Top 10 Outdoor Games
Outdoor games are a great and inexpensive way of entertaining your children and their friends. They can be played in the garden, on the beach or on a family day out and often require little to no preparation which means you can dive straight into a fun afternoon in the outdoors!
Here are our top 10 outdoor games to enjoy with your children. Ready, steady, go!
1) 40-40 (also known as 123 Home, Forty Forty In)
Pick a base such as a bench or a tree. One child stays by the base and the others run and hide. The child by the base looks for the other children while they try to get back to the base without being seen.
2) Capture the Flag
This game works best with a larger group. Split the group into 2 teams and give each one a flag. The goal is to steal the other team’s flag without being tagged and sent to jail! Your team can break you out of jail by tagging you.
3) Red Light, Green Light
One child is the ‘traffic light’. They turn away and shout ‘green light!’ and the other’s run towards them. When they turn around they shout ‘red light!’ and anyone caught moving is sent back to the start. The next ‘traffic light’ is the one who can tag the current one.
4) Jump Rope Challenge
The added challenge is a cup of water. Everyone must hold a cup of water and jump the rope 3 times. The winner is the one with the most water left in their cup.
5) Sardines
Think Hide and Seek but in reverse! Rather than one child searching, one child hides while everyone else searches. Once a child is found, the others hide with them until the last child finds everyone hidden together, looking like a bunch of sardines!
6) Turtle relay
Mark out a start and finish line just 5m from one another. In 2 teams, they must race to get an object across the finish line using only their head. You could use apples, tennis balls, eggs, water bombs; just about anything circular shaped!
7) Giant Slip & Slide
All you need is some tarp and a hose to turn your garden into a giant slippery slide! If playing on a sunny day, don't forget plenty of sun cream and UV protective swimwear to keep your little adventurers protected from the rays.
8) Blind Man’s Walk
Set up a simple obstacle course in your garden using any reasonably soft things you have available. Let the kids examine the course before blind folding them and sending them out one at a time. The fastest wins.
9) Tag
A sure way to quickly tire out the little ones! There are now several versions of this classic game. Try freeze tag or the ultimate flashlight tag, played in the dark with a torch light: if you’re lit up you’re ‘it’!
