Summer Fun - Games with the Kids

Well, the kids are out of school, and looking for fun things to do. Rather than trying to think of ways to send them off somewhere to keep busy, why not embrace their energy as an opportunity to get more exercise, yourself? A great example of a fun type of exercise you can enjoy with your children is running games - these often have the simplest of rules (like tag) that require nothing more than space, imagination, and energy.  These games don’t need any preparation and can be played almost anywhere.

Image by tyfn via FlickrHere are a couple of ideas for the little kids:

Red light, green light is a game where one person is “it” and the rest of the children have to try and sneak up on them.  The child that is “it” stands at least 20 feet away from the other children.  When they are ready to start they turn their back towards the kids and yell green light.  All the kids run towards “it” until he or she turns around and says red light.  Everyone must freeze, if anyone moves they have to go back to the beginning.  The purpose is to reach the person who is it while they have their back turned during green light.  Whoever reaches “it” first gets to play the traffic light in the next round.

Mr. Wolf is a game that is set-up similar to Red light, green light. The child who is “it” is Mr. Wolf.  The rest of the children ask, “What time is it Mr. Wolf?” and then take the appropriate number of steps depending on what time it is.  For instance if Mr. Wolf said it was three o’clock than all the children would take three steps towards him.  This continues until Mr. Wolf decides that it is lunch time.  When the children ask what time it is and Mr. Wolf replies, “It’s lunch time!”  Everyone runs away, and the person Mr. Wolf catches is the new Mr. Wolf.

For older kids, you can also form teams and have fun at a local park where there may be more space than in your backyard.

Image via WikipediaSoccer is always popular and everyone knows the basic rules.  If there are no nets, make some with either rocks, natural posts such as trees or use outdoor toys.  The same idea can apply to football, don’t worry if you don’t have the right kind of ball anyone will do – kids have great imaginations.

Or run just for the sake of running by having a relay race.  You can use sticks as the batons or get more creative.  Have the kids say silly word or a joke as the pass-off instead of physically passing something back and forth.  Or it can be a getting to know you came, each kid has to tell their partner something about themselves for the pass-off.

Remember that while these are kids games, there's no rule that you can't play too! They are GREAT exercise, and also give you an excuse to spend more time outside with your kids this summer - just call it working out - for fun!