Ideas for Outdoor Fun at Home

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.

Four square has been the go-to outdoor game for us. Draw one large square (8-10 feet across) with chalk and divide it into four equal squares. Squares are numbered 1-4, and one player stands inside each square. Player 4 bounces and taps a playground ball into an opponent's square to start play. When the ball enters any player's square, he or she must tap the ball into another square. Any player who misses the ball, lets it bounce more than once, or sends it out of bounds must move to square 1, and all other players move up one square.

Octopus is a variation on swimming pool tag that is especially fun to play with a lot of people. One person starts off as the Octopus, and tries to tag all the other players as they swim across the pool. When a player is tagged, that player and the Octopus have to hold hands, and work together to keep trying to tag other players. Anyone who is tagged joins the Octopus chain, and everyone in the chain has to hold hands in order to tag the other players. If too many players join the chain (making it difficult to swim), you can break up into multiple Octopus chains.

A ping pong ball hunt is a fun pool game for kids who like a little competition. Number as many ping pong balls as possible, starting with 1 and going up to as many as you have - 25 to 30 work well. Divide players into two teams, give each a container for collecting the balls, then toss the balls into the pool and have players collect as many of them as they can. Add up the numbers on the balls to see who wins! You can introduce a bunch of variations on this game for fun, like only allowing players to collect a single ball at a time, or assigning teams to collect only certain balls (like odds/evens).

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)

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!

The geocaching app is a huge hit with my kids! There is a free option, but the $6.99 option has more caches to find. My kids (7 and 9) have so much fun with this in our neighborhood and also parks and paths nearby!

Measuring cups of different sizes and shapes create ceaseless fun pouring and dumping; dumping and pouring for hours.

Play Sink or Float. This simple toddler science experiment is a favorite at our house! Collect items that can safely get wet (utensils, plastic toys, fruit, rocks, etc.), then take turns placing them in the water table to see if they will sink or float.