We're trying to spend more time with Holly outside in the evenings after dinner. We don't have a swingset or anything, and not much grass area to play in. We typically play on the driveway with a ball, bubbles, her strider bike, lawn mower, shopping cart, and a ride on toy she has.
We chase each other around the yard, throw and kick the ball, and she'll push/ride her other toys up and down the driveway. Sometimes we'll also go on walks around our neighborhood, which is a 1/2 mile loop.
I'd like some more ideas of stuff to do in the yard/driveway. We've got sidewalk chalk, so I'll pull that out. But...any other ideas? Obviously, our goal is to get her as worn out as possible.
TIA!
Re: Outside play ideas
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We have a little basketball hoop he likes to play with. Most of the time he likes to "drive" his little Cozy Coupe around. We've been playing in the street more (we live on a dead end) and helping him pedal his trike.
Last summer I would let him use a bucket of water and a paint brush to "paint" the sidewalk, house, car etc. He loved doing that!
We have a little rake/shovel/hoe set that I got at Walmart. He likes to help rake the yard, pick up sticks & pine cones.
Maybe you can teach her some games - freeze tag, hide & seek etc. I bet that could be fun.
Last year someone suggested (Jules I think) to get two 5 gallon buckets from Home Depot and fill each with some sand. That way she can have a sand box without the box, scooping from one to the other. I thought that sounded like a good idea.
We have generally been playing outside every afternoon with Emily (Jules_NC) since they live two houses up. Thankfully between the two of us we have a lot of stuff. Julie got Emily a big sandbox that was a hit with Jocelyn and we are contemplating getting one.
We do everything you said, bikes, walks, playing with a ball, cozy coup, wagon rides, bubbles, etc.
If Jocelyn doesn't have a play mate we do sidewalk chalk, or go on a "bug hunt" where we try to find bugs. We also water our trees and plants, which generally means filling up a watering can and just dumping it out. We have a water table but it needs to be cleaned out. She also just likes to sit out back and bird watch with her daddy, not too much exciting stuff but I've found she just likes to be outside in general.
We taught Nora red light green light. She got it, but now she thinks it's hilarious to just run no matter what we say.
ring around the rosie can be tiring! what about drawing circles or something for her to jump in and out of.
teach her to "gallop" and walk backwards (we learned these at little gym and I NEVER thought to teach her to walk backwards, sideways, gallop) and skip. skipping is tough at their age, but you can start trying!
Oh yea! Caleb loves to practice jumping and marching. He also pretends to hop like a frog, complete with RIBBIT! Sometimes he does the penguin walk too
Liam looooves his sandbox. He got it for his 2nd birthday, and it's still a hit. He also likes his little t-ball set, and his basketball hoop.
Sidewalk chalk is another fun one, and one fun game we've made with that is to draw a bunch of shapes in the driveway and say "Jump in the square!" "Jump in the triangle!" He learned his shapes that way, and it's also a fun way to burn energy.