During the winter, you can’t blame your kids for wanting to stay indoors. Not only can freezing temperatures be unpleasant, but they can actually be dangerous. When things start to warm up in the spring however, it’s the perfect time to send your kids Outdoors to play.

Some kids love to play outside while others would rather play video games. So, how do you motivate your kids to get up off the couch? Here are some tips for encouraging your kids to spend more time outside this spring and summer:

• Take some of your child’s favorite indoor toys and move them outside. Things like figurines, blocks, and dress-up can be done just as easily outdoors as indoors.
• Set up an outdoor game for your child to learn such as croquet or give them the supplies and encourage them to make up their own game.
• Give your child a bucket of sidewalk chalk and suggest that they draw out a city on the driveway complete with roads, stop signs, buildings, and more all drawn out.
• Invite some of your child’s friends over for a playdate and give them outdoor activities such as water balloons, sidewalk chalk, and bubbles to keep them occupied.
• Take your child to a park or nature reserve to explore a new place together while enjoying the great outdoors.
• Teach your child about gardening and work together to plant some herbs or flowers – you can also get your child involved in outdoor chores like weeding.
• Build or buy your child an outdoor playset complete with swings, slide, climbing wall and more. You can also get creative and build a treehouse as an alternative.
• Teach your child about birdwatching and local wildlife so they are excited to go outside on their own and look for new animals – you might even have them start a notebook to record their sightings.
• Take your child to the public pool along with some of his friends to spend the day – you can even turn it into a weekly or weekend tradition.
• Teach your child how to rollerblade, ride a bike, or use a scooter and let them ride around the neighborhood (depending on age and safety, of course).
• Take a walk with your child to a local ice cream shop or business district to do some shopping.
• Set up a craft table for your child outside. Put down a table cover and let your child go wild with everything from markers to glitter – it’ll be much easier to clean up outside anyway.
• Do some of the activities you would normally do indoors outside – you can sit in a comfy outdoor chair and read to your child or work on homework together on your deck.

Every child is different, so the things that motivate your child might not work on another child. Try some of the tips provided above to see what speaks to your child and keep at it – the more you encourage your child to spend time outdoors, the better!