Staycation Ideas… What is a staycation? Staycation Definition.
STAYCATION IDEAS: How to Plan a Backyard Family Vacation.
“Do you need to stay near home this summer? Top 10 Tips to enjoying a great staycation in your own family yard!”
Right now, can you name all the wildlife that lives just around your house? Squirrels. Mice. Birds. Insects. Did you know that there are thousands of plants and animals right outside your doors? Can you name them? Can you FIND them?
Your backyard, always excellent for your health and well-being, can do even more for families this summer by becoming a Staycation Location.
Staycation Definition. As TurfMutt explained in a press release: “First it was the COVID-19 pandemic, and now it’s financial and climate change events keeping more people close to home. A backyard vacation can be a fun way to spend time together and build new memories as a family while spending time in green space. Here are our Staycation ideas.”
How do you energize and inspire your family about a backyard vacation and organize some amazing fun time?
Here are Ten Tips to help you create that great Summer Vacation at Home. A few tips are from us ol’ Civilized Bears. A lot more from the TurfMutt environmental education and stewardship program.
Top Ten Staycation Ideas
1. Make a backyard summer staycation plan. Create an easy schedule with a mixture of activities that your family will enjoy. Like dining, camping and games. Add a theme for the week, day or evening. A Luau theme can be carried through with costumes, food and activities. A sports theme can have everyone in team jerseys and doing sports activities. Use creative names for meals and activities to spice things up.
Even if you don’t have a pool, children’s water play misters or sprinklers can help everyone cool off in the backyard (provided your area is not under drought conditions).
2. Map where activities will happen in the yard. A lawn area may be the site of a soccer game, bocce ball or croquet, but it can also double as an overnight camping zone for the kids in a family tent. The fire pit can be used for roasting hot dogs for lunch or s’mores at night. Time for crafts, potting plants, and eating can happen at a picnic or dining table.
3. Assess what you have and consider their creative uses. Lounge chairs, sports and play equipment can be used for their original purposes, but they can also become part of an amazing obstacle course. The wheelbarrow used for gardening and yard work can become part of a family field day: “Wheelbarrow rides!”
The playset your children adore can become a breakfast spot or reading area.
4. Spruce up your yard. Mow the lawn and trim the bushes. Tidy overgrown areas. Add flowering plants and rearrange planters for visual appeal. Put delicate flowers in pots and out of the way of foot traffic.
Now may be the time to add a picnic table, a badminton net or croquet course, planters, patio, grill, fire pit, or pergola to your backyard.
5. Plant a vegetable garden. Do you have lots of planters? Instead of flowers, plant veggies! Easily grown vegetables include potatoes, peas, onions and runner beans. Radishes are the easiest — let your youngest kid plant ’em. Other faves include beets, tomatoes and red bell peppers.
More Staycation ideas…
6. Build anticipation. Talk about your backyard vacation in advance with your family and review your plans. Count down the days to build excitement about spending time together in your family yard.
7. Organize for fun. Identify zones for different activities. Dining, lounging and reading may be best in shady spots. Sports, family yard games and tossing a ball to your dog may be better on a lawn that can handle rough and tumble play. Hammocks, lawn chairs, swings, picnic blankets and air mattresses can all provide a place for people to sit down and cool off.
“Bring the Beach to Your Beautiful Backyard!”
And put local seashells in the sand so you can identify their species…
8. Include teachings about backyard wildlife and nature. This can be the Real Fun one! Kids love animals. All their lives they’ve watched them on TV. Asked you to read their favorite animal tales. Played with pets. Maybe visited wildlife refuges.
Ask your children to take an inventory of the many birds, butterflies and other wildlife they see on your own property, looking up their species and background. Put up a bird feeder or plant a butterfly garden, as well as potted flowering plants to support birds and pollinators. Add wind chimes, rain collectors, or backyard thermometers and wind gauges to help kids observe science in action.
9. Design new games incorporating your green space. Hold a nature scavenger hunt that’s fun, educational and tests your family’s observational skills. Create a “drive-in” movie theater by bringing laptops outside or a projector to show them on a sheet hung outside.
And here’s a totally different — but age-old — way of getting back to Nature:
10. Tell scary stories in the dark! Telling ghost stories, scary camping stories or wild animal stories in the dark is still a thrilling way to end the day. After you have eaten your BBQ meal, turn off as many backyard lights as possible and gather around in a circle. Recapture that old experience of being alone in the Wild. Tell a story from memory — or read short stories from a paper book, ebook or tablet/laptop. Scary is the keyword. Be willing to unleash your deepest fears.
“Ten great Staycation ideas!”
Yup, you can stay home and still have a great vacation. Your kids will have a whole new appreciation of the living world around them. And you’ve had some great Family Time.
“Live Free, Mon Ami” – Brian Alan Burhoe
Did You Like This Animal & Nature Related Post?
THEN YOU’VE GOTTA READ WOLFBLOOD — MY MOST POPULAR ANIMAL STORY — Even Read It To The Kids…
“I JUST READ WOLFBLOOD AGAIN FOR GOOD MEASURE. ONE FOR ANY WOLF LOVER. ENJOYED IT BUT WISH IT WAS A FULL LENGTH NOVEL.” – Gina Chronowicz @ginachron
“GREAT SHORT STORY! DOES REMIND ME OF CALL OF THE WILD, WHITE FANG…” – Evelyn @evelyn_m_k
An “exciting, spectacular and warm-hearted” tale in the Jack London Tradition of a lone Timber Wolf and its hunt for a place in the Northern forests. FREE ==> WOLFBLOOD: A Wild Wolf, A Half-Wild Husky & A Wily Old Trapper
“Saving the Planet One Yard at a Time.”
For more information and tips about living landscapes, backyard learning and Staycation ideas visit Turfmutt Foundation.
About TurfMutt: “TurfMutt was created by the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute’s (OPEI) TurfMutt Foundation and has reached more than 70 million children, educators and families since 2009. Through classroom materials developed with Scholastic, TurfMutt teaches students and teachers how to ‘save the planet, one yard at a time.’
TurfMutt is an official USGBC® Education Partner and part of their global LEARNING LAB. TurfMutt is an education resource at the U.S. Department of Education’s Green Ribbon Schools, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Green Apple, the Center for Green Schools, the Outdoors Alliance for Kids, the National Energy Education Development (NEED) project, Climate Change Live, Petfinder and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In 2017, the TurfMutt animated video series won the coveted Cynopsis Kids Imagination Award for Best Interstitial Series. TurfMutt’s personal, home habitat is featured in the Wildlife Habitat Council calendars. More information at www.TurfMutt.com.”
Sources: TurfMutt Foundation, PR Newswire & Civilized Bears.
Updated May 4, 2023.
STAYCATION IDEAS: How to Plan a Backyard Family Vacation – Staycation Definition.
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