5 Things to Take to the Park for Easy Outdoor Activities

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You are definitely going to want to bring these 5 toys with you to the park for easy outdoor activities.

If you love taking activities outside, you might like these ideas for outdoor toys too.

The park is great fun and, in truth, you don’t need to bring anything with you to enjoy it.

Often within minutes of arriving at the park, my kids have found new playmates and joined the game du jour; I might even get a few minutes to just sit in the sunshine before I am on swing duty, but the park is also a great place to engage the kids with a few activities.

5 Things to Bring With You to the Park and 15 Activities do With Them

2 Toy Cars

Race them down the slide. Tunnel slides are awesome for this!

Make roads and tunnels for them in the wood chips or sand. Use rocks for houses and buildings; create a whole city for the cars to travel.

Create a car obstacle course.

A Ball

Play Toss and Roll with your child. Have your child stand at the top of the slide and roll the ball down to you, then toss it back to them.

Let your child stand at the bottom of the slide and try to roll the ball all the way up to you.

See how many times your child can jump while holding the ball between their knees. Once your child has the hang of jumping while holding the ball with their knees have a relay race or take turns trying to hop to a certain point.

Gross motor games like this often take a while to master; help you child gain coordination and motor control with these more gross motor activities you can do outside.

A Bucket

Play reverse basketball: place a bucket at the bottom of the slide and have your child roll the ball down the slide trying to land the ball in the bucket.

Turn the bucket over and have your child run and jump over it while you chant the rhyme Jack Be Nimble, Jack Be Quick. Got a  kid who just can’t get enough of jumping try these jumping activities.

Make pretend soup, a  magic potion with wood chips leaves or other natural materials.

Feed the creatures: giant animals are a popular play structure at many parks and feeding them always seems to be an activity kids enjoy.

A Jump Rope

Play Snake in the Grass: tie one end of the jump rope the a bench or fence and wriggle it back and forth as your child tries to jump over it with out touching it.

Play Row, Row, Row Your Boat: sit facing each other half a jump rope distance apart and place the jump rope between you in the shape of a U so that one of you can both handles and the other can hold the bottom of the jump rope now take turns gently pulling the other forward as you lean back singing Row, Row,  Row Your Boat.

Place the jump rope on the ground in the shape of a circle and take turns rolling the ball trying to get in the circle without rolling it out the other side

Tie the jump rope to the bucket and use it to haul things up to play structure.

Play mountain climbers: hold one end of the jump rope at the top of the play structure and let them climb up the slide while hanging on to the rope.

Jump ropes on play equipment require supervision as they can pose a strangulation hazard.

And after a few park activities be sure to get in a few quiet minutes on a park bench enjoying the sun while the kids play!