Our Favorite Outdoor Toys and Activities for Kids

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Summer is here and its time to get the kids outside and play!

If your kiddos are anything like ours, Summer means they will spend every waking moment outside, playing!

Well, with nice weather and Summer here, I thought it was a great time to put together a list of our favorite outdoor toys and activities!

First and foremost, we love for our kids to be outside and enjoying nature! By nature we mean getting their hands dirty! Playing in the mud and water is one of our kids favorite pastime, so we encourage it; kids getting their hands dirty is natural and helps with creativity.

One of our very favorite activities in the Summer is to create “challenges” for our kids. Pretty much these are just obstacle courses to see who can complete them the fastest. We have done these “challenges” pretty much since the kids could walk and since they loved it so much its become a backyard tradition.

We used to just have them run around a tree and back, hop or skip around the barn, or time them doing silly tricks. Since our kids are a bit older and can handle a more “difficult” obstacle course, we include our backyard toys!

Favorite Backyard Activities

Slackline aka Tight Rope

This Slackline below (also referred to by us as a tight rope) is so much fun for all of our kids, including us! Yes, we have joined them on occasion to test out our balance. We have this Slackline placed in between two trees in our backyard only a few inches off of the ground. We love including this in our “challenges” to see who can get across it quickest!

Zip Line

When we were looking for outdoor activities, we purchased this Zip Line at the same time as the Slackline, as well as monkey bars, which made a great backyard jungle gym! Again, we have the zip line in between two trees and yes, we have used it too! This one has a weight limit of 200 pounds and is perfect for the backyard!

Monkey Bars

These monkey bars are a great addition to any backyard! Again, we have these set up between two trees and are the perfect complement to our backyard challenges! What we also love about these monkey bars is that this particular brand has different accessories to add to to your set as your child needs more variety! Always allowing to grow the obstacle course!

Trampoline

Next up is a trampoline and we can see why it is such a popular backyard item! We waited a long time to get our kids a trampoline, but looking back we could have gotten one sooner! I’m pretty sure that 3 of our big kids have already mastered their front flips!

Backyard Ride On Toys

John Deere Ride On

Ride on toys are a very popular backyard toy and the John Deere Ride Ons were one of the first big backyard toys our kids got when they were about 2 years old! Thanks, Grandma!!

I couldn’t tell you how hard it was to get the boys to come inside after they started riding! Battery operated ride ons are perfect for the backyard and these particular ones come with multiple speeds! Perfection!

Power Wheels Dune Racer

We got the Power Wheels Dune Racer the same year we got the John Deere Tractor ride ons. This particular Power Wheels, below, has been loved by all of our kids because two of them could fit at a time and they felt like they were driving a car. Sometimes they would actually pretend they were delivering pizza or a taxi driver! Ah! Imagination!

Favorite Inflatable and Water Toys

Inflatable Roller

If I had to choose our kids most favorite thing to do, its to run and bounce around in this giant hamster wheel!! Guys, the kids get in, start running and they zoom across the yard in this inflatable roller! This truly was one of the best ideas for our kids! Again, thanks to another Grandma!!

Looking at the size of this inflatable roller, you may think you need a ton of room for it but, we are only on a half acre and it is enough room for our kids to run with it!

Bump N Bounce Body Bumpers

These child size body bumpers are so incredibly fun to watch the kids play and bounce off each other with! They love running and seeing who can knock who down first! All in good fun of course!! Because our kids have so much fun with these, we’re thinking of getting adult size ones for friends and family to use during backyard barbecues!

Slip N Slide

If you have kids, which I would assume you do if you are reading this, you probably already have a slip n slide or have been on one yourself – Even so, I had to include this because as soon as it gets the slightest bit warm my kids are begging to get it out! I’m talking 55 degrees and they think it is acceptable! Pro Tip: Add dish soap to make it extra slippery!

Inflatable Pool

An inflatable pool helps create the ultimate backyard splash zone for our kids! One day in the future, we plan to put an above ground pool and deck to create our backyard oasis, but until then, this inflatable pool is great for our kids and actually allows for some “real swimming” with its size!

So, there you have it, our favorite backyard toys and activities.

For us, there is nothing better than to watch your kiddos outside enjoying the fresh air and just being kids! We hope you enjoy your new backyard fun as we much as we do!!