Fun Outdoor Family Activities with Decathlon

The warm days may be over as the winter chills start to bite but that doesn’t mean it is time to hibernate – just yet. In fact, if you have children it really isn’t an option. But what outdoor activities can you do as a family, without spending a fortune?

We were recently sent a pack to try by Decathlon, a family brand which aims to make sport fun and affordable. They have put together 20 outdoor packs for £20 or less and have devised a really fab and fun widget which helps to choose which one would best suit your family.

For our family it was either a baseball kit or a ‘Future Flyers’ set which included a boomerang and kite. I went for this one and it soon arrived for us to try out. My daughter was very excited to give them a whirl!

The colourful, foam-based boomerang has been a huge hit and we have had lots of fun throwing it and there were shrieks of delight when, on the occasion, it came back to us. Result!

Of course, we would have been more successful if we had done it properly in the first place! It took my friend’s daughter, who is SEVEN, to show me exactly how to throw it. Doh! There is a thumb mark on the boomerang where you should place your…yes! Serves me right for not reading the instructions properly. There is also a video on the website.

The boomerang kept the children aged 3 to 7 amused for ages one afternoon: running after it, throwing it, running after it. An enjoyable and portable activity to do in the park or garden. In fact, the boomerang is a regular fixture in my handbag now because my daughter is always keen to play it and it has became a wonderful after-school activity.

The kite isn’t quite as easy to pop in my bag. The colourful flyer is well packaged so easy to store but was a bit larger than I was expecting (I have never actually flown a kite) although its fibreglass frame means it’s lightweight. I was impressed with the quality, it was far better than I imagined, especially considering the price.

The kite was relatively easy to assemble with clear picture instructions. As for flying it? Well, the morning we set out to try our kite skills, the weather was unusually still! Despite our efforts, we weren’t able to fly it that particular day (although had fun tryig). We are waiting for a more blustery day to hone out kite-flying skills. With the Christmas holidays on the horizon, it is certainly going to keep boredom at bay…perhaps the grandparents can help out too! It will no doubt keep us entertained for years to come, no matter the season.

As a family we don’t spend as much time as we should outdoors. The Decathlon packs are a brilliant way to help initiate outdoor activities and bring the whole family together – for less than £20! I would be interested in trying more of the fun products Decathlon do, the baseball set for starters but I also like the look of the pop-up football goal and ball. There are some great gift ideas on the site and click and collect is available on orders too.

How about you? What activities do you like to do outdoors as a family? Why not discover which pack and outdoor activity would suit your family by taking part in the Decathlon quiz? Enjoy!

*Decathlon kindly gave me the boomerang and kite for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and inability to fly kites are entirely my own.