Favorite backyard games - elementary age

[konapoppy]

We have been getting closer with a few families, which has been nice!

We need a few things for the backyard to keep the kids entertained. What are your favorites that aren’t nerf guns?

[VillainV]

Small pop-up soccer goal and ball?

Cornhole?

Those sets that come with like a tennis ball and two Velcro “mitts” that you see people using at the beach?

Kind of depends on how big your yard is. Ours is tiny, and to avoid bothering neighbors with stray balls we try to keep things pretty small/contained. But with a larger yard you could look at badminton, croquet, horseshoes, ladder ball, spike ball, etc.

[expectantsteelerfan]

If you have any trees, a swing has been the most long-used thing (we have a big platform swing that fits up to 6 kids, hung from a ninja line that is spanning a good distance between 2 trees, but the swing is the only thing that has been used on the ninja line for a while now).

[sparty04]

Bocce is fun and easy. My kids are into sports so they usually just grab one of the 1000 balls we have in the garage and do a pickup game of football, kickball, wiffle ball etc

[mrsGreeko]

Over the years I bought my kids all sorts of things to entertain them. And really they didn’t use much of it, they preferred to come up with their own entertainment and games. That said a few things did get a ton of use: chalk, bubbles (especially the big bubble wands, but just buy a huge bottle of Dawn and some glycerine and make your own solution) and a rope swing that my DH made (however it did end up strangling the branch of the tree we put it on so don’t be dumb like us and do that).

We have a zipline and trampoline in our yard now. My youngest’s friends play on the zipline occasionally. Only the 4 and 5 year old neighbor kids ever jump on the trampoline, they come running over, ring my doorbell and run out to the backyard and jump until one of their parents comes and grabs them, it’s adorable.

[waverly]

Most popular were front yard stuff, bouncy ball for four square and basketball hoop. Scooters for sidewalk.

[loira]

Hula hoops are a hit with our DD and her friends.

[mccallister84]

If you can afford it and have the space, the swing set has been great for when kids come over.

[konapoppy]

Apr 6, 2024 9:26:26 GMT -5 sparty04 said:

Bocce is fun and easy. My kids are into sports so they usually just grab one of the 1000 balls we have in the garage and do a pickup game of football, kickball, wiffle ball etc

We went with bocce! We also got a football and some car racing stomp rockets 🤷🏻‍♀️

[gerberdaisy]

Apr 6, 2024 7:11:15 GMT -5 expectantsteelerfan said:

If you have any trees, a swing has been the most long-used thing (we have a big platform swing that fits up to 6 kids, hung from a ninja line that is spanning a good distance between 2 trees, but the swing is the only thing that has been used on the ninja line for a while now).

This sounds amazing! We have a ninja line with a swing, but only holds one kid.  Do you know what you have?  I would like to add more swings to our backyard, but don't have any branches that would work.

[expectantsteelerfan]

gerberdaisy , www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08X275HLN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1.  My kids are much bigger than the ones in the picture, so I don't know if 6 of their sized kids would fit, but they def. have 4 at a time on it.  And this is the 2nd one we bought.  The 1st one (was a different brand from Amazon), the fabric ripped after 2 years, but we do leave it outside year round and have heavy kids playing on it, so I didn't think that was TOO bad.  My kids def. asked me to replace it, and it still gets played with.  This one is only a year old but still doing well.  

[heygrey]

If you have concrete, sidewalk chalk. I buy the big pack of Crayola with standard colours, neon colours, and some glitter options. Huge hit.

Last summer I bought a Twister type game that hooks up to a hose which is amazing for hot summer/small backyard. (I won't attempt to link because I bought it from a canadian store and it is out of stock, but as summer approaches I'm sure you could find an equivalent.)

[pittpurple]

Depends a lot on how much space you have but we have a triple swing / trapeze that the kids all use and a water table / mud table thing that my kids still use regularly.
Hula hoops, a balance beam and water guns are big favs too

[bbdoll]

It's old school, but my kids like croquet.  Also, swingball.  That's a big hit, no pun intended. 

[meanie]

We have everything under the sun, we bought anything that looked cool for outside during Covid.

Out of everything the basketball hoop gets the most consistent use.  Chalk always gets used up if we put it out, they can either do it in the street or on our wood fence. The swing set/playhouse is a popular hangout space but they will eventually get too big for it.

A lot of the time the kids just make up a game and run around. I don't put a ton out because it ends up all over the yard.

[urbancowgirl]

I enjoy playing Kingdoms with our kids.

[longtimenopost]

My family likes playing Kubb, it's a hit at family reunions and adults like it too.