This is a partnered post with Take Me Fishing™.
The greatest thing about having a husband who is so adventurous means that our children always have something fun to do. Some weekends it’s hiking and camping outdoors, other weekends it’s at the beach and on a fishing trip. You’ll even find us on the lake in the mountains on my parents’ boat in the summer. Living in Southern California means there is literally always something to do outdoors.
This weekend, my daughter and my husband packed up their fishing poles and went to the beach. There’s always a pier and plenty of other fishermen nearby, and our eight-year-old loves people watching. There’s tons of activity on the pier – and there’s nothing quite like the feeling of your #FirstCatch of the year! And that’s what summer is all about—creating meaningful moments with children.
There are lots of ways to make the most of summer with your family. Here are some of my favorites:
5 Simple Activities to Do Outdoors with Your Kids
- Go Fishing – You can find out everything you need to know to get started at Take Me Fishing™. From choosing gear to buying a fishing license, this site is a great resource for beginners and pros alike.
- Find Water – There are so many fun things to do near water, whether it be a lake, a river, or even the ocean. You can see some of the top places across the country to cast a line at Take Me Fishing’s™ list of Best Family-Friendly Places to Fish and Boat.
- Go Hiking – You can find local trailheads crisscrossing all through the country. We even take our kids hiking. It’s a great way to explore outdoors.
- Go Camping – We love camping and honestly you don’t need a lot of gear to make it happen. In California, we can camp anywhere from the beaches to the mountains, and there’s so much you can do while camping. Some of our best family memories have been made while camping with our kiddos.
- Find a Local Park – One of our favorite things to do in the evenings is to take a walk. We have many local parks within walking distance so we walk and play when we get there. It’s a great way to wind down from a hot summer day.
Check out Take Me Fishing™ to plan a fishing and boating adventure for your family—and be sure to share it with me on social using #FirstCatch!
What are some fun and simple things you like to do outdoors with your family?
Comment with your ideas below, then like Take Me Fishing™ on Facebook for your chance to win a $50 gift card plus a fishing prize package!
I love to go to the beach and enjoy an afternoon to make my summer day the perfect one.
Our favorite outdoor activity is going to the zoo with my grandchild.
We love to go hiking!
We love to go to the park, camping and fishing
We definitely love going hiking- especially new trails. We have a hike called Thousand Steps and it is these steps up a mountain that the coal miners used to walk every day.
We love to go fishing and hiking in the mountains.
We like nature hikes.
I love taking my kids camping, fishing, swimming, and hiking!
Walking the dog.
We like to go hiking
I like to take my children on walks and going to the park
We love to go camping at the lake. We do go fishing while there.
We like to BBQ, camp and fish.
We like to plant a garden.
We love to swim, play badmitton and volley ball
I don’t have kids but my favorite thing outdoors is watching animals.
We enjoy going bike riding.
Going for walks/hikes and bike rides.
We play kick the can.
We like to play games outdoors.
I love to go biking or flying a kite. My parents have taken my sons fishing but we have not gone all together yet.
I like fishing ,camping, picnics, cookouts walking in the park
Go to the beach!
We like to go hikingand geocaching.
We like to check out state parks throughout our state. Hidden (affordable) treasures.
We like to go bike riding and go to the duck pond to feed the ducks.
Laurie Emerson
We go on a nature hike.
We like camping.
We love going to the beach. My kids love the waves.
we like to play sidewalk chalk.
We have what looks like a little pond in our development but it is really a water retention basin. We love to walk up to it and fish for the little sunnies and all.
Our favorite thing to do outdoors is bike! We bike to the local farmers market and outdoor festivals!
We heart biking and hiking!
Fishing has always been a great outdoor activity for our family. We like packing up some drinks, a few sandwiches, and other “goodies”, and head out to our favorite lake for a fun day. Thanks.
We take them hiking to the local waterfalls.
I enjoy playing in the sprinklers with my nephew.
Picnics outside
We love to go hiking together. Our other favorite is to go beach combing.
I like to go to the park with the kids.
Play soccer!
I have been taking my granddaughter on hikes, to lead in to backpacking.
My kids love fishing and camping.
going to the beach
Taking the kids out to the park and riding bikes together.
We love to go swimming at the pool and camping!
Swim in the pool!
My favorite simple activities to do outdoors with my kids is to go walk around open nature space areas in our city.
Gardening is the best, cheap if you can stave off impulses in the garden dept.
Hanging out and playing at the park.
I love to go hiking with my daughter.
My kids like to go fishing
My kids love just swimming or running around the park.
Going swimming and to the playground.
We’re pretty easy to please – hiking, biking, swimming and walking/hiking with the dog!
we love to hike. it’s so much fun.
We like to go for picnics in the park.
We love taking the dog for walks, playing disc golf and also fishing!
I do like to walk outdoors as long as it is not too hot and there is a nice cool breeze. I like to fish as long as I do not have to touch the worms or the fish.
My granddaughter enjoys going to the part, taking walks, and going to our local botanical gardens. She always has to make a wish at the fountain when ever we visit the botanical gardens.
We love to bike, hike, kayak, and camp
We like the slash parks.
love to walk on a local trail and also go to museums
swimming at the lake. grilling. fishing is a favorite. we always try to see who can catch the biggest crappie!
We like hiking in the spring and apple picking in the fall.
I like drawing with chalk outside!
We like to go to the park and play.
My sons both love big playgrounds. Being 7 and 2, they can burn up a lot of energy just monkeying around and living it up at a nice playground. We try to go at least once a week.
We love to play flag football as a family.
The grandchildren like to go for walks with their grandfather–sometimes rather short, but something they do together.
We like to walk the dogs, play in the park and swim.
We like to go to the park with the kids and they play
We like to geocache and paint and hide rocks.
We like to just walk around the neighborhood.
We like spending time at the beach, swimming and bike riding.
Swimming, going to the park, etc.
-lauren
http://www.shootingstarsmag.net
We really love going trail hiking and visiting our local state parks!
we like to go swimming in the pool or go to a waterpark/splash pad. 🙂 so hot here in az!
Aw, goodness! All of that looks so much fun! Lately, we have been loving going kayaking. It is a new adventure but we have been loving it!
We love to go fishing, go to the local splashpad and just go for walks!
Swimming and walking around our neighborhood park are our favorite family outdoor activities.
Our favorite activity is to walk to the local park and swing on the swings. So fun and easy to do!
We love spending time at the beach swimming, fishing and barbecuing!
Camping and hiking is our favorite to do with the kiddo.
We like to play with our animals!
We like to hike and camp.
going to different parks and playgrounds
Comments aren’t working on other pages. So I post here for the travel post. I think traveling is very rewarding for kids. We traveled a lot when I was growing up.
we like to ride our bikes or play baseball,
We love to ride bikes together and take the dogs for walks.
These are great suggestions–we love doing all of these things with our children!
One of our favorite activities, especially when the kids were younger, was flying kites.
Nature walks in the state forest behind out house where we see deer, turkeys, snakes, all kinds of birds and the occasional moose or bear.
I have an outdoor crew, they’ll do just about anything to stay outdoors … we do a lot of camping and while we’re camping we’ll hike, bike ride, swimming, fishing …you name it
We enjoy going to the park and take a picnic lunch.
There are woods behind the house and there are a lot of different kinds of wild berries that grow there. Walking through there & picking berries is always fun!
We ride our bikes
We like to go for a walk and play at the park
Playing at the park.
Go for walks.
We love to just go walking in the mountains finding some little waterfalls!
We love to play catch, walk the dog and ride our bikes.
We plan activities which usually includes a picnic lunch or snacks – anything from hikes to playing at the park or splashpads and the beach! YEAH!
We like to go on nature walks and camping.
We spend most of our time outdoors in the pool.
We like to go hiking in the woods around here.
we like to go to the park in the summertime! 🙂
we love hiking and the beach
I love hiking with my family.
The simplest outdoor activity we do as a family is run around with the dogs. We have a Great Dane and it’s an event! 😀
we go swimming and to baseball games
Going to the pool
We love to go hiking
Just playing catch or helping my boys with batting practice. I love it as much as they do.
We like to go for walks and play with bubbles outside.
When kids were growing up it was go swimming anto go fishing.
Swimming, Biking, BBQ’ing and fishing!
We love to hang out in the backyard and cook BBQ
We like to play ball outside.
We love gardening and playing basketball with the kiddos!
Head to the beach
We would take the boys to the park , Bar-B-Q and play some football and horse shoes !
We like to go camping in the mountains near our home.
We love taking hikes, going to parks, fishing and boating!
We like to go hiking here on our 200 acres.
We love going on bike rides together and having picnics.
I love to take my twins geocaching!
We like camping and walking the trails
Swimming, going to the park and for hikes!
We love camping and fishing.
No kids. Growing up we always were out fishing during the summer months.
Thanks for the contest.
slehan at juno dot com
We love the beach
Fishing is the top activity, followed by hiking.
I love to take them to the lake for a swim.
we love walking over to the lake.
We like to take simple walks sometimes. Not really a “hike” so much as an easy walk with just a couple of water bottles and a small snack.
We love camping and fishing.
Picnic. You don’t even have to leave home for this one. Simply take whatever food you were planning to eat and lay down a picnic mat or blanket outside in the yard.
Great ideas for outdoor activities. We love being active outdoors with the kids and spend a ton of time camping with the kids.
We enjoy going camping even though we haven’t done it in a couple of years. We also have a couple of nice walking trails in the area.
Fishing is always fabulous. Great me time.
I cannot wait to go fishing again! It has been like maybe 21 years since I last went!
My husband is the fisherman in our family. We are lucky we can fish so easily here in Florida!
We’ve spent most of our summer outdoors. We love to go crabbing, fishing and spending the days at the beach.
We are always trying to explore as much as we can locally because we don’t like sticking around home all summer. One of our favorites is trying to find water to swim.
Any time there’s water involved, the kids have a great time. We love anything we can do outdoors.
These are great activities to do with kids. We love to go for hikes. We always look for treasure while we walk.
When my kids were growing up we went camping at Doheny Beach and Yosemite National Park every summer.
All of these are great ideas and most don’t cost you a dime! We have not been camping in so long!
What a fun time! It’s nice to be able to fish on nice days like this. It’s cool that you have a nice pier nearby! We have a few rivers but no beaches!
We love to do all of these! One of our favorite things to do is go fishing while we camp. It’s a lot of fun.
We are beach bums, so we are at the beach as much as possible. We love it.
We like to go hiking, geocaching, & playing in the sprinkler during the summer.
Aside from hiking, we like to hike on our 200 acre farm and have picnics. Liked on FB as Michelle Lee Hill
Fishing is our most loved. Also, we like taking a row boat out on the lake. Hiking and camping we also like.
Our local park system has a lot of activities for kids and families. It’s a good way to get outdoors and stay active.
We love to go hiking and exploring outside! We also love fishing 🙂 Liked on fb as Kim Henley