Ah, springtime! After months of bundling kids up to play outside or go anywhere, our get-out-the-door routine is now much quicker and simpler. Some days the boys even manage to get out the door without me helping a bit. I love spring! For the simplicity reason, but also for the springtime activities we get to enjoy. While there are a lot of neat planned springtime activities you can do, we are fans of easy and organic over here! The activities below are really just ways that other springtime (and honestly, summertime and autumn) fun occurs naturally – such as building rock towers or finding spider webs. It’s always fun (and way more relaxing) to see what each little one finds interesting. This list is probably nothing new, but maybe it can at least be encouraging in the fact that the activities are EASY.
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- #1 on our list? Puddles! And mud! We have a private, gravel side road right by our house. It hasn’t necessarily been maintained to the highest standards so there are plenty of potholes, both big and small. This, however, makes for many great activities AND education.
- Puddle jumping.
- Throwing leaves, sticks, rocks, dead bugs, and whatever else they can find in the puddles to see what floats and what sinks.
- Making designs on the water from the mixed up sediments.
- Creating flow from one puddle to the next.
- Think of everything they are learning from just free-playing with water, puddles, and mud!
- Related to the potholes on our road – bike riding. Bike riding is mostly done by the older one. Who needs a pump track when you have as many potholes as we do?!?! When we do make biking an outing, we find quiet gravel roads as those allow more freedom for the oldest to bike ahead a bit. Helena is also home to a few trails that are great for preschooler bikers and balance bikers. We’ve used both the Strider Pro balance bike (super lightweight and kids can go fast) and a Schwinn balance bike (heavier and sturdy, but when tall enough, it also worked just fine).
- Now that it is springtime, the bugs and worms are out. So far, we have spent hours searching for ants under rocks or just in the dirt. Looking for worms? Start digging some holes, kid, and see what you find!
- We don’t start gardening for a little while yet at our place. In fact, I’m a total beginner when it comes to gardening, so I can’t even give you a start date for the raised beds! However, we still have been watering trees and flower beds and bushes and starter plants. My youngest (1.5) wants to turn on the hose whenever we are outside to help with the watering. He goes from tree to tree to water each one. Maybe he’ll be a better gardener than me!
- And of course, hikes! Now that the snow and ice has melted off of the trails, we try to visit a trailhead a couple times each week. Sometimes we don’t make it very far past the trailhead. Flowers, sticks, gulches, rocks, large rock piles, boulders, caves, fallen trees, or animals often grab their attention, and we stop and explore. Other times, the hills and the anticipation of running down the hills keeps the boys moving along.
So those are our CURRENT favorite springtime activities with a 1.5 and 3.5 year old. 🙂
Share in the comments your favorite activities where you live!