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Need ideas for beach activities with kids year round? And preferably ideas that don’t require lugging around a huge tote of toys? Try these!
Whenever we go to the beach, we bring a specific beach bag, that is stocked with sand toys and a few essentials for creative play. Aside from the sand toys, I almost always bring some kind of paper (like a mini notebook), something to draw with, a couple empty containers, and small scissors. Occasionally, I’ll also bring a watercolor set and some string. And that’s basically it, aside from snacks, sunscreen, and beach towels.
We try to keep it easy, so we can just get going. Sometimes the beach chairs make their way in and sometimes they don’t. But once we get there, we all take some time to do our own thing for a bit. Relaxing for the grownups and sand play for the kiddo.
And then after a while, we’ll all do activities together as a family. We almost always search for rocks and shells or go for a walk. And more recently we started bringing a kite, which has been nice for windy days.
Once we’ve done those couple of things that we so frequently do, we’ll switch it up with some activities outside of our typical beach routine. If you’re searching for something like that to do too, here’s a list of creative beach ideas to try with your family…
Fun activities at the beach (for kids)
1. Beach tic-tac-toe
Use shells and pebbles as Xs and Os and draw a grid in the sand. And maybe save some of the shells you find to make some seashell crafts at home later as well.
2. Ocean potion
Set up a pretend lab using cups or jars and natural ingredients like seaweed, crushed shells, sand, saltwater, and flower petals. Kids can mix potions with a stick and give them magical powers and silly names.
3. Sand kitchen
Set up a pretend beach restaurant with seaweed salad, shell soup, and sand smoothies.
4. Nature portraits
Collect shells, seaweed, rocks, and driftwood to create a portrait of a person and have the rest of the family guess who each portrait is supposed to be.
5. Shell painting
Bring a small set of non-toxic paints or food coloring and brushes to decorate shells on-site.
6. Float your boat
Make tiny rafts or sail boats out of sticks, leaves, shells, etc. Decorate them with flags, and set them afloat in shallow pools or tide streams. You may need some string and scissors for this one.
7. Beach scavenger hunt
Make a checklist of things to find: something smooth, something spiky, something green, something shaped like a heart, etc. Or just grab one of my kid scavenger hunt printables and it’s done for you.
8. Cloud acting
Lie on towels and look up at the sky. What do the clouds look like? Are they fluffy or wispy? Do they move fast or slow? Do they look like anything you recognize? Can you act out a few of the clouds you see and mimic their movement or the way they take up space?
9. Natural sand dyeing
Bring powdered food coloring or beetroot/ turmeric and let kids experiment dyeing small patches of sand using water and color. Watch how the colors spread and mix. This one is probably the most ambitious on the list, since it involves remembering to bring a very specific thing. So, we haven’t tried this one yet.
10. Beach ring toss
Search for 3-5 pieces of driftwood or sticks and poke them into the sand, for a game of ring toss. Pool rings work great for the rings for this one. Or make your own with some cardboard cut into ring shapes (wrap tape around it to give it a little more weight).
11. DIY nature brushes
Create paint brushes from sticks and natural materials like sea grass, feathers, and spongy seaweed. Then ‘paint’ in the sand or on rocks with seawater. You may need some string for this one.
12. Saltwater watercolor
Bring watercolor paper and let kids paint using brushes dipped in seawater. Does the salt water add an interesting textures? Try it out and see for yourself.
13. Sand stamps
Make a stamped work of art by creating imprints in the sand using shells, toys, hands, or even flip-flop soles with interesting patterns.
14. Sand stencil spray art
Make homemade paper stencils (like seashells, turtles, or initials), place them on the sand, and use a spray bottle with colored water to “paint” the designs on the beach. Etsy also has some cute kids stencils as well, if you don’t wanna make your own.
15. Shell rubbings
Use blank notebook pages or thin tracing paper to create little shell rubbings from the shells you spot on the beach. Crayons and colored pencils work the best for rubbings like this.
16. Rock balancing challenge
Find smooth stones and stack them into cool sculptures. This activity is great for patience and coordination.
17. Sand animation
This is the only beach activity that involves screen time, but I think it’s a good one to include because it produces some really great (creative) results. Use a phone or tablet to film a stop-motion animation in the sand. For example, move a series of items around in the sand (likes shells, rocks, stick people, etc) to tell a story of your day at the beach. It helps to have a little tripod for this one, or at least something to rest your phone or tablet on. And leave the video rolling the whole time to avoid changing the placement. Once all the ‘moves’ have been complete, its ready for editing.
Have your own creative activities to add to the list? I’d love to hear what you do as a family when you’re at the beach.
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