Tell us your best games to play with children outdoors

ingles favourite outside game.... for the terminally lazy. even includes exercise for the dog!

Take one large back garden.
Position children (age 8 up) and dog at the end of garden.
Stand at the back door with tennis racket, tennis balls, glass of wine and magazine.
Whack ball as high and as far as you can with said racquet.
children and dog chase around like headless chickens trying to catch ball or find ball in long grass.
Aim for long grass or hedge to ensure maximum supping/reading/sunbathing time.
repeat ad infinitum or until dog collapses with heat exhaustion.

We take a football, tennis racquets or a cricket set and we will play fo rages with these.

Our park has a row of trees and the DC's love playing in these, finding things or making dens.

We also just go and roll down the hill.

In the garden they mostly play make believe. They found some garden cames that became Bows and so they played Robin Hood.

We also love to garden, nothing big, certainly nothing fancy some seeds and a few pots.

Bug hunting, snail racing etc

chase the ducks

chase the cat

chase mummy

mummy chase baby

sand/ water table

playhouse

collecting leaves and impaling them on sticks to make 'flags'

duck duck goose

bubbles

fruit salad

drawing all over the footpath with chalk

Collecting leaves and flowers and making collages, pressing them or using them to make rubbings

Mousey84 can I be one of your mindees? I'm 41 though You sound like a brill nanny/childminder

Well, today my mindees and I made an obstacle course, mud pies, played tug of war, and british bulldog (like tag), pooh sticks (we have a small river) donkey (throwing/catching game) practised skipping, planted some seeds, water fight, frisbee, football and bug hunts.

We do a few of these games too.

watching the decomposition of small rodents, then collecting the bones. works best if dead rodent is covered with upturned flower pot in corner of garden not in the middle of the patio

Also big pictures. We tape big bits of paper together on the floor, mix up some paint and let them run through it and use hands or whatever else to paint with. Then hose them down (you can only do this on a hot day).

Oh and digging holes. They like digging holes. Mind you DS eats worms, he's motivated to dig holes

DH plays catch with the dd's, but if you drop the ball you have to 1. go down on one knee for next turn 2. down on two knees if you drop it again, 3. one hand behind back if you drop it again. If you catch it you are back to normal.

Treasure hunts are better outdoors than in - pictures for pre-readers, words when they can read (much easier!)

-Chase the cat.
-Feed the fish.
-Poke mouse cat has killed.
-The 'piddling pool' (a paddling pool for our incontinent children).

• Streaking through the village yelling 'woo hoooooo'
• Catching minibugs and putting them down mum's top
• Looking at sheep.

oh yes and bubbles. i adore bubbles. i think the small handheld battery operated ones are the best, love them.

Like MP, i like to leave my kids to play. I like to drink coffee (or something cool) and watch them.

Back garden fun includes:
chalking the patio
painting the fence with water
washing the bikes with water
putting a wee slide into the paddling pool
making dens/tents with rugs/sheets
digging the garden (this is when it's beneficial not to have many plants that you care about and lots of weeds!)
washing the wee dinosaurs in the dishes bowl
bath toys in the paddling pool

Otherwise i believe in having a back garden full of play equipment and having friends round. I'll provide lovely snacks and leave them to it!

pooter, we still have quite large pieces of the egg-sized pavement chalks DD had when she was 2.5 - she's 10 now - those will last more than one summer! Definitely a good buy.

Large paddling pool when they are old enough!

Ive just discovered chalks with my 2.5yr old DS. He LOVED it, and wanted to 'play chalks' all day. We now have a rainbow, a bus, some trees and 5 cars on our patio. Bargain £1.99 for 15 huge chalks - i can see this one lasting all summer!

small paddling pool (or a plastic baby bath when very young)

Skipping

Picnic blanket on ground and bring out an assortment of "indoor" toys (there are currently about 5 kids on my front door step at said activity )

Hopscotch (with chalk, doesn't have to be fancy bought one!)

water pistols

kids croquet

bubbles

frisbee

hula hoop

cycling/scooter

We set up an obstacle course and get them to complete the course and time each other.

In the summer this inevitably ends up with jumping into the paddling pool.

At a family picnic recently my brother amused my 5 year old ds for ages but flinging a frisbee off into the distance and getting ds to run after it whilst counting how long it took him to retrieve it. DS thought he was having a lovely game, but db uncle was meanwhile sitting with the grownups drinking beer .

Put a plastic storage box full of water in the garden and lots of tubs, scoops, watering cans etc. for them to do what they will with. Paintbrushes too so they can 'paint' the shed/fence/wall/paving slabs.

building dens
or miniature fairy houses
making fires and cooking food (proper BBQs do not count)
catching minibeasts
pond dipping
treasure hunts

Oh does one's OWN garden count?

I've builrt lots of things in the garden so they children can play with them - a castle, a tunnel, a trampoline, a summerhouse, a playhouse...

Largely they just play with buckets of sand, mud and water. For HOURS

I like drinking beer in the park while WATCHING children from a distance

In the winter, coffee

Does that count?

I seriously thought about breaking into my park at night and planting a 4-inch "fairy door" onto the pavillion

don't tell anyone

I never play with my children

It sounds terrible but there we are

I send them off to play with each other