10 Fun Outdoor Activities for Stay-at-Home Dads
8. Plant a Garden
Photo Credit: Samuel Mann
This year our family took seeds and started them inside on a plant stand that we built. The plans for the stand came from Rodale’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of Gardening and Landscaping Techniques, a book that not only covers starting plants from seed, but also planning and planting a garden. You don’t need a plant stand to start your own seeds. You can use a window sill and achieve results also.
We made our children a part of our garden from the very moment the seed packet was opened until the first vegetables were harvested and served. They were so excited when the plants first popped through the soil. They took ownership of the plants and wanted to be the one to plant them in the garden. They were even given their own section, which they weeded and watered. And they had fun doing it.
If you don’t have a yard where you can plant a garden, try planting a container garden. Rather than starting seeds in boxes designed for transplanting, plant them in a terra cotta pot and place on your front steps or walk. You can still get quite a few vegetables out of containerized plants.
It doesn’t have to be a veggie garden, though. Maybe plant a flower garden or a shade garden. Visit greenhouses and look at all the different plants. Go to arboretums and see what your kids like. Take time to walk around the neighborhood and see what the neighbors have planted. Visit with them about their flower beds. Maybe you can start trading plants with them when it’s time to split a plant that’s grown too large.
This will help your children take more pride in their home and maybe, just maybe, motivate them to keep the yard clean, too.
Hooray for Geocaching!
Great ideas for any family! We’ve been doing a smaller-scale version of the giant bubbles–I have to admit that my husband and I can be found trying to improve on our best bubbles long after the kids have moved on to something else. We’ll definitely have to try the pool and hula hoop.
We took our four grandsons, aged 2 to 10, fishing last week. Plus two honorary grandkids. Six kids, with four adults helping. We caught a bucket full of blue gills, which grandpa spent an hour carefully cleaning. He wanted the kids to be able to eat what they caught. And they did, chowing down enthusiastically, which surprised the heck out of us.
My daughter and SIL and the boys moved to CA from MN last year, following a job for my SIL. We miss them terribly. When they came to MN for a visit last week, we drove the seven hours from the UP to spend a couple of days with them. We offered to take the boys fishing, and my daughter said that’s the one thing we do with them that nobody else does. We all had a blast, and we made a LOT of great memories. The high point for me was helping the two-year-old catch several fish, too. He didn’t quite understand the process, and wound up throwing the cane pole in the water instead of the tiny little fish! We got it back, though. Great times!
What sort of man could decide to be a Househusband and still look at himself each morning with any pride? Essentially, he is a mangina.
Bingo.
No, folks, women and men are NOT interchangeable. It DOES matter who does what.
If Dad can make a living working at home, great. Wish I could, wish more dads could.
But DAD should be the breadwinner, not mom, and I don’t care if the feminidiots don’t like it.
Regarding activity #5:
JESUS CHRIST, THEY’RE MINERALS!
We’ve seldom been able to launch stray cats more than 60 feet with our catapult.
This year the daughter and I are planning on doing the Willamette and Columbia rivers from Corvallis, Oregon to Astoria, Oregon in our Prijon Excursion tandem kayak. If that goes well I expect we will do a week or two in the San Juan Islands and/or the BC Gulf Island in September.
The plan for next year is to do the inside passage, While I would like to do Portland, Oregon to Glacier Bay, that may be a bit over eager and we may need to leave from Olympia, Washington. We shall see.
Daughter is twelve; I think she should blog these adventures just to encourage others to indulge. If not, I probably will just to keep a record of the trips.
Thanks for the list of other things to do and I hope your ideas and ours lead others to their own adventures.
Mark Sherman