For many this year, the day camps and sports are cancelled.   

You can still make it an awesome summer with these backyard summer activities.

They’d be perfect on their own or as part of your own  backyard summer camp.

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Hot summer days are perfect for squirt guns and other water play ideas.  But these fun ideas will have the kids saying it was the best summer yet.  

Backyard Summer Activities for Kids

Build a Shelter — Blanket forts are always fun indoors on a rainy day.  What about challenging your child to build a shelter in the backyard?  

Mud Painting — Let the kids get artistic outside with their very own paint, made with mud.  The texture is perfect for finger painting or using brushes as they express their creativity. 

DIY Water Sprinklers — Water play is twice as fun when you create your own sprinkler for the backyard.  Discover how an empty plastic bottle or pool noodles can be used to help kids cool off on a hot day.  

Sponge Water Bombs — Love water balloons but not the pick up afterwards?  Use some cheap kitchen sponges to create your own water bombs that can be used over and over again.  

Mobile Mud Pit — Turn a wheelbarrow or wagon into a messy play area that can easily be moved when play time is over.  

Water Wall —  Keep toddlers and preschoolers busy for hours with their very own water wall, made from recyclables.   Keep older kids busy by having them design and engineer the water wall.  

DIY Water Slide — Keep the kids entertained for hours with this homemade slip and slide.  

Nerf Gun Battle Field — Wood pallets and old tires make great obstacles to hide behind and shoot around for an epic Nerf gun fight your kids will remember.  When they’re finished, it’s easy to move and store out of the way until the next battle day.  

Water Balloon Activities —  Go beyond the classic balloon fight.  With these game and race ideas, kids of all ages will have fun.  And with the new self-sealing water balloons you’ll be sure to have plenty filled for everyone in record time. 

Giant Bubbles Recipe — Bubbles are always fun.  Even my 12 year-old has fun with the bubble machine we bought.   With this recipe your child can make the biggest bubbles they can imagine.  

Water Blob —  Create a marvelous sensory experience for toddlers and preschoolers with this idea.  They’ll have fun squishing and plopping on the water blob, while staying mostly dry.  

Backyard Coding Game —  In this game, one person acts as the Programmer and everyone else is a Computer.   Level 1 starts off similar to Simon Says, with the “computers” copying what the “programmer” does.  With 4 levels of difficulty, this coding game is great for a variety of ages.  

DIY American NInja Warrier Course — PVC pipes, wood pallets, and other inexpensive items are perfect for designing your very own ninja-style obstacle course.  And once the kids are finished, it can easily be taken apart and stored for another day.

Backyard Movie Night — Make a super simple outdoor movie screen and watch your favorite family movie on a projector under the stars.  Make it even more special with buckets of popcorn and a cuddly place for the kids to sit.  (An air matress is perfect!)

Make Ice Cream in a Bag — Perfect for all ages.  Just add the ingredients and have the shake their bag until their sweet treat is ready to eat. 

Cook and Eat Outside —  Cook a meal with the kids outside.  Instead of just using the grill, try making tin foil dinners on a small fire.  You could also make cheese quesadillas on a tin can stove or make a homemade solar oven to cook lunch.

Catch Fireflies — Whether you call them fireflies or lightning bugs, kids will love this classic summer pasttime.  No fireflies where you live?  Try making your own light up firefly craft.

Outdoor Games — There are so many fun games to play outside.  Teach the kids classics like Kick the Can and learn some new ones, too, with this list of over 30 games to play in your backyard.    

More Backyard Games

These fun backyard summer activities will ensure kids have fun even if all their usual activiites are closed.

You may also like these ideas:  

• Shark Activities & Games 
• Summer STEM Activities 
• Fun Activities to Stay Cool with Ice
• How to Make Tin Can Stilts 

The post Fun Backyard Summer Activities for Kids first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

When it comes to messy play there is just nothing like good old-fashioned sand and water play!

We are lucky enough to have a pond next door at the in-laws’ for plenty of messy fun, but a sand box or even a storage container with play sand will also provide you with hours of entertainment and learning possibilities.

This week we built rivers, dams, ponds, and even talked about erosion.  The kids not only had fun, but they learned a lot, too! (And I really loved that they worked together!)

It was completely their idea to make a river, and I enjoyed watching them work together to scoop out the sand and use buckets of water to get the river flowing.

After a while I showed them where the sand was washing away in the spots they poured water.  I explained that this is called erosion and happens along creeks and rivers near us.  I also pointed out that the sand wasn’t washing away the ground where the plants were.  It led to a lovely discussion on how the plants were helping the ground stay in place.

At some point the kids started hauling gravel to their river.  Originally they made a few little waterfalls in it.

When one got a bit larger, I mentioned that they could build a dam.

Eventually the top of the river became a pond, in which a serious accident involving a semi-truck occurred….

(Don’t worry!  The trailer portion of the semi-truck actually was holding a shark, who was very happy to have found a large body of water.)

Kids are constantly learning through their play, which is why it’s so important they get those opportunities!

This week it was rivers, next week… Who knows!

The post Sand and Water Play: Building Rivers first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

If you are looking for wasy to keep the kids cool this summer, these outdoor water play ideas are perfect. 

Break up the monotony of squirt guns and water balloons with a few of these fun ideas when it comes to backyard summer activities. 

Summer is the time for making memories.  These fun ways to play with water are perfect for super hot days.  

Your kids will also enjoy these backyard day camp ideas.  

Water Play Ideas

Sponge Water Balls — Use cheap kitchen sponges to create your very own water balls and let the kids toss them like water balloons.  They can be used over and over again, without the mess of balloon pieces left behind.

Water Obstacle Course — Kids of all ages love obstacle courses.  Use pool noodles, water balloons and other items you have on hand to create a fun obstacle course where the kids get wet.  

Water Blob — Toddlers and preschoolers will have hours of fun with this squishy sensory activity that allows them to explore without getting quite as wet.  

Water Math and Science Activities — Worried about the summer slide?  The kids will have so much fun with these activities they won’t even know they’re learning.  

DIY Sprinklers — Sprinklers are always fun.  Make it twice as fun by creating your very own water sprinkler with one of these simple ideas. 

Water Wheel — This would be a fun STEM activity for summer.  Kids will learn how water wheels work and engineer their own with materials you probably have at home. 

Water Balloon Art — Kids will have fun drawing with markers and then using water balloons to see the colors swirl and mix together. 

Pom-Pom Water Squeeze — This simple boredom buster will help little ones strengthen hand muscles while having fun. 

Water Balloon Activities — Sure, water balloon fights are fun.  But sometimes you want something a little different.  Try some of these fun race and game ideas on a hot summer day.  

Outdoor Dishwashing Station — Little ones love to pretend.  Give them a chance to be just like Mom with this simple idea. 

Foil River —  Build a river in the backyard and let your child use it to play with their toy boats.  

Rain Gutter River —  For a longer lasting river, try using rain gutters.  You can even set them up so kids can stand while they play. 

Water Wall — Use recyclables to build a water wall that will keep toddlers and preschoolers entertained for days.  Older kids can even help build it.  

Rainbow Bubble Snakes — Discover how to blow a long line of rainbow-colored bubbles that are so fun to play with. 

Sponge Water Play — Young kids will have fun soaking water up in the sponges and squeezing it out.  Then, discover what toys can float with the help of a sponge. 

Rainbow Bubbles — This colorful, foamy sensory activity is fun for all ages.  Kids will love seeing the colors swirl together as they play.  

Colored Water Play — Young kids will have fun seeing what colors they get when then mix the different colors of water.  Then, let them use the colorful water to play with a few favorite toys.  

Soapy Shape Sort —  This is perfect for toddlers and preschoolers.  They’ll have fun digging through the foamy water to find and sort different shapes. 

Legos and Water — What happens when you mix those colorful bricks with water?  Hours of fun.  

Water Balloon Bath — Take the bath time fun up a notch with this simple idea.  You could also try it outside in a kiddie pool. 

DIY Water Slide — Kids of all ages will love this slippery and fun homemade water slide idea. 

Whatever you do, have fun and stay cool with the kids these next few weeks with a few of these simple ways to play with water.  

Looking for other ways to beat the heat?

• Fun Ways for Kids to Play with Ice
• Make a Rubber Band Paddle Boat 
• Make yummy soda pop slushies at home with this science trick!

The post Fun & Easy Outdoor Water Play Ideas first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

You can easily mix the fun of water with learning in this fun STEM activity, where the kids will be learning while making a DIY water wall that can be used all summer.

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The kids will have fun creating their very own water wall for hours of water play this summer.

For more fun ideas, check out these backyard summer activities.  

DIY Water Wall

Materials Needed:

• Large basin or shallow storage container to hold water
• Plenty of plastic bottles, milk jugs, etc.
• Wire Ties (sometimes called cable ties)
• Scissors

We built our water wall on the fence that surrounds our outdoor play area.  If you don’t have a fence, the back of a few old lawn chairs with fabric/plastic strip backs you can hook things to might work.

I put our plastic storage container at the bottom of the fence and explained to the kids that we were going to use our recyclables to make waterfalls, all directing the water back into the plastic storage container at the bottom.

I used scissors to cut the bottom off of each bottle and milk jug.  Then they took turns deciding which plastic bottle to add where, using the wire ties to secure them into place on the fence.

We experimented with how each bottle needed to be angled, pouring water into the top container and seeing how it flowed so we could angle the next container just right to catch it.

We also decided to try using a hollow pool noodle, sticking the mouth of one of our water bottles into its end.

When it was finished they had tons of fun filling the top containers and watching the water flow!

For a bit of added fun I brought out some water, mixed with pink and blue food coloring, and let them watch the colored water go through the maze of bottles and mix at the end.

This simple water wall activity kept them busy for almost 2 hours!

If you look closely enough at that last picture you’ll notice a few Squinkies that came out to play.  The kids had a blast pouring the Squinkies down the water wall along with the water.  For a while it was a giant Squinkies water slide!

If you are able to set up the water wall on a fence you can leave it up for easy water play all summer long.  

For more summer fun:

• 20 Ways Kids Can Stay Cool with Ice
• Backyard Summer Camp Ideas
• Duct Tape Water Bottle Holder (perfect for getting kids to carry and drink more water this summer)

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The post DIY Water Wall first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

Warm weather means more time spent outdoors.  With all the spring flowers popping up, and the kids still being in fairy-mode from our first Tooth Fairy visit and making new fairy houses for the year, making Fairy Soup was the perfect pretend play activity this week.

I first saw the idea of Fairy Soup at Happy Hooligans.  She has so many fun ideas!

I gave the kids a couple small buckets to collect flowers, leaves, and whatever else they wanted to put in their fairy soup.

The kindergartner began picking lots of pink and white flowers.

The preschooler decided he was making “Beetle Soup” instead.  (He also chose to make a “Beetle House” instead of a fairy house.  Same fun, but giving it his own twist!)

To start his Beetle Soup he got a big shovel of dirt to add to the water.

Then he added handfuls of grass, gravel from the driveway, and a bit of the glitter I had brought out.  (Kids just can’t resist glitter!)

Once he had his muddy concoction made, he checked out his sister’s flowery one….and he decided he wanted to make a new soup!

They both spent almost an hour adding flowers, stems, leaves, glitter (and more glitter, and more glitter….) to their soup.  Then they poured it into small containers to sit by their fairy and beetle houses.   After all, they wanted to make sure the fairies could find plenty of food!

I never expected this activity would last so long, but they were having a blast!  We will definitely be doing it again this year!

If you liked this post, you may also like:

• Craft Stick Fairy Races
• Seashell Fairy House
• Pretend Play:  Playdough Cookies

The post Fairy Soup Pretend Play first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

It is no secret that my kids love animals, especially my daughter.  We have had numerous millipedes, worms, turtles, and even a salamander come to our house for short visits.   Over the summer it seemed she was catching toads in our flower bed EVERY day.

When I found the book Turtles, Toads and Frogs Junior Guide at the used book store, I just had to bring it home for us to explore!

The book is pretty detailed; I can definitely see it for a slightly older crowd (7-8 year olds), but it didn’t keep my preschoolers from wanting me to ready every little bit of it.  Several times.

Then we took it on one of our walks to the pond and tried to identify some of the smaller frogs that hop along the bank. We found leopard frogs and bull frogs.   We talked about how frogs differ from toads (for one thing, frogs tend to live near water and toads, like those in our flower bed, do not).

Then we played with our own miniature frog and turtle pond small world.

I cut small lily pads out of craft foam for our little frog figures to float on.  

We added a variety of turtles, some sponges, and a little beach blanket to our pond scene as well.

They had a blast floating their frogs around, walking the turtle up to the beach, and using the sponges to make it “rain.” 

Looking for other turtle ideas?  Check out our simple paper plate turtle puppets we made!

The post Turtles, Toads, and Frogs! first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.