The school holidays have arrived. Six weeks of keeping the children occupied, while quietly hoping your sanity is still intact by the time they go back in September.
If you’ve got a fire pit or chiminea in the garden, you’ve already got the centrepiece to stage some of the best activities to keep the kids entertained for the summer holidays.
Not everything needs a screen, a booking, or a long drive. Some of the most memorable moments of a child’s summer happen in the back garden, around a fire, with a humble stick and a marshmallow.
Here are five ideas that genuinely work – with the help of a handy stash of Ready To Burn certified kiln dried logs.
All fire-related activities must be closely supervised by a responsible adult at all times. Fire can be one of the best things to enjoy in the summer, but it requires respect.
1. Campfire Cooking
There’s something about food cooked over a real wood fire that a gas barbecue simply can’t replicate.
The smell and the excitement. The same children who drag their feet to the dinner table will stand mesmerised by a fire pit for twenty minutes, completely absorbed, eagerly waiting for the first item from the grill to be ready.
A few things that work particularly well:
S’mores
If your children haven’t tried them yet, this is the summer to start. Marshmallow, melted chocolate, biscuit. The combination is so simple but oh so effective. Our friends at Toast’d do exceptional s’mores kits with everything you need in one handy box – worth ordering ahead so you’re not improvising on the night.
Campfire popcorn
A popcorn popper designed for open fire use turns something mundane into something genuinely theatrical. Watching the kernels pop over a real flame holds the attention of children of almost any age. It’s also faster than you’d think.
Foil parcel cooking
From new potatoes, sweet potatoes, to corn on the cob. Wrap it in foil, tuck it into the embers, and leave it. No equipment needed beyond foil and something to wrap. Very little washing up. A feeling of accomplishment that’s completely disproportionate to the effort involved.
Pizza and flatbreads on a grate
For older children who can be trusted near the heat, cooking directly on a grate over hardwood embers produces genuinely good results. The secret is getting the right embers – and that comes down to using the right wood at the right stage.
Start with softwood. It burns hotter and faster, building the heat you need to get the fire properly established. Once it’s done its job, switch to hardwood.
Softwood to build. Hardwood to sustain. It’s a principle worth knowing — and one that makes everything you cook over a fire taste better for it.
Light and build with softwood, cook over hardwood.
It’s a gamechanger, and it works every single time.
CHECK OUT OUR BUILD & BURN SOFTWOOD & HARDWOOD FIRELIGHTING BUNDLES
2. Outdoor Art and Crafts
Not every activity needs to be close to the heat – and little children should never be near the fire. These ideas work well alongside a fire pit evening without children needing to go anywhere near the flames.
Log and bark painting
A pile of kindling sticks and some non-toxic paint is all you need. Let younger children paint whatever they like – faces, patterns, animals, or even a stick family – and display the results along a wall or fence. Simple, tactile, and guaranteed to make happy memories.
Printing with wood
Roll a small log across a painted surface. Press a piece of bark onto card. Use the end grain of a piece of kindling as a stamp. The textures real wood creates are something a foam stamp simply can’t match. Good for children who like making things and good for parents who like an activity with a clear purpose.
3. Building and Engineering Projects
Hand a pile of logs and kindling to a child who likes making things and stand back.
The combination of weight, texture, and irregularity of real wood makes it more interesting to build with than any uniform block set.
Firewood sorting and stacking
Give children a small pile of logs and kindling and let them sort by size, shape, or what would light first. Which pieces are best for kindling? What would be better for lighting a fire? And which logs are better for keeping the fire going?
Older children can help build a neat mini log stack, learning why airflow matters and why logs should be kept off the ground. It’s hands-on, useful, and a good way to show that a better fire starts long before the match is struck.
Miniature worlds
For younger children especially, small logs, twigs, leaves, stones, and seed heads become the material for villages, forests, and fairy gardens. Pair this with a nature scavenger hunt beforehand – give them a list of things to collect on a walk – and the fire pit session becomes the destination at the end of the adventure.
4. Outdoor Cinema Night
Garden cinema has become something of a summer institution in recent years, and a fire pit takes it somewhere a living room genuinely can’t reach.
You just need a projector, a white sheet or outdoor screen, blankets, pillows, and a fire pit. Sort the snacks before the film starts – popcorn, marshmallows, hot chocolate in flasks – so you’re not going back and forth to the kitchen once it’s underway.
The fire pit’s role here is warmth and atmosphere-making rather than cooking, so this is exactly where slow-burning kiln dried hardwood earns its place.
Once it’s established, you don’t need to manage it constantly. A good hardwood fire, well-lit and left alone, will keep going reliably for the duration of a film without demanding endless attention.
Now that’s a feature worth having when you’re trying to watch a good family movie!
5. Fire Lighting – Teaching Kids How To Light Safely
This is one of the most valuable things you can teach an older child outdoors, during the school holidays – with lots of time and no pressure.
Not just how to light a fire safely, but why each step matters too.
Understanding the sequence makes it logical. Here it is:
Natural wood wool firelighters are the starting point.
Made from compressed wood shavings and wax, natural wood wool firelighters catch quickly and burn long enough to get the kindling going without you needing to hover. No unpleasant petroleum odours. Just natural, reliable, and consistent.
Kindling catches from the firelighter.
Kindling creates the flames that larger logs need before they’ll ignite. A fire won’t light without a spark! Fine, dry kindling is non-negotiable. Without it, simply logs won’t catch.
Softwood logs build the fire up.
Softwood logs are lighter-grained and burns faster than hardwood. That’s not a weakness – it’s exactly the right behaviour at this stage. Think of it as the engine that builds the heat the hardwood needs to combust properly.
Hardwood logs sustain it.
Once the fire is going and the softwood has done its work, hardwood logs are primed to take over. Denser, slower-burning, hotter embers. This is what keeps the fire going for the whole evening – through the cooking, and through the family movie.
Explaining why each stage matters, rather than just demonstrating it, turns fire lighting from a mysterious adult skill into something an older child can understand and help with safely, under adult supervision.
That’s worth more than any activity kit.
A Note on Safety
All of the above assumes close adult supervision whenever children of all ages are near the fire.
Keep a bucket of water or sand within reach, establish a clear perimeter that younger children know not to cross, and make sure everyone knows what to do if something goes wrong.
The goal is confident, informed children – not fearless ones.
Use only Ready To Burn certified kiln dried firewood. Wet or unseasoned wood produces significantly more smoke, is harder to control, and, in a smoke control area, will not be legal to burn.
If you’re not sure what you have, check. All our kiln dried logs carry the Woodsure Ready To Burn certification, which means the moisture content has been independently tested and confirmed below 20%.
That’s not a marketing claim. It’s a verified standard.
Stock Up Before the Holidays Are Over
If the fire pit is getting a lot of use through August – and it should be – it’s worth having enough wood in the log store to keep the fire-fuelled entertainment flowing.
We deliver Ready To Burn kiln dried hardwood, softwood, kindling and natural firelighters across Shropshire, North Wales, Cheshire and Merseyside using our own fleet.
You choose your preferred delivery dates at checkout and we bring everything to your home – not just the kerb.
Ready to fire up the feel good this summer?
Take a look around our shop and get stocked up before the good weather disappears again.
Share your summer fire pit moments with us — @thelogpeople #fireupthefeelgood
Safety disclaimer: Outdoor fire activities must always be supervised by a responsible adult. Keep water or sand nearby, maintain a safe distance from flames and embers, and use only Ready To Burn certified kiln dried logs. The Log People are not liable for injury, damage or misuse resulting from outdoor fire activities.
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