Here Are 12 Of The Best Garden Games For Kids

As the weather heats up, you might be looking for the best garden games and outdoor activities for your kids. Here are 12 ideas for garden games and outdoor activities to keep them busy this summer.

These are all simple but fun garden games and outdoor activity ideas for children. They require minimal equipment and will also help them burn off energy in the fresh air.

12 Outdoor Activities and Garden Games For Kids

1. Skipping

Skipping is a great way to keep children entertained and active for hours. It also increases concentration and improves co-ordination and fitness. Skipping is simple as all you need is a skipping rope, and you can either teach your children to skip alone or get everyone skipping to rhymes in a line.

2. Gardening

Encourage your children develop green fingers from an early age by helping you with gardening. Let them plant their own seeds, grow veg together or just let them get as muddy as possible with their own mini trowel.

Read seven tips on gardening with children on the CBeebies website.

3. Pavement chalk drawing

If you have an outdoor patio area or front path, turn it into a giant art canvas by giving your children a piece of chalk. Challenge them to create a fun pattern, draw a rainbow or just let them go wild with their own design. Remember: it’ll wash away when it rains.

4. Hopscotch

Hopscotch is another simple activity involving chalk where you create a numbered grid on your path or patio. It’s a basic but fun way of getting children active, with maths and turn-taking thrown in too.

5. Build a bug hotel

You’ve probably seen bug hotels in your local park or school playground. They are also really simple to build in a garden or on a balcony. You can use whatever materials you have in the garden, from bricks to sticks. Bug hotels are great for encouraging wildlife into your garden. and can provide hours of entertainment.

6. Make A Magical Fairy Den

If your children aren’t that into bugs, then add a little magic instead. Fairy dens - a small, magical nest or den - can be made outside of whatever you have lying around. There is a lot of scope for imagination.

7. Build A Den…And Eat At Least One Meal In There

Den building is a childhood staple and is no 4 on the National Trust’s list of 50 things to do before you’re 11 ¾. While not every garden or outdoor space might have a tree for you to use, it’s easy to improvise (sling a sheet over the washing line or even a chair). Dinner in a den tastes a lot better than at the table.

8. Ball Games

Sometimes the simple ideas are still the best! When it comes to garden games, anything with a ball will get everyone running around. You can play anything from football to catch via piggy in the middle.

9. Make a mud kitchen

Mud kitchens are outdoor play kitchens for children, and a great way of connecting them to nature and encouraging messy play. While you can buy ready-made structures similar to indoor play kitchens, you can also use old household items or anything you might already have in the garden and shed to build your own basic version. Just add mud.

10. Make an Andy Goldsworthy-inspired sculpture

Andy Goldsworthy is a British artist and photographer who is best known for working outside with natural materials. Challenge your children to create a garden sculpture and see what they come up with.

11. Water play

Warm weather is a great excuse for all kinds of outdoor active water play. Get the paddling pool out, put some warm soapy water in a deep bowl and have them ‘wash’ toys, give them a paintbrush and have them paint the fence, with water, or dig out the bubble mixture and water guns.

12. Outdoor scavenger hunt

Our final idea in our list of garden games and outdoor activities is to create a list and challenge your children to find each item (if you don’t want them to pick flowers, for example, get them to take a photo). You could theme the hunt by season, colour or object. More ideas here on the Woodland Trust website.

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