Ideas for Outdoor Fun at Home
From backyard games to epic lawn toys, find all the best recommendations for getting kids to play outside.
What are some fun outdoor games for kids?
Sharks and minnows is fun, and it gets played a lot at school. Players stand along a starting line, and must reach the finish line without being tagged by the shark. Any minnows who are tagged by the shark become sharks, too. Repeat racing across until all remaining minnows have been tagged. The winner is the last minnow to be tagged.
Hide and seek is one of the best childhood games for kindergartners or preschoolers to play with bigger siblings! The person who is "it" covers her eyes and counts while the other players hide. The seeker must find all of the other players, and the last one to be found becomes the new seeker. You can play variations where the seeker must tag the other players, or where there is a home base that the hiders need to reach to become safe.
What are some good pool games for kids to play?
Popsicle tag is the swimming pool game version of freeze tag. The player who is "it" tries to tag all the other players, who freeze in place with their hands in the air - like a popsicle! - whenever they are tagged. Players "unfreeze" other players by swimming under their legs.
Categories - pool style! - is a variation on pool tag, where the player who is "it" stands outside the pool, facing away from it, while all the other players remain inside the pool next to them. "It" chooses a category - colors, animals, states, Harry Potter characters, etc - and all the other players have to pick something from that category, without telling anyone what they pick. "It" starts to call out names/things related to the category, and if a player's selection gets called, they have to try and swim to the other end of the pool before "it" hears them and jumps in to tag them.
Creative s'mores recipes?
We buy small Graham cracker crusts (in the tiny pan) and add chocolate chips or pieces of chocolate bars. Then top with small marshmallows. Perfect on a grill or oven!
S'mores nachos: lay out graham crackers on a skillet and top them with mini chocolate kisses and mini marshmallows. Toast and enjoy! Add more toppings if you want too (i.e., peanuts, coconut, m&ms)
Fun outdoor activities for kids?
Set up a little frisbee golf course in the backyard and use a laundry basket as the target. The player with the fewest tosses to get their frisbee into the basket wins!
We recently discovered creeking from our park center super fun and free lots of activities too. I found it on the events tab on Facebook I’ve never done anything like it before but it was fun for my tot and myself .
What are some fun water table ideas and activities?
Measuring cups of different sizes and shapes create ceaseless fun pouring and dumping; dumping and pouring for hours.
Frozen toys. Take small toys that will fit in an ice cube tray, fill it with water and freeze. Add these ice cube treasures to the water table for kids to uncover. They can use a spray bottle or dropper filled with water, dunk them or pour water all over them for the big reveal!