From the category archives:

Outdoor play

Top Ten Outdoor Presents for Southern California Family and Friends

December 15, 2009

Outdoor presents are the best. If you don’t believe me, read the Grass Stain Guru’s “Dear Santa” letter. But how can you wrap up play days and deliver them to your family or friends? Experiences are what it’s all about when it comes to the following gift ideas. I would be so happy to receive [...]

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Outdoor Play Activities for Cold Weather

December 13, 2009

Outdoor play activities can be challenging when it’s chilly. Cold weather in California isn’t really that cold. Still, it’s tough to convince my friends with kids to get outside and play when rain threatens. I guess we’re spoiled by great beach and park play day weather. Outdoor time is still important. Remember how good it [...]

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Dance Moves on the Blacktop

November 16, 2009

My preschooler and I walk my 2nd grader to school most days. I enjoy getting outdoors even when it’s a little chilly and the fresh morning air starts my day off right. I love hearing the kids giggles and screams while they are playing. They warm up for their school day with tetherball, swings, various [...]

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Hoop Rolling and Other Old Time Games

September 15, 2009

Hoop Rolling (or Hoop Trundling) in the Early 1900’s
Hoop rolling looks like my kind of game. I took this photograph in the school room of the Heritage Hill Historical Park in Lake Forest, California. I was so intrigued by the tools and idea of the games.
In researching this post, I found out that Wellesley College [...]

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Unstructured Play with Cardboard Boxes

August 23, 2009

Unstructured play with cardboard boxes is one of the all-time great childhood activities. My dad is a contractor and would bring home appliance boxes for us to play in all the time. We’d roll down our grassy hill in refrigerator boxes. We’d cut out windows for houses. We even brought our golden retriever in there.
The [...]

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Fun Outdoor Activities for Kids and Families: Guest Blog by Play Outdoors

June 23, 2009

Hiking & Camping
Take a walk through your neighborhood, backyard, local park or nature trail and try to find something for every color of the rainbow. Look hard with kiddos to find something that matches every color: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo (a purple blue), and Violet.
Go for a family hike on a local trail, [...]

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We Climb Trees

June 10, 2009

Sis and Me Climb Trees on One of Many Play Adventures. I grew up on the top of a hill surrounded by avocado tree groves and oak trees. All of our oaks were perfect for climbing. I remember spending many hours running around the property barefoot – not caring about the burrs [...]

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Bean Bags Don’t Bounce

May 1, 2009

For play indoors or outdoors . . .
Substituting bean bags for balls makes for a lovely departure from the norm, for little kids into balls and throwing — or even big kids willing to test their accuracy skills.
Buy or make your own bean bags (I could probably even manage – although I’m not very crafty).
Present [...]

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Making Bubble Catchers

April 20, 2009

My mother is a master inventor. I should call her Mama-MacGyver. Or Grandma-MacGyver now. Introducing her latest invention: kitchen tongs as bubble catchers. My son added the bungie cord. We used an automated bubble machine like this one. Or you can go to PBS Kids ZoomSci and the kids can [...]