Today we are going to be looking a a mix of new activities, and some from our archives to bring you a fun springtime list of activities to do with your kids!
1. Miniature Frisbee Golf:
Miniature Frisbee golf is as cute as it sounds. for little kids you can set it on the floor, or for older ones you can set it up on the table, so it grows with the child giving you more bang for your buck. Even better though, you can set this activity inside or outside! This is great for spring, where some days are nice, and some days, well not so much. You can grab a mini Frisbee golf set off amazon here!
2. Hockey and Soccer ALL in one set!
This activity is great for active kids, and parents who want to get the most out of their toys in any season. This awesome set comes with two nets that work as both the soccer nets and the hockey nets. It has the soccer ball as well. You can use this for indoor or outdoor play. It would be great if you have some nice open space. THEN there is the hockey game. SAME nets so there is no need to reset up anything, which is great. Then the hockey puck is light-up and chargeable. It can go on any smoother surface (including outdoor concrete). They have padded edges so the pucks don’t damage anything in your home. It also comes with two hockey sticks. You can grab this great set off amazon here!
3. Build a Fort! (with awesome fort building supplies)
One thing you can do this spring is building a fort. This can be done outside, or inside. You can have picnics in your forts, play games, or just build a tent city with them. The great thing about these plastic fort building supplies are that they are easy to clean off if you take them outside. You can also put a cover over them for added shade to read a book in! You can grab a set of for making supplies of amazon for a spring and summer filled with FUN HERE!
4. Mess Free Water Drawing Mat.
A mess free drawing mat is great for an outdoor picnic, as the kids can draw on it with their water markers before or after lunch. The sun will dry it out pretty fast (in ten minutes or so) and you can pack it back up! It is also great for mess free art inside the house if you only have carpet because the water doesn’t leak through the water proof backing. Grab a mat with the markers, stencils, and drawing book today from amazon (here)!
5. Ride on Plane for kids!
This pink ride on plane is great for kids ages 2 to 6. It has a USB port to play music and also has its own radio just like a car. This pink plane ride can be controlled by the plane joysticks, or by the remote controller! So you or the kiddos can drive it (you being on the outside in your nice comfy chair). There is also a three point safety harness in this little plane. And though it never comes off the ground, it will make the kids feel like they are flying. Just think of how exciting this toy would be? Grab one off amazon here!
A little more about the last five activities:
I was looking through some of our old activities and I came across where we participated in the Independent Play activity challenge a few years ago. WOW those were different times now weren’t they? But one thing about these activities is that they are great stay at home activities for kids! They are great for warm spring days to take them outside. Or they work as boredom busters for kids on rainy days inside. For this activity challenge we received five activities via email from hands on as we grow, to add to our collection of ideas of things to do. They still give awesome challenges periodically. AND they still give access to the activity room which allows you to have no prep activities like these daily. Both are great if you have little ones! Below we have our honest review of the activity challenge!
We loved our time in the activity room a few years back. You can check out these resources here:
6. Toy washing Station:
The first activity was a bit of a let down. It was just a kids toy wash station. Jamie gave ideas like using tooth brushes for small toys, etc. etc. While we did try this one out with some of my daughter’s new Easter toys, it wasn’t really an “independent activity” I feel like anytime kids are playing around the bathtub, or in our case in the bath tub, they should be watched a little more! Anyhow, my daughter still had fun cleaning her barbie puppies! Click here to see the fun toys we used.
7. Line Trace:
The second activity was a basic line trace. I set out the cute buttons and drew some fun lines on a piece of construction paper. I told my daughter I had a fun activity planned for her, and she was pretty excited…until she sat down and I showed her the picture of the activity (as seen below) and gave a little demo of how you just put the buttons on the line. She picked up the three buttons I had laid down, and put them back in the pile. She told me that activity was boring. Maybe some kids like it, not mine though.
8. Cheerios Bracelets
This activity was a hit. Jamie recommended doing a whole sensory bin worth of cheerios, but to me that just seemed a little wasteful because we wouldn’t eat them after my daughter had touched all over them. Instead we got a little bowl and strung the cheerios on pipe cleaners. we made some fun bracelets and a necklace. The cheerio-pipe cleaner jewelry is something we would do again!
9. Toilet Paper Building
We haven’t tried this activity yet. We have so many different kinds of blocks and such things that digging out all of the toilet paper rolls really didn’t sound appealing to me this week. It sounded like an activity that I would have a lot of clean up for and wouldn’t get much “independent time” out of it. Maybe someday when we will get around to testing it out on a week I’m not so busy. Rereading that paragraph makes me wonder if it sounds bad, but honestly I’m not really a play with toilet paper kind of person, and my daughter (and her puppy sister) just shed it. Sorry on this one, let me know if it worked for you guys! ***2021 edit: You probably still have a lot of toilet paper from 2020, so this would be a very fitting activity now, It could be very expansive building projects!***
10. Stacking Cups
This was our little minute to win it challenge after coming home from the park today. Basically you take a bunch of random plastic cups out of your cabinet and have your kid stack them in different towers and such. It went pretty well. As for an independent play activity, it only lasted five minutes and my daughter wanted me with her.
Overall Review of the Activities Challenge:
Our favorite and the most time consuming activity was the cheerio bracelets. The second runner up would have been the stacking cups, and in third place was the the toy washing station. (you can read our original review here)
Hope you enjoy these 10 awesome activities for this spring!
Brie