Outdoor Children's Games

It's no secret that most kids love playing outside.

For your fun-loving outdoor children, games that encourage them to use their senses and their imagination are always well received. Here are a few ideas to keep the little ones occupied in your backyard or local park. Please note that adult supervision is needed for these activities.

• Set your child off on a little (or big!) scavenger hunt. Give them a small basket or other container and ask them to find certain things in the natural environment.

  Depending on the age and memory retention of the child, you might want to give a mental list of 3 items, or just tell them one at a time. The very little ones will need you to prompt them as they look but children with more independence should be ok with you just watching. Examples of things to hunt for: a blade of grass, a brown leaf, a green leaf, a twig, a daisy, a pebble, etc.

  A simpler alternative is to have your child fill their basket with as much of one kind of item as they can find (it's a good idea to choose something that isn't going to create damage to your garden - stones or fallen twigs might be appropriate items).

• If you're feeling more adventurous yourself, why not set up a little treasure hunt? You could hide small toys, crayons, marbles, even clothes pegs, and tell your child to find as many as they can. If they're having difficulty, you could tell them they're getting 'warmer' when they step closer and 'colder' when they move away from the hiding places. A variation on this is hiding hard-boiled eggs that the child has previously decorated with you - hey, you don't have to wait till Easter to hunt eggs!



• Probably the most classic of outdoor children games is tag. Little ones of all ages can have fun exercising in this way, even if it's just between you and them.

  If you have three or more people playing you could try this bizarre variation: Toilet Tag! If you get tagged you become a 'toilet' by squatting on the ground with your hand extended like a flusher. You have to be 'flushed' by another player to be set free. Young children think it's hysterical, naturally.

• Nature sculpture - set your child a themed challenge to build a sculpture out of natural resources in the garden. Depending on what materials are available and how creative your little one is, you might like to challenge them to create a car, house, boat, flower, soup(!), etc.
• A game that is definitely best played outdoors is bubbles. You can find commercial bubble mixture easily in stores but it's more fun (and educational) to make it yourself with your child. The bubble solution that makes longer-lasting and bigger bubbles contains glycerin which you can find in bottles at drug stores or supermarkets quite inexpensively. Mix 2 tablespoons of liquid dish soap with 1 cup of water, and if you can get the glycerin, add a tablespoon of that.

  Mix the day before use for best results. For scented, colored bubbles, look for dish soap with a deep color such as purple and a strong scent like floral. You can add a little tempera paint to the solution but it gets messy. Keep a supply of bubble wands handy for bubble days.

• Let the creative streaks expand with some spray painting! No, not the kind from cans. Find empty plastic spray bottles with easily operated pumps (check the hand strength of your child), fill them with different colored paints (1 cup of dry tempera paint to 1.5 cups water) and add a small squirt of dish soap to prevent the nozzle from clogging. Hang an old sheet on a fence or clothesline, or if that's not possible you can lay a large piece of paper on the ground outside.



• Drawing with chalk on a sidewalk or pavement is a fun game for all ages. Your toddler will enjoy scribbling and making his mark on the world, while you might surprise yourself with a mini-masterpiece.

  Free play with the chalk is all that's needed for little ones - older children might appreciate creating a scene or montage with you, perhaps making a 'games at the beach', or a 'day at the zoo' picture.

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