Make spending a day at the beach with your children one they will remember for a long time.
You can either wing it and bring the absolute essentials like towels, sun protection, water, snacks, buckets and spades OR you can pre-plan a little and buy other equipment, which will make it even more fun.
There are many fun things to do at the beach with the kids.
Here are a few suggestions for child friendly activities:
- Look for seashells and sea glass
- Look for sea critters
- Draw pictures in sand
- Build a sandcastle or dripcastle
- Make sand angels
- Build ball track
- Make footprints in the sand
- Play hopscotch
- Design a sand maze
- Play musical towels
- Dig a hole
- Have a balloon water fight / competition
- Make sand cakes using baking moulds
- Enjoy ice cream
- Blow bubbles
- Paint rocks and shells
- Collect pebbles
- Ride a scooter on beach promenade
- Play with your shadow
- Create beach aquarium
- Cover a friend with sand and make into mermaid or shark sculpture
- Build a car / truck track
- Swimming races
- Water volleyball
- Explore the underwater world
- Build driftwood sculptures
- Go sandboarding
- Play hot potato, piggie in the middle and other ball games
- Set up a slippery slide
- Dive for treasures
1. Look for Sea Shells and Sea Glass
This is a great activity to do with your kids. Collect shells for school “show and tell” or make a special picture out of what you find. You can also decorate picture frames or jars.
2. Look for Sea Creatures
We spend a lot of time at the beach and even after all these years I am surprised how many new sea creatures and fish we get to see. Jellyfish, star fish, crabs, hermit crabs, shells with snails, sea anemone, sea horses, sea turtles.
3. Draw Pictures in the Sand
A great way to spend the afternoon with your kids. Collect shells, driftwood and decorate your picture to make it look 3D.
4. Build a Sandcastle or Dripcastle
Building a sandcastle can keep your kids occupied for hours. If you’re at the beach with other families, get each child to create their own sandcastle and then connect them altogether to make a castle town. They can decorate the castles with driftwood, shells, pebbles and anything else they find on the beach.
5. Make Sand Angels
A great activity for young children. Simply get your kids to lie on their back then move their arms up and down and their legs from left to right.
6. Build a Ball Track
This has been a great challenge for the boys in our family. They would bring a ball to the beach and build a winding track for the ball to run down. Half way down they can split the track in the middle and see which way the ball runs. Any size ball is fine to use.
7. Make Footprints in the Sand
The great thing about this activity is that you don’t need to bring anything to the beach, other than your feet. You can make patterns in the sand – combine them with your kids’ foot and hand prints or even with your pet’s paw prints, then watch the waves wash them away. And you have a blank canvas to start again.
Alternatively if you see footprints on the sand you can try to guess who the prints belong to.
8. Play Hopscotch
An oldie but a goodie. You can simply draw the court using a stick or collect shells and pebbles and outline it using those.
If you are not sure of the rules, check out Parents.com website.
9. Design a Maze or Labyrinth
The main difference between a maze and labyrinth is a labyrinth has only one path to the centre and back out. It has no dead ends, as mazes do.
Create a labyrinth or a maze for kids to run off their energy.
Watch this great video which explains how to create a labyrinth – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAzdinGrcnI
Alternatively you can get your children to build a small labyrinth or maze out of sand or pebbles.
10. Play Musical Towels
Musical towels are the same as musical chairs. The person who is running the game starts the music – your phone can be used for this. The players then run or dance around the row of towels. When the music is stopped, each player must quickly sit down on a towel. The player who is last to sit down is out.
For the next round, remove 1 towel and start the music again. Each round remove a towel until there are 2 players and only 1 towel.
11. Dig a Hole
One of the simplest things to do on the beach. Make sure you bring buckets and shovels for your kids. Once they’ve dug up the hole get them to fill it with water and float plastic or wooden toys in it.
Before you head home, please fill in the hole to make sure someone doesn’t injure themselves walking on the beach.
12. Have a Water Balloon Fight or Competition
One of the best places to play with water balloons. You can fill them up in the ocean or using a water tap.
The children can either throw the water balloons at each other or get them to stand behind a line and have a water balloon throwing competition.
Water balloons can be hours of fun and keep children cool as the balloons break when they hit the target.
At the end of the day please pick up any broken balloons to ensure they don’t get into the ocean and harm our marine life.
13. Make Sand Cakes Using Baking Moulds and Cookie Cutters
For something a little different, bring your old baking moulds to the beach and get your children to “bake” cookies and cakes. They can decorate them with shells and pebbles, flowers and leaves.
14. Enjoy Ice Cream
An absolute must if you are at the beach. Most beach cafes have a great selection of ice blocks and ice creams and some beaches are frequented by ice cream boats.
If you want to make it a little more fun, bring your own tub of ice cream (make sure you have plenty of ice in your esky) and a variety of lollies, nuts and chocolate to make your own version of cold rock ice cream.
15. Blow Bubbles
If your children enjoy blowing bubbles, the beach is the perfect place. On a normal surface, the bubble liquid can make things a little slippery, but not on the beach.
16. Paint Rocks and Shells
If your children enjoy blowing bubbles, the beach is the perfect place. On a normal surface, the bubble liquid can make things a little slippery, but not on the beach.
I have recently started seeing a new fun activity popping up on Facebook, called “secret rocks”.
The idea is that you and / or your children paint rocks using special paints and pens, then hide the rocks (or shells) in your local area. You then post the general location of where you hid them in the Facebook group.
Children and families then go looking for these rocks and when they find them, they can either take them home to build up their collection or photograph them and relocate them somewhere else and share that within the group. This really is one of the most fun things to do at the beach with kids.
Here is an example of one such Secret Rocks Facebook Group.
So next time you are at the beach, go and collect pebbles, paint them, hide them and share the location with a local group.
And if there isn’t a group in your area, start one up.
17. Collect Pebbles
A great activity for little kids to do. Give them a bucket and let them pick up their favourite rocks and pebbles. Then you can have hours of fun creating DIY pebble crafts.
For ideas, check out the DIY n Crafts website
18. Ride a Scooter or Skateboard on Beach Promenade
Many beaches have promenades, where you can walk or ride a scooter. So next time you are heading to the beach, make sure you bring your kids’ scooter, bike, trike or ride on toy
19. Experiment with Shadow
You can either get your kids to chase their shadows or outline their friend’s shadow with a stick. Do this several times during the day, as the sun moves in the sky and you can teach them about sunrise and sunset.
20. Create Beach Aquarium
There are several ways to build a beach aquarium – either dig a hole and fill it with water, then find sea creatures and put them in the aquarium or bring a plastic see-through bowl, fill it with sand, shells, star fish, crabs, snails and other sea creature and watch them move about.
21. Cover a Friend with Sand and Make into Mermaid or Shark
A great activity to keep kids amused for long periods of time. Make sure you bring buckets and spades so your kids can easily dig holes, then take turns lying in the sand and have a mermaid, shark or other sea creature made from the sand on top of them.
22. Build a Car / Truck Track
Bring several plastic trucks / car to the beach and let the kids build a track which has tunnels, curves and sand houses. Let your children’s imagination run wild.
23. Swimming Races
Depending on the age of the children and their swimming abilities, you can organize a race in a rockpool or in the ocean. If you want to mix it up a bit, provide them with different swimming aids, such as fins or floatation devices.
24. Water Volleyball
Water volleyball is best played in a rockpool or on a beach with no waves. Children can simply pass the ball to each other or you can bring a floating net and have them pass the ball over the net. The great thing about water volleyball is that they can practice their dives and throw themselves to save the ball without getting hurt.
25. Explore the Underwater World
Encourage your children to explore the underwater world. They will be amazed what they see and will have exciting news to share at “Show and tell”. You can even give them underwater camera and encourage them to take photos. If you don’t have a waterproof phone or underwater camera, buy an inexpensive waterproof case.
26. Build Driftwood Sculptures
A great activity to ignite your kids imagination. Encourage them to collect driftwood and help them build sculptures or buildings. Don’t forget to snap a photo of all their creations.
27. Go Sandboarding
If you are at a beach which has sand dunes or hills, let your kids slide down on their bodyboards, skimboards or even cardboards. Going up and down the hill is great exercise and sliding down is a lot of fun. You can even encourage them to have races.
28. Play Hot Potato, Piggie in the Middle and Other Ball Games
There are many ball games your kids can play at the beach, in the reserve or in the ocean. These will keep them entertained for long periods of time and when they get hot, they can cool down in the water. Just make sure you keep reapplying plenty of sunscreen and encourage them to wear a hat and drink plenty of water.
29. Set Up a Slippery Slide
If you have a water slide at home, why not bring it to the beach, especially if you are spending the day with other families. The kids will have hours of sliding fun. You can have it set up, on grass, on the beach or have the slide on the edge of the water. Don’t forget to bring a bucket, so you can keep wetting the slide. To make it extra slippery, mix the water with a bit of shampoo or bath bubbles.
30. Dive for Treasures
This is a great activity for older kids who are not afraid to dive under water and is most suitable for beaches without waves and where visibility is good. Bring some goggles so the kids can see under water, then throw in some treasures. The treasure can be something as simple as a painted rock or you can purchase dive gems or toy seaweed from Amazon and other online stores.
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Ivana Katz is a Sydney based website designer and travel blogger. Having her own business has given her the freedom to explore the world. She believes travel is the best teacher and her passion for adventure, writing and photography has taken her and her son to some amazing places, including Hawaii, Canada, Fiji, Greece and Czech Republic. Ivana’s favourite thing about travelling is learning, discovering hidden gems and creating memories. She loves nothing more than inspiring other women to chase their dreams and explore the world with their families and friends.
