These days, kids are mostly in front of screens, watching television, playing games on consoles, or using phones. They are no longer interested in physical activities and going outside to play. Parents must organise exciting and innovative games for their kids that compel them to play outside with their siblings and friends. It’s challenging to manage games outside when most of the toys are designed for indoor fun. So, here are six creative outdoor games for kids that will spark their imagination and motivate them to be involved in physical activities.
Inventive Outdoor Games for Kids, Keeping Them Engaged for Hours
Are you ready to introduce exciting games for your kids to play in open areas, away from screens? Here are our top seven creative picks!
1. Treasure Hunt Adventure
A treasure hunt activity means hiding some “treasures” around your home for the kids to look for. It can be small toys, sweets, or even a few hints that give out the final reward.
How It Keeps Kids Engaged?
The treasure hunt game inspires kids to tell stories and think strategically. As far as kids are concerned, they can play the role of pirates or treasure hunters when looking for buried toys. They will play as a team, cracking codes of the clues and riddles and getting engaged with one another to get the prize.
How to Do It?
Make a list of items to be hidden in your backyard and pick a treasure hunt’s theme. You may sketch the map or write the clues, helping the kids look for each item. Make it complex by dividing a single clue into two different places, making it fun and busy for hours. The suspense and thrill will uplift their spirits and get them enthusiastic!
2. Inflatable Maze Game
An inflatable maze game is an effective and enjoyable way of involving physical exercise with mental challenges. It’s a colourful inflatable structure with twists and turns and hidden paths. Running inside, finding the way, getting lost, and trying to find a way out of the place is all so fun.
How It Makes Playtime Fun?
The inflatable maze game calls upon children’s tactical skills as they think of how to get from one point to another. It is adventurous, too, as they think they are in a new land as explorers. This game also enhances cooperation, and the kids will work together to find the way out.
How to Set It Up?
Depending on the event, you can hire one and bring it on the day of the event or buy a smaller one for the garden. You should have enough clear space around the maze for safety issues and teach the kids to wait for their turn so that the fun level of the activity does not go down!
3. Nature Art Exploration
This is the game where creativity and outdoor fun come together. Kids can collect leaves, flowers, stones and other materials that can be used to create pieces of art, sculptures or even collages.
Sparking Imagination
This activity inspires children to nurture their art by making them appreciate the beauty of nature. It allows them to foster their creativity by wondering how different things can be arranged and combined.
How to Arrange It?
For this simple outdoor game for kids, get arts and crafts materials like glue, scissors and paper. Ask them to look for different things in their surroundings. Once complete, frame the creative work in your garden or inside the house as their fun memento.
4. Bouncing Castle
A bouncing castle is a common inflatable structure found at kids’ parties and events. These are brightly coloured, allowing the kids to jump, bounce and play without limits for hours.
H4: Physical Exercise
When jumping up and down, kids can imagine superheroes or princesses flying as high as their leaps in happiness. Such practice of imaginative play trains kids in story creation when there are no props, just scenarios inside the heads and jumps down to the play area.
How to Set Up Bouncing Castle?
You can rent a castle for a day. Ask about the safety measures, including the maximum weight that can be allowed and the need for adults to watch over children. To further enhance the childish fantasies, include more play items such as soft balls or blow-up dolls.
5. Bubble Ding Game
Bubble ding is an entertaining activity for children. They run about and try to burst as many bubbles as possible. Kids can have a bubble-blowing machine or even rely on their blowing skills, making outdoor time fun.
Why It Fosters Imagination?
Bubbles are not all about bursting them but running after them and the beauty of watching them fly. At the same time, young kids can fantasise about living in a world where they catch fairies or flying hats.
Such activities are beneficial in improving their motor skills while also allowing imagination as they plan their attack on the bubbles to successfully burst them.
How to Prepare for Bubble War Game?
This outdoor activity is inviting and can be organised in your backyard or at a nearby park. If a bubble-blowing machine is unavailable, bubble wands and bubble solution will be sufficient. You can also pose an additional challenge for the kids. Like coming up with the best way to blow bubbles or even asking them to make bubbles of bigger sizes using homemade solutions!
6. Shadow Puppetry
Shadow puppetry is a traditional game in which kids use their hands and cut out shapes to play with the light’s shadow on the wall or the screen. This off-stage wooden puppetry has a light source and wall to project the puppets.
How Does It Excite the Kids?
This game is also about storytelling and creative play. Kids get to create characters and storylines without using words but through shadows. It is also helpful in child development, improving their storytelling ability as friends and family listen to them.
How to Start It?
You only need a light source and a wall or sheet to project shadows. Give the kids ready-made puppets from these materials, cardboard or paper.
Conclusion
Kids are mostly preoccupied with gadgets and are no longer interested in running and playing outside. But these six outdoor games for kids bring back the essence of playing. You can use an inflatable maze to challenge your wits, a bouncing castle to enhance your imagination, a bubble ding for fantastic physical exertion, etc.
It all encourages young people to be active, imaginative, and sociable with the help of the environment around them. Engaging in outdoor activities is important in a child’s physical, emotional, and social development. Therefore, the next time the sun is out, or the weather is pleasant, gather the kids and carry out these activities.
