84 @ gmail.com.