Outside toys

[isabel]

Anyone have ideas for outside toys that keep your kids engaged/occupied?

We have a disc swing and they like to ride their bikes. They don't really play with balls. We don't need anything, but I figured I'd check here to see if there's anything fun they might enjoy as a Christmas gift.

[mccallister84]

How old are your kids?

[nellgirl]

My daughter is 6. She has a ninja line and will play on it for ages. You can put the elements in different orders, and that seems to keep her interest and make it challenging. You need to have decent sized trees at a certain distance apart, though. She also has a hockey net and some street hockey sticks and plays with them a fair bit on the deck. Our alley is on a hill and our street is busy, so that’s the best we can do there. She’ll go out and play for a while even by herself.
She also has (and loves) rollerblades and an old skateboard.

[clairebear]

For my 5 and 6 year they like: scooters, bikes, chalk, bubbles, swing set, water play stuff (sprinklers, inflatable swimming pool, water beads), and lately kitchen stuff (my kitchen cast offs of serving utensils, pans etc). I'm thinking of doing a mud kitchen set up in the spring. Honestly they play well together and most of the time they just run around playing pretend games.

[ohgillian]

Mine (10 and 12) still really like to do bubbles.

[isabel]

Nov 27, 2022 15:02:43 GMT -5 mccallister84 said:

How old are your kids?

5 and 7

[isabel]

Nov 27, 2022 15:16:17 GMT -5 nellgirl said:

My daughter is 6. She has a ninja line and will play on it for ages. You can put the elements in different orders, and that seems to keep her interest and make it challenging. You need to have decent sized trees at a certain distance apart, though. She also has a hockey net and some street hockey sticks and plays with them a fair bit on the deck. Our alley is on a hill and our street is busy, so that’s the best we can do there. She’ll go out and play for a while even by herself.
She also has (and loves) rollerblades and an old skateboard.

Do you know which one you have? Seems like there's a lot of options out there. I think we have trees in our front yard that will work well and this is something I had been considering.

[gastro]

We have a springfree trampoline - kids play with the basket ball hoop attached to it. It gets so much use. I know trampolines are a no for lots of families on here but almost all the families in town here have them.
We also have a rebounder and the new springfree tether ball thing.
Outside is also where I make the kids do a lot of art - painting, slime etc.
We also had a bounce house for outside but it got so much use during covid that it had to be tossed.
Getting the kids involved in gardening gets them outside too. My middle kid is responsible for watering and harvesting. My three old helps water too - I give her a spray bottle and it occupies her for a good bit of time.

[sparty04]

My boys (and all of the neighbor kids) are obsessed with playbook footballs (made by Franklin). They're softer and easier to catch I think. There's a mini size and a normal size, we have both.

[noodleoo]

Power Wheels! We got DD2 the Frozen Jeep for her 6th and it has been a huge hit. Both my kids play with it all the time when the weather is nice.

[nellgirl]

Nov 27, 2022 15:43:56 GMT -5 isabel said:

Nov 27, 2022 15:16:17 GMT -5 nellgirl said:

My daughter is 6. She has a ninja line and will play on it for ages. You can put the elements in different orders, and that seems to keep her interest and make it challenging. You need to have decent sized trees at a certain distance apart, though. She also has a hockey net and some street hockey sticks and plays with them a fair bit on the deck. Our alley is on a hill and our street is busy, so that’s the best we can do there. She’ll go out and play for a while even by herself.
She also has (and loves) rollerblades and an old skateboard.

Do you know which one you have? Seems like there's a lot of options out there. I think we have trees in our front yard that will work well and this is something I had been considering.

I can’t seem to find the exact one we have, but we have the Slackers brand 50’ one. Ours has a red ladder/net thing, a wobbly bridge sort of thing, and a purple dangling thing with some rings. Not super descriptive.

[pittpurple]

My 10/6 year olds still play with the mud kitchen/water table all the time. Had no idea this would stick for so long - they just mix together various versions of mud and grass and whatnot.
We have a kids archery set they play with when they have friends round too.

[lessel]

Those cheap foam airplanes get a ton of play from our two boys. Stomp rockets and frisbee-type things are also a hit. Generally anything that's prone to getting stuck in trees, they're big fans of.

[maudefindlay]

A set of cones to set up obstacle courses to ride bikes thru or jump around.

My 3 have Easy Rollers, 1 classic and 2 drifters and they use them a ton though the drifters are the favorites. These are used more than their scooters.

Basketball goal.

Jump ropes and hula hoops.

Remote control cars and trucks.

[tennisgal]

Rocket Balloons (from amazon)
Aerobie frisbee
Rollerblades/skates
Hockey net

[preppy]

We got our kids a blow up tumble mat for outside and they play on it for hours. They are 5 and 7.

a.co/d/jjLhLcH

They also play on their scooters for hours and a set of cones for them to make obstacle courses keeps them very entertained.

[gerberdaisy]

My kids got a slackline last year and am looking to find some obstacles to add to it (so following for ideas). Tons of catch with footballs, street hockey in the driveway, teeball...I found a razor powerwing scooter on a buy nothing site and it is probably the most used toy we've ever owned.

We never bought a playset/swingset, and guessing my kids are too old now at 8/5, but they love to swing and wish I could find something they would use.

[MrsE]

+1 for the trampoline
We didn’t want it or ask for it, but it was gifted by my ILs and DD loves it.

[pittpurple]

Nov 28, 2022 10:11:51 GMT -5 gerberdaisy said:

My kids got a slackline last year and am looking to find some obstacles to add to it (so following for ideas). Tons of catch with footballs, street hockey in the driveway, teeball...I found a razor powerwing scooter on a buy nothing site and it is probably the most used toy we've ever owned.

We never bought a playset/swingset, and guessing my kids are too old now at 8/5, but they love to swing and wish I could find something they would use.

We bought our swings last year when our kids were 8/5 and we have no regrets. Got a super sturdy one that works for adults too and we have piles of kids on it at all times - including our friends' teenagers. We didn't get a playset, just a set with 3 swings and have 2 swings and a trapeze and it's used nonstop. 

[gerberdaisy]

Nov 28, 2022 10:56:39 GMT -5 pittpurple said:

Nov 28, 2022 10:11:51 GMT -5 gerberdaisy said:

My kids got a slackline last year and am looking to find some obstacles to add to it (so following for ideas). Tons of catch with footballs, street hockey in the driveway, teeball...I found a razor powerwing scooter on a buy nothing site and it is probably the most used toy we've ever owned.

We never bought a playset/swingset, and guessing my kids are too old now at 8/5, but they love to swing and wish I could find something they would use.

We bought our swings last year when our kids were 8/5 and we have no regrets. Got a super sturdy one that works for adults too and we have piles of kids on it at all times - including our friends' teenagers. We didn't get a playset, just a set with 3 swings and have 2 swings and a trapeze and it's used nonstop. 

Could you let me know what you got? THat sounds just like what we're looking for. Thanks!

[quesyrah]

Nov 28, 2022 10:11:51 GMT -5 gerberdaisy said:

My kids got a slackline last year and am looking to find some obstacles to add to it (so following for ideas). Tons of catch with footballs, street hockey in the driveway, teeball...I found a razor powerwing scooter on a buy nothing site and it is probably the most used toy we've ever owned.

We never bought a playset/swingset, and guessing my kids are too old now at 8/5, but they love to swing and wish I could find something they would use.

We have a disc swing and this one hanging from trees. They’ve gotten more use than the play set ever did. My kids are 9 and almost 13 and the net swing still gets daily use.

In fact, we took it down a few years ago so we could put up an above ground pool.

[expectantsteelerfan]

Nov 27, 2022 15:43:56 GMT -5 isabel said:

Nov 27, 2022 15:16:17 GMT -5 nellgirl said:

My daughter is 6. She has a ninja line and will play on it for ages. You can put the elements in different orders, and that seems to keep her interest and make it challenging. You need to have decent sized trees at a certain distance apart, though. She also has a hockey net and some street hockey sticks and plays with them a fair bit on the deck. Our alley is on a hill and our street is busy, so that’s the best we can do there. She’ll go out and play for a while even by herself.
She also has (and loves) rollerblades and an old skateboard.

Do you know which one you have? Seems like there's a lot of options out there. I think we have trees in our front yard that will work well and this is something I had been considering.

We have this one and it gets played with by our kids and the neighbors a ton and has for years.  I will say, we did have to add something for them to climb up to reach the obstacles immediately so I would recommend something like that from the start (we have both a ladder and the 2nd link, and they used the 2nd link more because they could also use it as a swing.  Then we also added a disc swing and that got used most.  Then we added a platform swing the following year, and that is now the favorite thing for them all to pile on, but they still do the obstacles sometimes too.

www.dickssportinggoods.com/p/ninjaline-36-intro-kit-with-obstacles-18fday36ktw7bstclstg/18fday36ktw7bstclstg?sku=19731868&camp=CSE:DSG_92700072971982099_pla_pla-1746958954950_58700008026065623_71700000100321834&segment=&gclid=Cj0KCQiA1ZGcBhCoARIsAGQ0kkoWsyIsX8aO7f9UHfUMYEjpRHiSrMNWK6vCAXYFwW06zvnW9lt5_3YaAvl6EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

www.walmart.com/ip/Ninja-Line-Climbing-Rope/54885239?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=3661

[gerberdaisy]

Nov 28, 2022 11:17:42 GMT -5 quesyrah said:

Nov 28, 2022 10:11:51 GMT -5 gerberdaisy said:

My kids got a slackline last year and am looking to find some obstacles to add to it (so following for ideas). Tons of catch with footballs, street hockey in the driveway, teeball...I found a razor powerwing scooter on a buy nothing site and it is probably the most used toy we've ever owned.

We never bought a playset/swingset, and guessing my kids are too old now at 8/5, but they love to swing and wish I could find something they would use.

We have a disc swing and this one hanging from trees. They’ve gotten more use than the play set ever did. My kids are 9 and almost 13 and the net swing still gets daily use.

In fact, we took it down a few years ago so we could put up an above ground pool.

I wish we had trees to hang this from! We have pine trees which work for the slack line, but not for branches for swings.

[expectantsteelerfan]

gerberdaisy , if you get a ninjaline and hang it high enough, you can hang a swing like this from it. This is similar to the platform swing I referenced in my post being the thing my kids now use the most, although ours isn't an open weave one and is rectangular and larger (I think it's rated for 6 kids).  Our swing only hangs from 1 point as well (as opposed to 2 like the one pictured here) so it only takes up one hook on the ninjaline.  

[tcjmama]

Nov 28, 2022 11:13:42 GMT -5 gerberdaisy said:

Nov 28, 2022 10:56:39 GMT -5 pittpurple said:

We bought our swings last year when our kids were 8/5 and we have no regrets. Got a super sturdy one that works for adults too and we have piles of kids on it at all times - including our friends' teenagers. We didn't get a playset, just a set with 3 swings and have 2 swings and a trapeze and it's used nonstop. 

Could you let me know what you got? THat sounds just like what we're looking for. Thanks!

We have a Lifetime set. My teen is 6’5” and can still swing on it. We had 10+ teen boys on it this summer. We had this one at our old house:
www.lifetime.com/lifetime-290038-10-foot-heavy-duty-a-frame-metal-swing-set-earthtone

We have one with monkey bars and a tower/slide now. They’re great!

[isabel]

Nov 28, 2022 10:11:51 GMT -5 gerberdaisy said:

My kids got a slackline last year and am looking to find some obstacles to add to it (so following for ideas). Tons of catch with footballs, street hockey in the driveway, teeball...I found a razor powerwing scooter on a buy nothing site and it is probably the most used toy we've ever owned.

We never bought a playset/swingset, and guessing my kids are too old now at 8/5, but they love to swing and wish I could find something they would use.

They would probably like a disc swing. My kids are 5 and 7 and still love theirs.

[pittpurple]

Nov 28, 2022 11:13:42 GMT -5 gerberdaisy said:

Nov 28, 2022 10:56:39 GMT -5 pittpurple said:

We bought our swings last year when our kids were 8/5 and we have no regrets. Got a super sturdy one that works for adults too and we have piles of kids on it at all times - including our friends' teenagers. We didn't get a playset, just a set with 3 swings and have 2 swings and a trapeze and it's used nonstop. 

Could you let me know what you got? THat sounds just like what we're looking for. Thanks!

I live overseas so not so useful but had a quick look on Amazon and found something super similar


www.amazon.com/Backyard-Discovery-Heavy-Durango-Wooden/dp/B092JSG25B/ref=sr_1_32?crid=37AE87QDV7EG7&keywords=wooden+swing+set+adult&qid=1669713139&sprefix=wooden+swing+set+adult%2Caps%2C192&sr=8-32

I think the actual playsets age quickly but we just have a straight swingset and it's endlessly fun. If we had the space I'd have monkey bars as well but the swings are easily the best thing we ever bought for our kids and I think we'll use them for years. 

[shauni27]

all the sports stuff. Baseball, soccer, badminton. We have a play structure that he loves to use with friends or with us, but not alone. Power wheels. Sandbox gets lots of play. We still use our step 2 coaster thing that is for toddlers; always very popular even with bigger kids. Bikes and scooters.