Aimed at all adults keen to develop a child’s interest in nature this book is packed with craft activities and ideas to help get kids outdoors.
On first flick through I thought the content of The Big Book of 100 Outdoor Activities was a bit basic until I remembered that my ‘little one’ is now 9 and we’ve been doing things like this for years!
Put into the context of children aged 3 to 9 years old, it’s an excellent book of outdoor activity ideas, ideal for parents & carers, child-minders, nursery and kindergarten staff and anyone looking for inspiration to entertain children outdoors in nature.
Compiled by Laura Minter and Tia Williams (craft bloggers at Little Button Diaries), The Big Book of 100 Outdoor Activities is a sturdy paperback book with front and rear cover flaps to mark pages you’re working on.
Outdoor Activity Categories
There’s an introduction, top tips and notes on the items needed to start your outdoor crafting journey. The 100 activities are split into 8 categories, each with detailed step-by-step instructions and photographs: –
- Wildlife spotting
- In the garden
- Messy makes
- Art and crafts
- Games
- Rainy day
- Food and drink
- Play and make-believe
Everything is simple, requiring no specialist equipment and better still, each activity is tried and tested by the authors’ own children.
Caroline had a good mooch through and together we highlighted the activities we’d like to try.
Favourite Activity Ideas
The nature spotter game is a great idea for fun in the garden, park or on a country walk and we’ve tried the miniature pond activity with an old washing up bowl as well as a bog garden in an old dog bed…
Newspaper seedling pots are a fun, eco-friendly craft to try and I particularly like the sound of shadow drawing on sunny days, using a roll of wallpaper lining.
Mini gardeners will love using wellies to make plant containers, something we’ve enjoyed in the past, and using old cars and ride-ons is a fun alternative to the wheelbarrow we renovated as a container.
Enjoy creating snails using clay and real, empty snail shells and try the various ideas with flowers, leaves and twigs, like a log table decoration with air drying clay.
Leaf, feather and solar printing will excite budding artist and making a twig marble run is an imaginative nature connection too.
The matchbox bird house is a gorgeous take on our Day of the Dead memory box and there are easy food suggestions like foragers crumble and courgette, carrot and cheese muffins (great for picnics and school lunches).
Being lovers of cuddly toys, the toy camping set, complete with a twig campfire is a particular favourite.
I also love the natural dressing-up costume activities, quite like some we did at a pre-school forest school years ago.
To try these and dozens more activities you’ll just have to buy the book!
There’s nothing not to like about this book, it’s jammed with ideas that you and your kids will love, so let’s get more children outdoors – this book is a brilliant place to start.
Buy the Book
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Big Book of 100 Outdoor Activities
NB Kids of the Wild received a copy of this book for the purposes of review. All views and observations are my own (and Caroline’s, aged 9).
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We HAVE to get this book! It looks perfect for us! And a great gift for other children/families too. Thank you for the recommendation. #CountryKids
You’ll have to let me know what you think of it. Thanks for reading
It sounds like a lovely book to give families ideas of outdoors fun #countrykids
There’s certainly lots of variety included
As a keen gardener and nature enthusiast I love activities that get children into the outdoors, creating snails sounds great #countrykids
This gives an idea for a birthday present for a friend of Pebbles’! I want to try newspaper seedling pots with my gang this spring, and we’re also going to reuse their old water table as a container for salad, herbs, etc.
#CountryKids
Ooh I like the water table idea! Look forward to hearing how you get on x
Love these inspirational outdoor books. #CountryKids
They’re great aren’t they
Thiis was great to read