7 Cool Activities to Do With Your Kids on Hot Days

As the summer sun blazes and temperatures soar, keeping cool becomes a challenge, especially for our young adventurers.

While trips to the sea or pool are fantastic, not everyone has easy access to these watery refuges. Yes, you'll find me there most days with my family, but at forest school today, we couldn't simply down tools and take 24 children to the sea.

At Kids Adventurist, we believe in making the most of the outdoors, even during a heatwave, so we've put together a list of seven chilled activities you can do with your children when you need a bit of cooling off time together.

1. Nature Ice Treasures

A simple captivating sensory activity that’s sure to cool things down. Gather small natural items from your garden like leaves, flowers, and twigs. Place them in ice cube trays, fill with water, and freeze overnight. The next day, take the frozen treasures outside and let your kids play with them, explore, chip away at them as they melt. It's a refreshing way for them to cool down as well as learn about freezing and melting processes.

2. Ice-Cool Watercolour Art

You don't need fancy watercolour paints if you don't have them. Experiment with grating chalk (on a cheese grater you no longer need!) into an old yogurt pot and mixing it with tiny bit of water. Then, using an ice cube as your paintbrush, paint away to your heart's content, and it will give a lovely watercolor effect!

3. Mud Kitchen Masterpieces

Mud kitchens are a staple of forest school activities. If you have space in your garden, you dno't need a fancy shmancy hand crafted mud kitchen. You only need a couple of old pans, beakers and of course some mud to see what your little adventurists can create. Add in some things like long grass or straw to their mud and see what sort of magical mud cakes they can create!

Add cold water to the mix to keep things cool. You can even introduce ice cubes into the "recipes" for some frosty fun!

4. Frozen Nature Scavenger Hunt

Prepare ahead for this one, by freezing small toys or natural items in blocks of ice (or wrapped sweets if you fancy a sweet treat). Once solid, hide these ice blocks around your outdoor space. You could also wrap their treasures in foil, so they're not sure what they've found until the ice has fully melted (or they've chipped away at it).

Challenge your children to find and free the treasures by melting the ice on a tray in the sun, and timing which items melt the fastest. It's a fun way to stay cool while engaging in a bit of a treasure hunt - who says we can only go on egg / chocolate hunts in easter?!

5. Shaded Storytime Circles

Find a cool, shady spot under a tree or build your own micro shelter with a few sticks and a simple blanket and and enjoy some outdoors storytime.

Reading outdoors not only keeps you out of the direct sun but also connects children with nature in a peaceful and calming way - without them really realising it.

6. Leaf and Flower Ice Prints

Collect differently shaped leaves and flowers from around your garden or local park. Place them on paper and cover with crushed ice. As the ice melts, the natural colors from the leaves and flowers will bleed onto the paper, creating unique and beautiful prints. This activity is both artistic and a lesson in plant biology - but don't tell them that - they're learning naturally ;-)

7. Outdoor Zen Gardens

Create mini zen gardens using shallow trays filled with sand. Provide your children with sticks, stones, and other natural materials you can find (you can use man made ones too like little yoghurt pots for zen swimming pools) to design their own serene spaces.

The cool sand and tactile activity can be quite soothing. Plus, it's a wonderful way to teach mindfulness and appreciation of nature.

That's it for now - just a few activities to help your kids beat the heat if it's all getting a bit much, but also to keep them engaged and having fun in the great outdoors.

Let us know how you get on or what you get up to in the comments or tag us with your creations or activities on your creations.

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