Fun Ideas for Patio Play

Chalk, we paint on the patio (on paper) and sometimes on the concrete with washable paint. Do you have a table for them? I love letting them use playdo outside since it's easy to clean up! What about a sand 'container' so it's small enough that it won't be a total disaster but not too small? You can do the water table when it's not super cold but just add warm water (and dish detergent for bubbles). We sit on our deck and play ball (catching and throwing or rolling or one of us uses a collander to catch the ball in it). Read books outside on a blanket and pillows. Do you have a tent? Pitch that up for a day.

We bought (with kids birthday money) a trampoline for our summer home. Kids are 3 and 5. They love it ,and my husband and I too. They vary in size and price, it's great.

Bean bag toss, look on craigslist for a used little tikes playground, we got ours for $20. Bib bouncy ball, chalk, bubbles, make an out door toy box, Fill with big legos like the big big ones, buckets, boxes, just anything big and plasticy. Kids play with anything like that. Well, mine do, they build with them, fill it with other toys, make believe stuff. Play lawnmower, or that annoying push popping toy, haha. Have fun!

I hung a swing from the rafters on our covered patio. They have a basket of outside toys out there. Sidewalk chalk, bubbles, bulldozers, shovel and pail, jump rope. We have tricycles, bycicles, scooters, and bigwheels all lined up in the garage and ready to go. We have a sind pit in one area of the yard. We dug up all the grass and dumped a ton of sand on top. NOw my son takes his trucks, tractors, bulldozers and plays for hours.

We are in FL, so still swimming weather here, but my daughter loves her ball pit! We bought a blowup swimming pool, end of season last year so we paid $2 for it. Then I filled it with those ball pit balls. I bought them on black Friday so I only paid $6 for each bag. Now it stays on the patio so I don't have to clean the balls up inside constantly.