“I’ve always wanted to…”
The weather is right for it, whatever it may be.
Big, expensive trips were off the table for my family last year, but I still had the best summer of my life. Why? Because of the many ways that I incorporated the outdoors into my daily schedule with the kids. How did I want to feel at the end of the summer? I wanted to know that I had savored every moment, something that I remembered doing when I was a kid.
Plan some fun day trips on the weekends to local parks, lakes, or other scenic areas. Include friends and family you’d like to spend more time with, and keep in mind their levels of fitness. Don’t forget to pack lunch, beverages, sunscreen, bug spray, and a magnifying glass. And think about this: having family get-togethers outside means that no one has to clean up the house for company!
June is also a perfect month to focus on your garden. Whether you have a big backyard, a small container garden, or a city rooftop, you still have plenty of options for planting with your kids. Tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and annual and perennial flowers are all easy to grow and the rewards (especially the edible crops) are great.
Remember: June is National Get Outdoors Month, so it’s a great time to practice an outdoor lifestyle that will take you into the rest of the summer.
Our local strawberry festival is the first weekend in June; when is yours? Ask around—that’s how I found out about one within twenty minutes of our home. Like a lot of produce, there is nothing quite like the taste of a strawberry picked from the vine. It’s a great melt-in-your-mouth taste. You may even be inspired to plant your own strawberry crop, which you can do now if your garden centers are carrying the plants. Your plants may be in the ground for more than one season before your first crop, but it is well worth the wait.
Sure, sunny weekend days at the pool are great, but work into your routine a weekday evening at the pool with the kids. Take advantage of the longer daylight and cool off after a hot day. You can even take a picnic dinner with you. The kids have an active place to get out their energy, and they’ll sleep great that night!
One of my favorite memories of kindergarten was when my class rode tricycles in the gym, set up with lanes, stop signs, and stop lights; we pretended we were driving. Use chalk on the driveway or sidewalk to make a track for bicycles or scooters; work in stop signs and stop lights. Have your child help you decide where they should be, then watch their fun as they experience their road system. Maybe you’ll join in the fun too!
I love mesclun seeds because they are ready to clip and harvest for a salad in three weeks. While lettuce generally likes sixty to seventy degree temperatures, you can keep growing lettuce into the summer if you make a little shade over it with cheesecloth tied to four sticks. Sprinkle the seeds over some soil in a container with drainage holes, cover with another sprinkling of soil, keep in the sun, and water daily. Try it and see what happens!
There are so many ways to enjoy water in the summertime. Make slip ’n’ slide play dates or plan a trip to the beach or swimming lake if there’s one within driving distance. Rent a rowboat or go sailing or canoeing. Host a water-play party extravaganza in your yard, or just play in the hose!
Count with your children how many playgrounds and trails you know about. Then, start talking about how to fit them into your schedule. Do you have time to go to one every evening? Once a week? Set a goal and then start. Keep a backpack filled with full water bottles, sunscreen, towels, and bug spray in the car for these planned trips as well as spontaneous adventures.
If your kids are in preschool or elementary school, many times recess is their favorite part of the day. Ask them to show you what they like to do at recess and you’ll have a slew of new ways to remind your kids in summer how they have fun outside. Asking them while school is fresh in their minds gives you a helpful supply of ideas for when they say, “I’m bored!”
Whenever there is a gathering with kids involved, whether a play date, birthday party, dinner with friends, or even a business meeting, consider meeting up at a park. Playgrounds are always fun for the children and have plenty of space for lots of people. Ask each family to bring a blanket, snacks or sandwiches, and water. No playground at the park? No problem. Toss a ball or a couple of your child’s favorite outdoor toys into a bag.
Even if your kids are too young to jump rope on their own, keeping a jump rope on hand to use when there are adults helping could turn into some fun family time. There are plenty of other ways to use this toy, such as limbo, a tug of war on the grass, or wiggling the rope on the ground and pretending to jump over a snake or a wiggly worm.
Most of us don’t have burlap sacks on hand (I certainly don’t), so I encourage the kids to make up variations of group races in the grass. Hop to a finish line, walk backward, walk like a crab on all fours (bottom up and feet first), or have a relay run around a large circle and pass off a rolled up piece of paper to the next runner in place of a baton. You will likely get asked to participate; please say yes! We adults can use the exercise too.
Ask your child to show a friend or a neighbor what you’ve planted together! Every time I suggest this to my five-year-old, he proudly takes his friends to his 3' × 8' raised vegetable garden. After one recent tour, our four-year-old neighbor ran back to his parents, shouting with excitement, “Mom, Warner has lettuce!” My son always offers an off-the-vine taste of whatever is ripe and most kids happily participate. If you don’t have a garden, don’t worry—your child can still share with your guest the wonders of your backyard.
National Get Outdoors Day is time for “healthy, active outdoor fun at sites across the nation.” Find a sponsored event near you or check out descriptions of other events around the country for some ideas for you to do at home: www. NationalGetOutdoorsDay.org.
Storytelling can involve acting out movements in a very animated way. What is your child’s favorite book? Chances are she knows the words by heart. Is there a story that takes place outside? Help your child use her outdoor space to tell her favorite story to you with big movements and an expressive voice. When she’s ready, she can invite a loved one to listen to it. Use the patio, deck, or porch as an outdoor theater for her performance.
I love Lincoln Logs, and we’ve even taken them outside to use. But, if you don’t have Lincoln Logs or don’t want to take them outside, collect sticks and build tiny log cabins. You can build one house together by stacking sticks in a square shape and then laying sticks horizontally for the roof. Pluck flower heads from nearby weeds or wildflowers and decorate your house. You can keep going and make a whole town! Experiment with different shapes, such as rectangles.
A cousin in France once said that she did a sociology experiment in college and asked people to purposefully look up and around for a day. What she found was that it not only opened people’s perspective to the physical beauty around them, but also to a more psychological openness of possibilities. Take this idea into play with your child when you walk outside and start looking at what is above your eye level, and take turns pointing out what you see.
One of the things I love about having herbs is plucking some to taste or rubbing the leaves and smelling them every time the kids and I walk by them. Years ago, I learned the hard way that mint should be in a container (it invaded our side yard). The stevia plant is a natural sweetener and fun to taste. Easy herbs to start with like rosemary, sage, thyme, and oregano come back every year (they are perennials) and are great for cooking too. Whether in containers or in the ground, plant herbs in full sun (at least six hours) and well-drained soil.
If it’s been dry and you need to water your garden or grass, plan to do it when the kids can put their bathing suits and sunscreen on and romp around in the spray. If you don’t wait for them, you may arrive home from work one day, kids in tow, and find that they’ll hop into it fully clothed!
Even if you don’t like bugs, it’s fun to explore and see what you can find. Ants: check. Pill bugs: check. Spiders: check. Now, see if you can discover something that you’ve never seen before or look for the most colorful bug. If you’re inspired by your exploration and would like to know more about what you might have seen, you can look at www.WhatsThatBug.com.
Have the kids plan an outdoor extravaganza by asking them what outdoor games they’d like to play with Dad. The kids (with or without your help) can draw a picture of or write the name of each activity on a separate piece of paper, with a note about why your child likes playing that game with him. Then, put the pieces of paper in a hat and let Dad pick! If you don’t get to all of the games on Father’s Day, he can draw another activity the next time the kids have special time with him.
I rarely suggest an activity that involves buying things, but I am a huge fan of those battery-operated portable spray fans that you can fill with ice water to spray. The reason I like this portable spray fan is that it gives you some relief outside when it is hot, which could be starting now or really intensifying, depending where you live. I learned about the spray fan when a dad brought one to soccer practice for his son on a hot evening. A way that you can have the same cooling experience without having to buy something is with ice packs, washcloths in icy water in a cooler, or ice water in a clean spray bottle.
Revel in the longest amount of daylight, which occurs on or around the first day of summer. Let the kids play in the fresh air longer; perhaps even eat outside, and continue with bedtime stories on a blanket. Share with your kids what you love about enjoying the longest daylight of the year and ask them to offer what they like best about it too.
Plant perennials that attract hummingbirds, such as red cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis), coral trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), bee balm (Monarda), beardtongue (Penstemon), and coral bells (Heuchera). While hummingbirds are attracted to red flowers, they are really looking for flowers with the most nectar to refuel. Want to know more about hummingbirds? Check out www. wild-bird-watching.com.
Staying cool and doing something functional is always helpful, and kids love to help wash cars. Splash around and clean the car at the same time, while also working together and spending time as a family.
Share an outside toy with a neighbor and ask to borrow one of theirs for the day. For example, remote control cars are perfect outside toys! If you don’t have one, ask to borrow one from the neighbor for something new to do. Then you can let the neighbor pick an outside toy of yours that she would like to enjoy for a day.
You may or may not be heading to the beach anytime soon, but when was the last time you all felt the warmth and fun of dipping your toes in some sand? No sandbox or beach? Pick sand up at the hardware store and pour the sand in a shallow plastic tub. Now roll up your pant legs and dive in together! Extend your outdoor play with measuring cups (scoop in the sand and pour for pretend cooking) and hiding objects in the sand, such as shells you collected from the beach last summer. Replace the top on the plastic tub and keep it in the coat closet for the next time your child wants to play in the sand outside!
Don’t forget! The last Saturday in June is the National Wildlife Federation’s Great American Backyard Campout (www.backyardcampout.org). Pitch a tent in the backyard and sleep out there with the kids. Then try a real overnight camping trip within an easy drive of your home. As dusk falls, watch for interesting creatures. If you’re lucky, you might see lightning bugs or even bats! (Keep bug spray on hand, in case the bugs include mosquitoes!) To cushion your back, I highly recommend a thick sleeping pad under your sleeping bag or even a portable air mattress.
At this time of year, the kids and I tend to notice small birds engaged in battle with a larger bird in the distance overhead. Many times, we see these amazing displays of nature when we are in the car, but it’s not limited to that context. Turf battle? A hawk hunting for newly hatched baby birds? We’re never sure what it’s about, but we see these aerial battles many times during the season. Keep watch on the sky; can you find one?
Along the side of the road where grass has not been mowed or in state parks in fields and meadows, you’ll start to see wildflowers. Just as you hunt for twinkle lights in the winter, think about watching for flowers in patches of tall grass as you go about your daily routine. Consider revisiting them through the summer and watching how they change. Are the flowers the same month to month? Are there butterflies? Which are your favorites? If there are flowers you would love to have in your outdoor space, look up your local native plant society, where you may find photos and names of these plants. You can also explore native plants by state at www.Wildflower.org, the website of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
With kids around, chances are that you have at least one ball that is lightweight and super bouncy. Take turns seeing how high you can kick the ball into the air. Stay alert and keep your head up, though, to avoid getting bonked in the head! You can even try to catch the ball as it comes down.
Even if you don’t have your fishing gear, when you come across a body of water, whether a puddle, creek, stream, pond, lake, river, or ocean, you can look closely into it and find another world of activity. Find its clearest area; what do you see? If you’re patient, can you find a fish? After a rainstorm, go to areas where the water has collected to see what insects or frogs are drawn to it. Want to make it a science experiment? You can even test water quality. Learn more at www.FriendsOfTheCreeks.org.