Our Backyard Adventure Kit

This post is part of “Your Green Hour Survival Guide,” a series which I hope will provide inspiration to make getting outside every day a habit.

One of the things I mentioned in my “Making Time for a Green Hour: 30-Day Check-In” post last week is the importance of being prepared. Ideas, inspiration and a few tools can come in handy on days when getting outside feels more like a chore than an adventure.

Here’s a look-see at what we’ve gathered from around the house to keep in our backyard adventure kit.

First, there are the tools for exploring:

• Binoculars
• Magnifying glass
• Butterfly nets
• Bug viewer jars
• Camera

We also have our share of books:

• Our backyard field guide 
• Our bird book 
• The big explorer’s nature journal

Along with field guides to birds and garden bugs.

Of course, no backyard adventure kit would be complete without the goodies we have just for fun. Our current favorites are:

• 15 Minutes Outside, which provides plenty of ideas for outdoor fun
• Bubbles
• Paint chips for color walks 
• Nature Circles and Curiosity Cards, which both offer tons of ideas & inspiration to get you talking about – and exploring – the outdoors

There are a few other items that aren’t housed in our backyard adventure kit but are big winners, like our sidewalk chalk, paint pens (especially for writing on rocks) and of course, our plastic buckets and sand toys.

We keep our backyard adventure kit near our front door so it’s easy to grab something on our way out. Having it in plain sight also reminds us that getting outside is something we should be doing every day.

What things could you include in your backyard adventure kit?