10 Outdoor Boredom Busters for Kids
While we are all doing our bit to fight COVID-19 by staying home the children are getting bored. If you have run out of ideas to keep them busy, here are some fun games to help keep both their minds and their bodies active.
Our 10 Boredom Busters
1. Hopscotch
Using chalk to draw hopscotch on the pavement or driveway not only is it fun for them to decorate and draw but then they get the added bonus of playing hopscotch. Here are the rules of hopscotch for those who have forgotten.
Draw the hopscotch design on the ground, numbering each square.
Throw a marker (like a stone, beanbag, button) in square one. If you miss landing the marker correctly, you miss your turn and the game moves onto the second person.
If you get your marker into the square, then hop through the squares skipping the one with the marker; single squares only, one foot in each square, the squares side by side get one foot in each square. On the way back pick up the marker, still remembering to skip that square.
Then it’s the next persons turn to do the same thing with their marker.
On your next turn you throw your marker into the next square and repeat taking turns until you have done every square.
2. Obstacle course
Using things around the house to make an obstacle course. Great obstacle courses have things to weave around, things to jump over, things to balance on, things to go under and things to go over, you can even use chalk to help make the obstacle course. Here is a picture of an obstacle course we have made.
3. Balancing games
Balancing games are good for coordination and proprioception (how we control our body in space). Things like tandem walking (heel-toe with one foot in front of the other) or balancing on one leg and timing it. They can be made harder by doing on a soft surface like the lawn or on a cushion.
4. Discover local walking path
At this stage we are still allowed out for exercise if we follow social distancing rules. So, getting out for a daily walk is great exercise for everyone. (and stay tuned for an upcoming blog on local walking paths and tracks).
5. Hide and seek
6. Re-discovering old games like Marbles and Quoits.
7. Skipping.
For those who are particularly adventurous, check out a blog Mary wrote with a skipping workout here.
8. Make your own bubble blower.
What you need is an old wire coat hanger and a tub or old ice-cream container. Bend the wire into a circle. Mix up some detergent and water in the tub and let the fun begin.
9. The string game.
This game needs a few people, all standing in a circle.
Take a ball of string and then everyone passes the string around and across so it criss-crosses around the circle. You place a ring (like a curtain ring or old bangle) onto the start of the string and then work as a team to pass the ring along the string and out (without touching it) by working together. This can be timed, to make another challenge.
10. Outdoor card games
First you shuffle the deck of cards. Then you take turns to flip a card. What you turn over is what you have to do. Then the next person flips a card to see what they have to do - the cards create your workout:
Hearts – Star jumps
Diamonds – Hops
Clubs – Jumps
Spades – grape vines or side steps
Jacks – Jog a lap of the yard.
Queens – Jog 2 laps of the yard
Kings – Nothing you get a rest
For example 6 Hearts would be 6 star jumps, 8 Clubs would be 8 jumps, Ace of Diamonds would be 1 hop.
We hope these activities help to keep everyone entertained at home. Let us know how you go, and feel free to share some of your own ideas!!