10 Ideas for Spring Break Family Fun Away From The Crowds

Sometimes families face challenges planning their kids spring break. If you have school-age kids, they’re home. If you don’t then you’re fighting crowds to do the things you normally do without competing with the droves of school kids.

I have a particularly vivid memory of driving the kids to Legoland during spring break last year — only to wait an HOUR to get into the park with cars lined up from the freeway. Then we waited an hour and a half to get on one ride! Who waits an hour and a half for a 30 second Legoland ride?  It was all too much and even the kids decided they wanted to head home.

So what CAN you do? Away from the crowds?

1. Test out your Nature Scene Investigator skills and complete some missions.  (The GetOutdoorsOC.com site is working on some technical issues with registering and logging missions, but that shouldn’t stop you from printing out the PDF’s and completing missions).
2. Tackle some of the One Fun Thing suggestions from Alii.  There are five ideas. Pick one for each day M-F.
3. Our friends at Just-Spotted.com have great ideas for OC field trips off the beaten path.
4. How about visiting an Orange County park and recommending it to our site? Make a game out of it? Let the kids tell you the highlights.
5. Visit a new branch of the Orange County Public Library. I’m always on the hunt for different collections and each library has different displays and reading rooms. Or take a trip to the Huntington Beach Central Library and its children’s wing.
6. Stay at home one day. With all the normal rushing around, staying at home can actually be a treat. Let them stay in pajamas. Read some of those library books together. Explore your own yard, no matter how small.  Pull out the magnifying glass or binoculars to see things near and far. Have a picnic outside your house. DO not go anywhere in your car.
7. My friend, Debi, at Go Explore Nature recently covered The Arboretum on her site.  I love the LA Arboretum. What a wonderful natural playground for the kids to explore!
8. Plant something. A bulb? Some flowers? Seeds. I’m thinking of an herb garden. Take a trip to your local nursery and make a day of it. I guess my parents did a lot of planting, because I remember spending a lot of time hanging around our local nursery looking at all the trees, flowers, water fountains, and wind chimes. Alison Kerr of Loving Nature’s Garden featured a guest blogger with Four Tips for Gardening with Kids.
9. Spend time with family. I get to see my 99 year old grandma and watch her play with her great grandkids. How about asking each family member, young and old, about their favorite play memories? I’ve heard the best family stories this way – stories I’ve never heard before in the family lore. (Watch for the glint in their eyes as they tell you about all the trouble they got into!)
10. Make a Nature Connection! Mark Morey, Founder of the Institute for Natural Learning, wrote a “7 Ways to Connect with Nature” series with 7 exercises on The P.I.N.E. Project website. I love this idea. Just reading the exercises makes me feel more peaceful and connected.

So now you know there are alternatives to crowded theme parks and bustling beaches. Whatever you do, hope you have fun and enjoy playing together!