1. Outdoor Scrabble
Embrace your creative side and make super size classic games to take outside. Perfect for home and family camping trips, and you get to have fun making the sets with your children too. For the Scrabble version, you simply need to create 144 cardboard Scrabble tiles and paint them with the letters - you would need two J’s, K’s, Q’s, X’s and Z’s, three B’s, C’s, F’s, H’s, M’s, P’s, V’s, W’s and Y’s, four G’s, five L’s, six D’s, S’s and U’s, eight N’s, nine T’s and R’s, eleven O’s, twelve I’s, thirteen A’s and eighteen E’s. Then you can play a much more active game of scrabble and get body and mind working at the same time!
2. Stop, thief!
This is a classic that many of us remember from our own youth. One of the children is named the guard and gets blindfolded and given a rolled up magazine or newspaper and sits on a chair. A number of items are scattered around the guard’s seat. The other children aim to steal the items as quietly as possible, if the guard hears them he shouts ‘Stop, thief!’ and tries to hit them with his newspaper, if he manages to hit them without standing up, the item gets returned. The winner is the person who steals the most without getting caught.
3. Strike a pose
If you are looking for activities and games to keep your children occupied, particularly if you’re in iconic locations or in the desert or the beach, this can be great. Create some fun images to keep forever by pulling together some props (hats, glasses, masks, scarves, boas, bags, etc.) and/or simply an empty photo frame and let children use their imaginations and the camera to create a fun set of images.
4. Test your toes
This might be better for your own garden. Depending on the number of people playing you can fill a cup, a bowl, or a paddling pool with water and some marbles. Children need to try and get the marbles out using only their toes. The winner has the most marbles.
5. Scavenger hunt
Give children a list of outdoor items that they need to find. These would depend on where you are doing the scavenger hunt but could include a feather, a leaf, a seed pod, an unusual stone, a shell, etc. The first one back with all the items is the winner.
There are so many variations of these games and they are sure to be a hit with children - and keep them out of your hair for a while too!
With thanks to CreaKids Early Learning Centre. For more information and to register your child for a place, visit www.creakids.ae.