9 Easy DIY Outdoor Activities for the Littles (Enjoyed by the Not So Littles Too)

Not all summer fun needs a pool. Your kids will enjoy these amazing and super fun activities all summer long… in your own backyard.

Shaving cream paint

Fill up a muffin tin with shaving cream, squirt a bit of shower gel or dish soap, and add 1 drop of food coloring in different colors to each paint muffin. Mix and paint whatever their little hearts’ desire!

Pompom bath

Take your kiddie pool to the next level by adding colorful pom pom “fishies” and using cups/nets to catch them! 

Oobleck fun

In an aluminum pan, wide container or bin, combine 1½-2 cups cornstarch and 1 cup water, a drop of food coloring and you’ve got oobleck. It’s a fun sensory substance called a non-Newtonian fluid ––meaning it changes from a solid to a liquid. Add construction trucks to the mix and you have yourself a serious activity. The best part—spray it down with water or wait for the rain, and it’s like the mess never happened.

Ice Cube Paints

Fill up an ice cube tray with water and add a tiny drop of food coloring to each cube in varying colors. Place a popsicle stick in each ice cube mold. If you have room in your freezer to stand the sticks upright, carefully place a piece of tinfoil over the tray, cut tiny slits and insert the sticks to hold them up (otherwise slanted sticks work just fine). Freeze and enjoy!

Outdoor tape road

Remember this great activity? If you have a driveway or concrete space, take it outside!

Frozen toy excavation

Fill up any containers, muffin tins, small aluminum pans with water and stick some small toys in: legos, figurines, animals, cars etc. stick in the freezer overnight. Drop a tiny bit of food coloring for extra bonus points. Hand over the frozen block of ice with a dropper/spray bottle/squeeze bottle and salt and let them chip away!

Lego Bath

Dump all your lego in the kiddie pool and make it a 2-in-1: clean up + activity! Add some soap, a sponge or brush and let them give their lego a well-deserved bath while they build some new creations. 

Chalk Paint

Combine 2 parts water to 1 part cornstarch and some food coloring in a muffin tin and you now have chalk paint. Use a paint brush to ‘paint’ the sidewalk, rocks, stones (or really any surface) and it will dry to the same consistency as chalk. 

Fizzy jungle

Set up a bin or large tin outside and sprinkle a layer of baking soda to cover the bottom. Add small jungle animal toys, leaves and twigs on top. Fill up a spray bottle or squeeze bottle with vinegar and another with vinegar and a drop of dish soap and let your kids spray away. A magical fizzing jungle will appear before their eyes. [Change up the jungle toys for any other themed adventure.]

PS – Rainy day? Live in an apartment with no outdoor space? Or just too tired to get outside? All the ‘messy’ activities work just as well in the bathtub! Add a bathing suit and make it a bath party.

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