10 Backyard Games to Play with Your Kids

10 Backyard Games to Play with Your Kids

Kids love to play, but a lot of the time it’s not easy to get them to go outside and play. Sometimes all it takes are some outdoor games to convince them to get out of the house. Here’s a list of go-to games your kids will love to play in the backyard.

1. Water Balloon Catch

This is basically the same thing as playing normal catch except you switch it up by playing with water balloons. You start by tossing the balloon back and forth at a short distance and with each catch you take a step back. You continue to toss the water balloon until someone misses or until the balloon pops. This game is the most fun when played in teams– the first team’s balloon that pops loses.

2. Dunk Bucket

This game is great for a very hot summer day. This game is very similar to the dunk tank carnival game. Someone sits in a chair under the bucket and the target and when someone hits the target with the ball, the bucket tips over and splashes the person in the chair. Here are the full directions on how to build the dump bucket.

3. Nine Pin

This is a great outdoor bowling game that has been around for thousands of years, but your kids will still love it. This is basically the same thing as regular bowling, except you use 9 pins instead of 10. You can use anything from milk cartons to small cones or 2-liter soda bottles. Set up the “pins” in a diamond shape. All you need besides that is a ball heavy enough to knock over the pins, then you’re all ready to play.

4. Lawn Twister

All you need for this game is contractors marking spray (that washes off) and some grass. To create this game, all you need to do is paint circles in the grass that are different colors (like the twister mat). 

5. H-O-R-S-E

If your kids like to play basketball then this would be a great game to play with them and to practice their shots. This game is played with at least 2 people. The point of the game is to miss the least amount of baskets. Each time a player misses a basket, they receive a letter H, O, R, S, or E. The first person to earn all of the letters loses.

6. Giant Beer Pong (minus the beer part)

This is the same concept as beer pong, but it is played with large trashcans (or buckets) instead of solo cups. As well as, instead of using ping pong balls, you use either a volleyball or other big rubber balls from Walmart or Target. If you are playing with kids, then you would obviously leave out the drinking portion of the game.

7. Capture the Flag

This is a very popular game and can be played at any age from young children to adults. It is played in a large backyard or field with two teams defending their own flag (or another light object) from their home base. The main point of the game is to capture the opposing team’s flag and return it to your home base without getting tagged by someone on the other team. If you get tagged while on the other team’s territory, you are frozen or ousted from the game until someone comes and retrieves you.

8. Frozen T-Shirt Race

This game is great for a really hot summer day because the ice will help you cool off. All you do for this game is soak a bunch of t-shirts in water and put them in plastic bags, then freeze them overnight. The next day, you have a race to see who can “defrost” and put on a frozen t-shirt the quickest.

9. Freeze Tag

If you have very rambunctious kids, you have to play this game with them. This game is best played in a large group of people. Someone starts out as “it” and must catch all of the others. If you are tagged by the person that is “it” then you are frozen and can not be unfrozen until you get tapped by another person that is not frozen. Some people like to make the game more fun by having multiple people be “it” or making people crawl under the frozen people’s legs to unfreeze them.

10. Fishing For Marbles

This game is great for people with long toes. You stick your feet into a tub of freezing water and try to pick up as many marbles as you can using only your toes.