If you're looking for nature based play activities with wooden toys and backyard games for your kids, we have 3 fun and inexpensive activities for your kids to enjoy in your yard. These nature play activities will entertain, teach and engage your children.

Plus, these nature based play ideas will spark your child's imagination and curiosity, while simultaneously fostering their creativity and love for the outdoors. Raising little tree huggers like we are? Print our FREE Love The Earth Activity Packet for your kids so you’ve got your next rainy day inside activity ready to go.

The ideas I’m sharing with you today will remind you of the good old fashioned outdoor play you enjoyed in your backyard when you were a child. Isn't that something we all wish that kids today could enjoy?

Simple play, uninhibited by batteries or screens. Just nature.

Imaginary Outdoor Play With Wands

As a parent of young children you have a front-row seat to some of the most imaginative theater ever produced by your child! With the help of nothing more than a magic wand, your child can enter a magical world where she stars as the princess, sprinkles fairy dust, and fights off evil forces. All with the outdoors as her fairy kingdom.

Imaginative play fosters creativity, promotes physical development, provides an opportunity for kids to develop and practice their language and social skills, and boosts their development of problem solving and self-regulation skills. Check out our personalized magic wand (or camera imagination toy) to spark the creativity within!

ABC Outdoor Scavenger Hunt with Alphabet Blocks

Get your kids moving this summer and make learning fun with an ABC Scavenger Hunt using our handmade wooden Alphabet Blocks or picture alphabet blocks.

Simply put your alphabet blocks in a crate or bowl and let your child choose a block. Have them identify the letter (uppercase and lowercase) they selected, and then search the outdoors for something that begins with the letter on the block.

This activity promotes letter recognition, which in turn helps your little one feel more equipped to figure out how printed text is associated with the spoken language. And with an entire alphabet at your fingertips, this can turn into a multi-day activity.  Just pick up where you left off the next time you’re outside!

TIP #1: if you don’t have letter blocks handy, alphabet flashcards or moveable uppercase and lowercase alphabet letter sets also work great.

TIP #2: our FREE Animal Alphabet Coloring Book is a perfect rainy day companion for this activity; use it for anindoorABC scavenger hunt within your home!

Sidewalk Chalk Outdoor Play With Wooden Trucks and Cars

Do your young children love to play with their toy cars and trucks? Use your colorful chalk to draw a highway on the sidewalk complete with intersections and stop signs. Then your children can race their wooden cars and old school trucks all around the roadway.

This activity will help your child tune their fine motor skills and encourage imaginative play without boundaries.  You’ll be amazed at the creative sidewalk scapes they create!

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There you have it! Three simple nature based play activities that you can do TODAY with your little one. Share this blog with another nature-loving mama you know who’ll also enjoy some sunshine and fresh air through creative play with her little ones.