Make These Items with Your Kids and Go Play Outside!

Spending time outside, getting exercise and fresh air and observing the natural world around them, is necessary for a healthy, happy childhood. I believe that with every fiber of my being. I also believe that kids who play outside are more likely to become adults who respect the planet and do their best to live gently upon it. That's why it was so distressing for me to read Richard Louv's excellent Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. Seeing the disconnect so many kids have between themselves and the natural world is alarming. Seeing how that translates to issues like childhood obesity just makes it all the more important to me that my kids spend as much time as possible playing outside. A hike in the woods is great, as is a fishing trip or seashell hunt. But sometimes the closest thing you have to "nature" is your own back yard. That is a good place to start!

With that in mind, here are six projects you can do with your kids that will result in plenty of fun, fresh air, and sunshine -- as well as happy kids.

Go Play Outside!

Make Your Own Bubbles Making your own bubbles is a really easy, fun project that the kids can help with, and each batch you make will cost pennies compared to what you pay for bubbles at the store. As an added bonus, you can turn it into an informal science lesson, explaining what the different ingredients do as you add them to the mix. You can also have fun making your own bubble wands.

Make a Kite This is a project that (aside from just being fun!) allows you to explore topics such as engineering and weather with the kids, as well as encourage them to use their creativity when decorating the kite.

Make Your Own Sidewalk Chalk Sidewalk chalk is fairly inexpensive to buy, but it's always interesting for kids to see how common things are actually made. This recipe uses plaster of Paris, and you can add powdered tempera paint to the mix to get different colors of chalk. A really easy, interesting project -- and the kids get to go make driveway art when they're finished.

Make a Flower/Leaf Press Once I showed my daughters how to press leaves and flowers, it seemed that I couldn't open a single large book in our house without some type of botanical treasure falling out of it. Making a simple flower press out of plywood, cardboard, and a few nuts and screws is an easy project that the kids can put together and decorate -- then press and store all of those cheery flowers and colorful fall leaves to use in craft projects later on. If you play your cards right, you also get to throw a little science into the mix by helping kids identify the different plants, talk about the seasons, or identify the different parts of a leaf or flower.

Make an Obstacle Course in Your Yard This was one of those things my friends and I seemed to put together at least a few times every summer, and my kids have a blast doing it, too. The link above will take you to a Martha Stewart article full of good ideas, but keep in mind that you don't have to buy a single thing to make a great backyard obstacle course. Get the kids involved in putting it together, organize a little friendly competition maybe, and have fun getting plenty of exercise!

Make a Bug Catcher Catching bugs and observing them close up (and then releasing them later!) is one of those things we should all do more often. Bugs are fascinating! Some kids have absolutely no problem catching bugs with their bare hands and holding on to them to observe them, but others are a bit more squeamish about handling the bugs. This is fine, and the squeamish kids shouldn't have to miss out on observing these amazing creatures. In addition to making a bug catcher from a plastic bottle to observe the bugs in, you can also make a simple bug vac so kids can catch bugs without actually having to touch them.

Making something together, and then playing together outside -- perfect ways for both you and the kids in your life to have a lot of fun.

**This post was inspired by a post written by Bethe Almeras, AKA The Grass Stain Guru. Thanks for the reminder to make the most of summer, Bethe!