~ Grow a garden – even container gardens will produce color and veggies for healthy, low-cost summer meals.
~ Grow a theme garden with a child or for the child in you.
~ Explore the garden with a magnifying glass.
~ Cook outside – eat outside. Keep the heat out of the kitchen and enjoy the summer colors and sounds.
~ Camp-out – whether in a national or state park or in your own backyard, it’s a chance to enjoy nature up close and personal.
~ Make s’mores.
~ Make homemade ice cream. Use fresh seasonal fruits like strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, peaches and apricots for natural flavor.
~ Make Kool-aid popsicles.  For more nutritious treats, make fruit juice popsicles or freeze grapes for a fun snack!
~ Hike.
~ Bike.
~ Make a kite.
~ Fly a kite.
~ Play backyard games with the family like croquet, badminton, volleyball and Frisbee.
~ Walk the dog.
~ Wash the dog and get wet with the dog.
~ Draw chalk pictures on the sidewalk or driveway.
~ Make homemade lemonade. Add strawberries, blackberries and raspberries for flavor and garnish.
~ Go to the park and enjoy the swings, slides, teeter-totters, monkey bars.
~ Blow bubbles.
~ Attend local t-ball, baseball and softball games.
~ Get an inexpensive disposable camera for your child to record his/her summer memories. Help him write a story or make a scrapbook about his summer.
~ Read a book. Even better – read several books.
~ Attend summer reading programs for children and adults at your local library.
~ Build a treehouse.
~ Clean out your junk drawer and give kids an assortment of safe and age-appropriate objects to create a piece of art.
~ Explore the garden with a magnifying glass.
~ Go swimming.
~ Go fishing.
~ Go barefoot in the grass.
~ Make ice cream floats.
~ Attend local festivals and band concerts. Most are free like Chautauqua and Shakespeare performances.
~ Visit the zoo.
~ Visit local museums.
~  Star gaze.
~ Take a family night walk around the neighborhood. The world is different after dark.
~ Catch lightning bugs – then release.
~ Take a technology break or vacation for a day – or more.

Check out more nature ideas in Richard Louv’s book, Last Child in the Woods.