The Canadian Kids’ Guide to Outdoor Fun: A Book Review

In this quintessential guide to summer activities, kids will learn the old-fashioned joys of creating their own fun!

Parents and kids alike will absolutely love this boredom-busting guide to outdoor and indoor summer fun! Filled with hundreds of ideas for games with friends, solo activities, DIY projects, recipes and fascinating fun facts, this book will teach kids just how much there is to do when the screens are turned off.

Kids will learn:

How to catch a fish
How to crack a code
How to master canoe strokes
How to make fresh lemonade (complete with an economics lesson about selling at a lemonade stand!)
How to put on a play
How to do rock art
How to make a tie-dyed shirt
Games for surviving car trips
And so much more!

Appealing to a wide range of ages, abilities, and timeframes, The Canadian Kid’s Guide to Outdoor Fun will connect kids to the world around them and to one another. Some activities are classics, some will get them started on a new adventure, but each and every one is safe, easy, instant and requires virtually no adult intervention ― except to join in the fun, of course!

THOUGHTS ON THE CANADIAN KIDS’ GUIDE TO OUTDOOR FUN BOOK

Summer is coming! And with summer comes many wonderful opportunities to be outside. But what if your kids don’t like to be outside? What if they don’t know what to do, or are easily bored? What if they like outside but need new ideas and inspiration? Enter The Canadian Kids’ Guide to Outdoor Fun by Helaine Becker, a Canadian book full of simple and engaging ideas to enjoy the great outdoors during summertime! 

The Canadian Kids’ Guide to Outdoor Fun is a colourful book full of lots of great ideas! The book comes in a large format (8×10 inches) which makes it easy to look through. It is divided into sections called “Get Out There”, “Make a Splash”, “Time to Play” and “Around the Campfire”. Ideas include activities such as how to build the perfect campfire, do-it-yourself waterproof matches, secrets of the moon, fun with improv, summer book club, how to fish, pen and paper games, canoe how-to’s, tie-dye, and many, many game ideas! Although some of the ideas I have done before, many are new to me. It’s very nice to have all the ideas in one resource as sometimes it can be hard to remember ideas in the moment! This way we can just grab the book and know that many great ideas are at our fingertips without any thinking effort. This is great for a busy family like mine! There is a huge variety of games and activities so there’s bound to be something to suit everyone’s interests! 

I wish that some of the activities where kids are learning about a topic went a little bit more in depth (for example, learning about moon phases and accompanying activity), however, they are meant to be fun and engaging for kids so it’s probably best to keep them short and keep kids’ attention. Other resources could be added if the child had the interest. 

It’s always a goal of mine to make sure my kids have lots of outdoor time and enjoy the summer weather while it lasts. There are so many ideas in this book that there is something to suit a wide range of ages and interests. I’m sure this book will get lots of use at my house! My kids and I have lots of new inspiration for summer 2022 and beyond! 

Although this book was given to me by Scholastic for the purpose of review, all opinions are my own.