Nothing quite beats some quality time outdoors - however big your garden. So we’ve pooled the wisdom of Mumsnet users and mixed this with some ideas of our own to bring you a compendium of the very best garden, patio and balcony games for kids.
But let's not forget the adults. While the children are busy entertaining themselves, it's also important for parents to be able to enjoy their outdoor space as well.
Whether it's a stylish IKEA dining set or a comfy sunlounger (because, well, why ever not?), filling your garden with beautiful garden furniture will make keeping an eye on the kids a lot more fun.
Here are the best outdoor games for kids of all ages, plus some much-needed garden furniture inspiration for the adults.
Games with ropes, elastic and more
1. Skipping
Jumping rope can be done in the tiniest of outdoor spaces and is a great aerobic exercise. It’s harder than you’ll remember and more fun than they’ll know, too.
If you have a large garden, encourage your child (or children) to try ‘double skipping’ - stand opposite one other and jump simultaneously. For families with more than two children, position one child at either end and have a third leaping in the middle.
The simplest of skipping ropes does the job nicely, but we think kids will enjoy this fancy skipping rope with a built-in skip counter.
2. French elastic
Remember ‘Inside, outside, inside, ON’? Yep, we’d forgotten too! French Elastic is making a comeback in the playground and is strangely addictive.
If you don’t have three people to play, one can play with a couple of chairs. Hook it round the legs then jump over each piece of elastic (while chanting horribly ear-wormy rhymes - look them up online).
Buy French Skipping Elastic here
Check out IKEA's range of outdoor dining chairs
3. Tightrope-walking competition
It's competitive, improves balance and gymnastic kids will almost certainly love a slackline.
If you don’t have two trees to tie it to for tightrope-walking competitions, you can buy kits to attach it to almost anything.
Buy a slackline kit here
4. Limbo
One of the easiest games to organise (and an absolute classic), all you’ll need for a Limbo contest is a length of rope and a couple of outdoor chairs to tie it to.
It works equally as well with a long broom.
5. Tug of war
You know the rules. Equal numbers either end, then attempt to pull the opposing team across a marker on the ground. Heeeeeaaave!
Related: Best family board games
Outdoor games with chalk
6. Hopscotch
A firm favourite that never gets old, if you’ve forgotten the layout for Hopscotch, you can soon look it up online.
Hours of fun to be had with outdoor chalk, eager children and either a patio or a balcony.
Buy assorted outdoor chalk here
7. Garden Twister
Use your coloured chalk to make the Twister blobs in red, yellow, green and blue on the floor and get spinning that dial.
This is one for the whole family too. If you already own a Twister mat, or have been meaning to invest in one, then you can just as easily use that as well.
Buy Twister here
Want to have yourself a real outdoor party? IKEA's summer party range could be just the ticket
8. Simple noughts and crosses
Who doesn’t love a game of noughts and crosses? Brilliant if you’ve got square paving slabs, but otherwise you can draw your own board on the ground with chalk.
Hide and seek games
9. Scavenger hunt or treasure hunt
If your children enjoy good old hide-and-seek but you don’t have hectares of outdoor space to play with, then this has a similar vibe.
Scavenger hunts are good for getting children running around. Just give them a list of things to find and bring back in a plastic tub - a daisy, a stone, a woodlouse etc - and they’ll be entertained for hours.
A simple treasure hunt will also work well with tiny paper clues folded up leading from one clue to the next.
You can even try this game on a small balcony. While that may seem challenging, you may be able to find enough corners, potted plants and stones in which to hide wrapped sweets or other goodies. Always a winner. Add a time limit into the mix for some added excitement.
Make your treasure hunt even more atmospheric with IKEA's multicoloured outdoor lights
Racquet games for the garden
10. Swingball
For budding Serena Williams types, try swingball. It’s a very fence-friendly garden game so you won’t be round the neighbours every three minutes asking for your ball back.
You don’t even need a lawn for a standalone swingball.
Buy a swingball set here
Related: Ideas for keeping primary school children entertained at home
11. Sticky tennis
A Velcro catch and throw set makes the throwing aspect of sticky tennis much easier.
Plus, it makes a very pleasing sound when you rip the ball off to hurl it back.
12. Table tennis
Table tennis sets can be set up just as easily on an outdoor table as an indoor one.
We promise you’ll still be at the ‘whiff whaff’ long after the kids have gone to bed.
Buy a table tennis set here
Discover IKEA's very own outdoor dining tables
13. Badminton
For a slightly more genteel game, try badminton.
A little slower and a lot quieter than other racquet games, it’s virtually impossible to get a shuttlecock over a fence unless they get good.
Buy badminton racquets here
Garden games with balls
14. Juggling and other circus skills
Aside from the obvious catch-and-throw games and kickarounds, the garden (or the tiniest of balconies) is a good place to practise your juggling.
If they get really good you could extend their circus skills with a diabolo or pair of stilts.
Buy juggling balls here
15. Simple catch and throw
Toddlers will enjoy getting ready for catching games by ‘catching’ a rolling ball and rolling it back to you or tossing bean bags (less ouchy when you accidentally catch one).
16. French cricket
If you have enough players you can recreate the thwack of willow on leather (a bit) with French cricket.
One bowler, one batsman and as many fielders as you have. The bowler’s out when someone catches the ball.
If you’re a large family, this is a good way to get the kids running around the garden while you retreat to the safety of an armchair with a cuppa.
17. Dodgeball
Good for working off energy (a polite way of saying ‘good for when they’ve gone feral’), teams should be six each but you can bend the rules to play with two.
Start with one ball per team and two balls in the middle of the playing area. The team to knock out all their opponents by throwing balls and hitting them on the back between the shoulder blades is the winner. Stand well back!
Target games to play outside
18. Quoits
Quoits (the fancy name for hoop-la) is fun for all ages but a few beanbags and a chalk mark on the ground is just as good.
19. Marbles
While you’ve got your chalk out, draw a circle on the ground and you can play marbles. One big one each and you take turns to try and knock as many marbles out of the circle as you can.
Buy marbles here
20. DIY crazy golf
Any old croquet mallets or kids’ golf clubs can be pressed into action. Make tunnels from loo rolls, send them up mounds of earth and down the other side.
You can even take your crazy golf course through the sand pit and the paddling pool if you’re feeling ambitious.
Water games for the garden
21. Waterslides
Run the hose down the garden slide and, for maximum squeals, point the end straight into the paddling pool.
22. Water painting
We’ve yet to meet a toddler who didn’t love being given a pot of water and a paintbrush to daub all over the fence or the side of the house.
Better still, it’s completely mess-free painting, and probably counts as developing their gross motor skills. You hear that, nursery?
Related: Easy craft ideas for toddlers
23. Water-cup racing
A perennial Mumsnet garden favourite. Set up two parallel lengths of string from one fence to another. Punch a hole in the bottom of two plastic cups. Thread them through the string. Take two water pistols and have a race to move the cups from one end of the string to the other using only the power of water!
See an example
24. Water balloon dodgeball
Dodgeball (see above) but with water balloons. What’s not to like?
25. Paddling pool hook-a-duck
All the fun of the fair…in your back garden. Fill your pool, release some rubber duckies and use a fishing net to scoop them out. Also works with plastic dinosaurs, cars or whatever catches their fancy.
Buy rubber ducks here
26. ‘That French Camping Game’
We don’t know the origins of this Mumsnet favourite but it’s always simply been known as ‘that French camping game’ here.
Take two children, two empty plastic bottles and one ball. Fill the bottles with water. Don’t screw the lids on. Stand one bottle by each child. They take turns to throw the ball to try and knock over the other’s bottle. If your bottle goes over you have to fetch the ball before you can right your bottle. The winner is the one whose water lasts longest.
Garden racing games
27. Blanket racing
Find old blankets. Sit children on blankets. Adults or bigger children drag them along the lawn on their blankets in a race to the finish. So much fun.
28. Obstacle courses
Let’s face it the ONLY good bit about sports day at school. But so much more fun with REAL hardboiled eggs on your spoons, pillowcases for the sack race part and lots of fun obstacles along the way from bean bags to balance on heads to hula hoops to hula to the finish!
Buy hula hoops here
29. Outdoor ‘board’ games
There’s a plethora of cool games that now have ‘outdoor’ versions from giant dominoes and Jenga to garden Connect Four. We particularly love the idea of giant pick-up sticks, for one the whole family can get involved with or outdoor Yahtzee for primary schoolers getting to grips with numbers.
Older children might well be tempted by giant chess (very Alice in Wonderland) or something slightly more complex and Scandi-cool like Kubb, a Viking game that involves throwing chunks of wood at other chunks of wood. Most satisfying.
Related: Ideas for keeping secondary school children entertained at home
Outdoor games that need no props at all
30. Grandmother’s Footsteps
A classic and with good reason. ‘Grandmother’ turns her back to the other players and they have to try and creep up on her and tap her on the shoulder without being heard. But Grandmother can turn round at any time and if she sees you move you’re out.
31. Captain’s Orders
One person (make it you!) is ‘Captain’ and gives out orders to which the relevant response must be given. Captain’s Coming: everyone salutes. Scrub the decks: they all ‘scrub the ground’. Port: run to the left. Starboard: run to the right. Man the lifeboats: 10 sit-ups each while pretending to row. Shark attack! Lie on your back with one leg in the air. We reckon you can make up a few of your own, too.
32. Shadow tig
You know the rules to tig (or ‘tag’, or ‘it’, depending on where in the country you grew up). It’s like that but you get people ‘out’ by treading on their shadow. A good one for a sunny day.
If you want to take the fun up a notch, try a game of vest tag using two Velcro vests and some soft balls.
Buy IKEA’s LUSTIGT tag game here
See more children's physical play toys here
What IKEA has to say
As the weather warms up and the days get longer, taking life outdoors looks more and more appealing. Whether you have a big garden, small patio space or a balcony that’s just about big enough for two, IKEA has plenty of outdoor furniture and smart storage solutions to help you maximise your options and make the most of the sunshine this summer.
This thread is sponsored by IKEA
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