Tell us your best games to play with children outdoors

[HelenMumsnet]

Afternoon all.

We're compiling some Mumsnet tips on games to play with your children outdoors. We've found some great ones already but we'd really love a few more suggestions, please.

They don't have to be fancy or organised and they don't need to involve lots of equipment - just the kind of thing you'd have fun playing together in the park of a summer's day.

Ta muchly, Mumsnet Towers

DD, just turned 2, loves:
playing in the water (just a plastic tub filled with water and bath toys or even empty plastic bottles), any type of messy play (eg. Jelly in a tub), chalking on pavestones, digging up mud and stones etc, picking flowers and playing in sand.

If you have children that are a little bit older you can send them to find a four leaf clover...they'll be ages while you sit back and relax!

Boules is best - I like to beat my children at it !

My ds loves boules. In France last year he made friends with a French man and they played it loads together. (While I sat and drank wine)

Swim suits or nothing on.

Empty plastic bottles filled with water.

Hide indoors (for the adults) with a glass of wine.

'Hosepiping', which basically involves anything using the hosepipe. Filling up watering cans adn watering the plants/pouring it all out, me standing up ladder squirting them etc.

Poking stuff down drains is the other favourite chez nous. ds2 (2.5) announced this morning 'mummy, only small pine cones fit down the drains', which I feel is rather advanced reasoning for his age and down entirely to many hours of experimentation.

Mine like bug hunting. They get very concerned about the insects in the garden and even had a small funeral for a dead one they found. Then we discovered it had actually been a leaf, but the good intent was there

Had DD1 and DNi (niece?) making "perfume" with petals etc. at the weekend. Preferably involving litres and litres of water and eight million different sized receptacles!
Oh running through the sprinkler a big hit too.

Thank you all very very much.
This is all really great stuff.
Will be testing them all out in the garden later...

Squidward - mine would love that so will try that this summer.

even adults get quite hystrical playing it

I put together a fun garden obstacle course for my Son's football themed Birthday once - that was hit! I used different coloured cones to mark out 4 different lanes and had the kids running around obstacles, jumping into a paddling pool, hula hooping, spinning around a cone and then they had to dribble and shoot accurately on my garden FORZA football goal before the next one in their team set off. Fun, friendly and a little competitive!