During the bleak months of winter, the cold air, dark nights, snowy fields and icy sidewalks can greatly limit the amount of time kids can spend outside. While spring offers a plethora of highly anticipated sunny days, the weather can still be pretty unpredictable. As they say, “April showers bring May flowers!” Because of the inconsistent weather, it’s important to have a list of both outdoor and indoor activities for the kids on hand for when they’re driving you crazy! Of course, there are plenty of potential screen-free activities for kids when fun times are limited to indoors only—we would know, since our StairSlide is one of the best indoor activities ever!
According to NI Direct, play has a positive impact on the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children. Play serves as a valuable tool for children to learn about the world around them and gain self-awareness. Additionally, play equips them with important skills that are essential for academic success, professional growth, and healthy relationships, including building confidence. While screens increase anxiety and stress for kids, creative play reduces it.
Screens are far from being the best thing in life—at StairSlide, we know that real life exists in, well, real life. Once the air warms enough to melt the snow, encourage little green tendrils of life to sprout from the earth, and bring all the animals out of hibernation, that’s when the real excitement of life begins!
We’ve put together a list of the best 10 spring activities for kids to help you and your kids have the best, most well-lived and exciting spring yet! Keep reading for scavenger hunt ideas, easy garden ideas, and other spring activity ideas for kids!
1. Turn the Staircase into a Slide!
As you are already most likely very well aware, kids LOVE slides. Having a StairSlide to pull out on a rainy spring day will no doubt keep the kids entertained for hours on end! You deserve a break, and the kids need rainy day activities that keep them off the screen. Stack some pillows at the bottom of the slide to create a soft landing and watch the kids go wild. Maybe even give the kids some extra blankets and chairs so they can make a fort to slide into!
The most popular StairSlide is our Original 4-pack. This will cover 12 steps of your staircase. A typical flight of stairs has 13-16 steps, but if your stairs are bigger, the 5-pack or the 6-pack will provide even more of a thrill for the kids! You can race each other to see who can slide down the fastest, or you can bring along some pieces of cardboard to slide down even faster!
Bring the amusement park to you!
2. Paint or Draw Together
Creating art is the best way to intentionally notice, observe, and appreciate the world around you. Painting or drawing outside or inside is a great way to fully immerse yourself and your kids in the emergence of spring. Watercolors are easy and fun to use, but drawing with colored pencils or even just a simple pen can be just as enjoyable! Try picking one thing to all paint at the same time to compare how you each choose to portray it through your own unique artistic styles, or try finding individual objects such as flowers, trees, or cloudy skies to paint instead!
3. Springtime Baking Activities for Kids
Even though spring calls for outside adventures, there are still plenty of things to do inside, and baking is one of them! Switch out your winter snowflake and candy cane-shaped cookie cutters for flowers and baby bird-shaped cookie cutters, and whip up some pastel-colored buttercreams for frosting your springtime sugar cookies. For something a little more advanced and exciting, try baking lemon bars or berry cobbler—lemons and berries always taste like spring!
4. Venture Outside for a Spring-Inspired Scavenger Hunt
Flowers, green leaves, and baby birds are exciting anytime you see them, but especially at the start of spring, when life on earth is starting anew and nature’s colors are just barely starting to fill the world again. You can make up your own scavenger hunt list based on what items specific to your own neighborhood, or you can use these ideas to get started!
Spring Scavenger Hunt: Ideas of What to Look For
- Pink blossoms
- A birds nest (but don’t touch it—let the baby birds stay safe with their mama birds!)
- A bumble bee
- A funny-shaped cloud
- A lady bug
- Water (puddle, stream, or pond!)
- A yellow flower
- A spider’s web
- A green leaf
- A feather
- Heart-shaped rock
- A yellow leaf
- An acorn
5. Gather and Press Wildflowers
While we wouldn’t suggest picking your neighbor’s prized tulips or plucking every single yellow flower from your own front lawn, finding wildflowers to gather and press is a great springtime activity for kids. To make the search for flowers even more exciting, visit your local library and read up on local flower varieties, or check out a flower identification book and use it to identify the flowers you find while out in nature. Doing so will help you and your kids engage more fully with the nature right around you, and pressing the flowers you find can help begin a beautiful collection that you’ll treasure for years to come—or at least until the next springtime, when you can once again gather wildflowers as they spring to life.
6. Plant a Springtime Garden
Planting a springtime garden can help kids learn about plant life cycles, the importance of caring for living things, and to appreciate the food they get to eat. Plus, there are few things more exciting than watching a seed magically turn into a tiny sprout poking up out of the soil. If you want to watch the roots grow to observe germination, “planting” a bean in a plastic bag with a wet paper towel is a great option. If planting in actual soil is more what you’re going for, and if you want to eventually eat the fruits of your labors, some of the easiest plants to grow are peas, radishes, and basil. Of course, flowers are also a great option for planting!
7. Pack a Picnic for the Park!
Nothing says spring has sprung more enthusiastically than a springtime picnic in the park. Fill a basket or bag with all your favorite snacks (hats off to you if you take the time to prepare the snacks yourself, which would make your picnic all the more memorable!), grab a blanket, and head to your favorite park for a pleasant afternoon outside. Make sure you find some shade under a tree or use sunscreen after all those days spent inside hiding from the cold!
8. Search for Fairies and Forest Creatures
Spring is a magical time, and what is more magical than fairies and other magical creatures? Nature is full of flowers that can serve as fairy hats, long grasses that can be braided into rope, and acorn caps that can become little fairy bowls. Try gathering sticks to build little houses, and always keep your eyes open to spot the magical creatures as they hide behind trees and flowers!
9. Paint a Birdhouse
Painting a birdhouse is one of the best spring activities for kids—not only do they get to creatively express themselves by choosing colors, shapes, and designs to paint on a wooden birdhouse (which you could easily find at your local craft store or online), but painting it is only the beginning of the fun! Once the paint has dried, fill your birdhouse with bird food, hang it outside, and wait to watch the birds come and visit!
10. Don’t Shy Away From the Rain!
You know the saying, “April showers bring May flowers,” and spring rain definitely isn’t limited to the month of April. Spring brings more sunshine, and it can often bring more rain as well—but don’t let that stop you from enjoying all that spring has to offer! Throw on some rain boots and rain jackets, and go find the best puddles out there to jump in!