Outdoor Fun

This book provides over 100 different activities to get toddlers outside and to help parents feel capable of providing fun, engaging, entertaining outdoor activities that toddlers and parents can do together.

A month-by-month collection of 365 easy and enjoyable ways to connect as a family and explore life outdoors. These activities give families an idea for every day of the year, requiring little planning, no expertise, and relatively few resources (time, cash, or patience!), no matter where they live.

Parents and caregivers will learn how to play with babies in ways that support their social, language, and motor development.

Video Duration: 16 min

The outdoors is as valuable for babies as it is for older children, and this film shows how the close adult can bring the outside world alive for them.

Video Duration: 53 min

This book explains why unrestrained movement and outdoor play are vital for children’s cognitive development, and offers fun, engaging activities to help ensure that kids grow into healthy, balanced, and resilient adults.

Taking a lighthearted approach to the serious business of parenting, This book offers new ideas for parents who are looking for fun and educational activities that they can do with their kids but that are also fun and interesting for the parents themselves.

Fun picture book for families with , includes large picture spreads for easy viewing and explains that bugs live nearly everywhere on Earth. Also, gives children and parents tips on how to become a young bug spotter.

This book explores common play challenges and intervention techniques to use when you observe children struggling to play. Focusing on large motor and outdoor play activities, this book also includes background information and sensory-integration play tips from an experienced occupational therapist.

Full of case studies and ideas for activities, equipment and resources, this book is full of useful guidance for working outdoors with young children. 

This book introduces how to grow and care for plants.

Whether there are pastures or skyscrapers outside your door, the world around you is rich with learning opportunities. Walking trips are a terrific—and inexpensive—way for children to explore and experience the community.

This book presents 52 open-ended activities to help you engage your child in the outdoors. No matter what your location—from a small patch of green in the city to the wide-open meadows of the country—each activity is meant to promote exploration, stimulate imagination, and heighten a child’s sense of wonder.

Jacob does not ride on his father’s back any more. He is helping his daddy today, pushing his little sister in a stroller to the park. His little sister is as cute as a button, but my, she is a wild thing! She runs everywhere in the park. Jacob cannot take his eyes off her, running fast to catch her. It s hard! But Jacob knows it s big brother’s job to take good care of little sister.

In this full-color book, teachers and caregivers will find 40 hands-on activities effective in engaging young children in investigating nature, both indoors and outdoors, on the school grounds, and on excursions around the neighborhood.

This book provides tools you need to make outdoor adventures possible in your own backyard. With hundreds of inspiring ides and illustrated step-by-step projects this hardworking book details how to create play spaces that use natural materials.

A counting book in rhyme presents various forest animals and their offspring, from a mother beaver and her “little kit one” to a father red fox and his “little kits ten.” Includes related facts and activities.

A multisensory program that introduces children to a “hands on” second language. This video teaches signs about things found in nature: woodland animals, bugs, and more.

Video Duration: 30 min

This book is filled with ideas for children of all ages finding fun learning opportunities in everyday occurrences, from using laundry to teach sorting to exploring growth cycles in the garden.

This book invites you and your family to connect, create, and celebrate the outdoors all year long. With more than 50 projects, crafts, and recipes, plus ideas for seasonal celebrations to share with family and friends, there’s fun to be had, all through the year.

With activities that use everyday household materials and require only 5 minutes or less to prepare, this book makes it simple and fast for parents to turn a moment of idleness into playful learning.

The outdoors is as valuable for babies as it is for older children, and this film shows how the close adult can bring the outside world alive for them.

Video Duration: 65 min

The outdoors is a great place to learn about science. This article provides examples of ways young children can engage with the environment and build their understanding of nature.

From National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). This article offers an evidence-based approach to planning your outdoor play space for caregivers.

Infants and toddlers are natural scientists. This article explains scientific inquiry, which allows children to develop a range of skills across all domains of development.

These tip sheets can help families with young children plan and grow a garden from seed.

This collection of tip sheets provides information on Illinois natural environment including animals, plants, and rocks.

This resource provides safety tips for families at the playground.

This webinar, hosted by New America, highlights opportunities to build outdoor learning opportunities that help young children thrive, especially children who may lack access to safe parks, nearby nature, or free time with family.

This video provides some general and specific information about child development as it relates to exploration, share why outings are important, and offer some suggestions that you might find helpful for your next outing.

This NAEYC article provides families with few steps to take to guide children’s exploration of the great outdoors.

This digital guide for families, from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, addresses five reasons, five ways, five places, and five times to connect and play in nature. Association of Zoos & Aquariums.

The birds are singing and little green shoots are popping up out of the ground. Springtime has arrived in Illinois. There is new activity in our neighborhoods as people are getting out and walking their dogs, pushing babies in strollers, and holding the hands of toddlers as they make their way down the sidewalk.

Infants and toddlers learn about their environment through their senses. Families and providers can be intentional about outdoor play by considering the activities and experiences for young children.

This resource includes ideas, games, and activities that families of young children can do outside.

This paper explores the benefits of outdoor time for infants and toddlers in center-based, family child care, and home-based programs.