50 Backyard Activities For Family Fun All Summer Long

Want to enrich your family culture, enjoy the delights of nature, and engage your minds and bodies? Have a blast with these 50 backyard activities for family fun all summer long!

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Summer is great for so many things – family vacations, backyard barbecues, flourishing gardens… And I love it all! It’s also the perfect time for drawing closer as a family. And one of the best ways to do that – while also getting away from the screens, moving our bodies, and enjoying the beautiful outdoors – is to gather in the backyard and have some family fun. Need some ideas? Check out this mega list of fabulously fun backyard activities!

50 Backyard Activities for Family Fun

Want to enrich your family culture, enjoy the delights of nature, and engage your minds and bodies? Have a blast with these 50 backyard activities for family fun all summer long!

Have a picnic — Follow these tips for the best family picnics!
Try one of these super fun water activities
Play a lawn game such as lawn bowling, croquet, ladder toss, corn hole, ring toss, lawn darts, bocce ball, Slammo (spike ball), Yardzee, lawn Jenga, or lawn Connect Four
Conduct an outdoor science experiment — We LOVE our DK Smithsonian Maker Lab: Outdoors book!
Play tag
Read outside
Have an outdoor tea party
Go on a nature scavenger hunt — You can adapt this one for summer!
Stargaze — Here’s a great beginner’s telescope!
Make an obstacle course
Have a race – Foot, potato sack, pillowcase, etc.
Play hide-and-seek
Make a nature craft
Draw/paint pictures
Camp out in the backyard
Watch the clouds
Throw a frisbee — We love these Activ Flyers
Make sidewalk chalk art
Play with bubbles
Go birdwatching — We have these binoculars for the kids, and they’ve held up well!
Collect bugs
Plant a backyard garden
Make a fort
Roast marshmallows or make s’mores
Take pictures
Paint rocks — These paint pens make it easy!
Paint with items from nature: leaves, twigs, flowers, pinecones, rocks, grasses, etc.
Write/tell stories
Make flower jewelry
Set up a zipline — Did you know there are backyard zipline kits??
Have a backyard BBQ — Be sure to include some of these delicious barbecue side dishes!
Play catch — With a good old fashioned baseball and glove, a toss and catch set, or a pop and catch game
Work on ball skills
Watch a movie with an outdoor movie projector
Make mud “pies”
Have a NERF gun battle
Play with outdoor blocks
Set up a sandbox — I love these with the covers and foldable bench seats!
Play water pong
Wash the cars or bikes
Fly a kite (or a drone)
Cook over a campfire
Build a treehouse
Play one of these pool noodle games
Make a DIY climbing wall
Host an outdoor music concert
Fly paper airplanes
Relax in a hammock, hammock chair, or swing
Play card games
Enjoy meaningful family conversation

The possibilities for backyard activities are limitless! There are so many fun options, and basically anything you do inside can be brought outdoors. Get the kids (and adults!) off screens and devices, gather in the backyard, and have a blast together as a family this summer.

Want more ideas for family fun and bonding? Check out some of these family-building posts: