Our favorite part of our home is our backyard. Playing backyard games makes it even better!

As soon as it gets warm enough, the hammock is strung between the cedar trees, the fairy garden gets a makeover, and we start recreating where we’ll pretty much be living for the next several months. This year we’re adding a sunflower fort, hanging a lot more birdfeeders, and I’m planting wildflowers in every empty pot and garden bed. I’m done with the gray of winter.

My children also have plans. Backyard campouts, book clubs in the tree house, and zombie movie-making parties are all in the works. They’ll also spend a good deal of time in the village they’ve built in our woods.

To celebrate our favorite place to play, I’m sharing all sorts of ways to play and learn in the backyard. No backyard- no worries. Many of these activities and ideas work in any outdoor space.

There are all sorts of ways to play in the backyard. My best tip, use what you have. So many backyard games can be created and played with materials already found in your house or yard.

Backyard Games

Here are our favorite ways to play in our backyard.

Treasure Hunt

Children love to make treasure maps. This activity allows children to be either the map maker or the treasure hunter. They can take turns doing both.

1. Give each child a piece of paper and markers. Invite them to draw your backyard and decide where the treasure will be.
2. Next, they need treasure. Treasures could be sticks and rocks, flowers, coins, or a special snack.
3. Hide the treasure.
4. Give the treasure hunter the map and any clues they might need.

Another fun way to have a treasure hunt is to hide the treasure and lead kids through a number of steps. Say things like- take five steps to the left, turn around three times, take two steps backward, go down the slide, or step over the log.

Backyard Bingo

This game can be played in a variety of ways. Instead of calling out numbers like in traditional Bingo, kids find the items on the sheet by actually finding them in the backyard. This resource, along with all of my free printables, is found in my homeschool community, Creative ELA.

Children can play independently or in groups. They can try for three in a row or fill in the entire board. Colored pencils or markers turn the game into an art activity or invite them into closer observation.

My free printable includes three gameboards. Two boards include pictures of plants, animals, and objects commonly found outside. The third is a blank gameboard so children/parents can design their own game.

Chalk Games

Have a driveway and some chalk? Your kids can find all sorts of ways to play. If they are looking for ideas, try a couple of these:

• Hopscotch
• Foursquare
• Hangman
• I SPY by drawing
• Outline a child’s body and let them create themselves or a character
• Draw a giant car, ship, or house
• Create a maze
• Paint! Make your own sidewalk chalk paint  

Obstacle Course

You can grab just about anything- garden hoses, flowerpots, sticks, outdoor furniture, rocks, etc- and create a maze. Have kids run around the flower pot, walk on the hose without falling off, and crawl under the lawn chair. Time them to see how fast they can go.

Group Games

Pretty much whenever my kids have friends over, some variation of tag or hide-and-seek happens.

My children love –

• Flashlight Tag
• Laser Tag
• Freeze Tag
• Capture the Flag
• Hide and Seek
• Nerf Tag
• Slackline Tag

Bring board games outside, play soccer, basketball, or kickball, and encourage kids to make up their own games. They probably will without too much direction.

If children are not used to playing outside, it may take them time to warm up. Invite friends over, get out there and play with them, and let them see that bugs and dirt and grass are things to love and explore.

Celebrate the great outdoors by heading outside with your family.