National Play Outside Day comes twelve times a year! The first Saturday of each month is designated National Play Outside Day, so mark your calendars now and plan for outside family fun each month of the year.
Active For Life is a not-for-profit social initiative whose mission is to help parents develop physical literacy in their children’s lives. On their website, sign up for the free newsletter and receive timely activity suggestions such as this Recipe for an active year.
Other activities to inspire outdoor physical literacy include:
Scavenger Hunts
Scavenger hunts are among the favorite activities for families to enjoy together. Come up with your own ideas or use one of these great resources for sample scavenger hunt lists:
Low or No-Cost Activities
Reminisce about the summers of your youth to come up with other family-fun summer activities. To spark your memory, check out these library books for nostalgic low or no-cost activity ideas:
Tag, Toss, and Run by Paul Boardway Tukey
Great Big Book of Children’s Games by Debra Wise
How about some hiking?
Parents can begin this family activity when a child is only months old by using an infant carrier on their back. The combination of fresh air, natural beauty, and exercise builds healthy minds and bodies and makes hiking another affordable go-to activity for family fun at all ages!
Get your Kids Hiking by Jeff Alt includes an appendix with age-appropriate checklists for each stage of childhood so you always have everything you could possibly need while out on the trail.
Explore the Best of Maryland
A Year Across Maryland by Bryan MacKay recommends a “Trip of the Week” for every week of the year. The recommendations invite readers to explore the natural world in the Chesapeake Bay Region during the best times to experience natural wonders such as bird migrations and wildflower blooms. The book includes field notes and color photographs to enrich the text.
