Fun Garden Games To Play With The Family
While spring and summer offer the opportunity to spruce up your garden, tidy up your paving, and clean up your outdoor decking, the warmer seasons offer something of equal importance to family members and friends alike. Ladies, gentlemen, and children, it’s time to bring out the best in summer garden games.
Horseshoes
No, you won’t be teaching the kids to shoe horses, but you will be painting a number of some 2-inch metal washers a dazzling array of colours and pretending they’re horseshoes, which is an arguably better idea. To play, dig a hole in the ground, and place a tin can in it so it’s flush with the ground.
Hand a uniquely painted washer to each contestant, and have each player attempt to throw their washer into the can from about six feet away. Ensure you have a timer, as the winner should be the person whose washer lands in the can the most. The timer also makes it a great game for children to play alone.
Water Races
It’s not a garden game without water and this one literally has buckets of it. You’ll need a plastic cup for each contestant, an empty bucket, and another bucket that can either be filled with bubbly or dyed water.
The game is pretty simple from here on, as the players have an agreed amount of time to transfer as much water from one bucket to the other as possible. Your game will be to count from the sun lounger without drifting off.
Flower Pressing
A quiet game for those moments when your little ones need some downtime. All you need are heavy books and two pieces of baking paper. Let your children pick the flowers they love the most, although they’ll find small, thin flowers work best.
The children then place their flowers between the sheets of baking paper and place this carefully between the pages of one of the books. The second book is then placed on top to create extra weight, and the flowers are left to dry for several weeks. Note that this isn’t a game to be played after you’ve watered the garden, as you’ll end up with a flower-stained smudge.
Plate Gardens
It’s spring after all, so what better way to celebrate than to let your children create their own gardens in miniature. Take some old plates, fill them up with soil, and let your children’s imaginations run wild.
In this world twigs can become trees, bark can become a grotto, moss can become a forest, and seedlings can become plants. It should be noted that any boys under the age of five will attempt to introduce dinosaurs into the scene. Gently dissuade this.
Reverse Hide and Seek
Also known as sardines as children will end up packed in like them, reverse hide and seek has a large number of ‘its’ and one hider. All the ‘its’ must close their eyes and count to 20 while the hider runs off to hide. As soon as the first ‘it’ finds the hider, they join the hider in their secret spot. As more ‘its’ find the spot, the more they must squeeze in and try not to giggle or complain about elbows.
The game draws to a natural conclusion when the last person finds the hiders. This person also receives the coveted award of not being squeezed with a dozen other children in a confined space for a prolonged period of time.
Wet Potato
This is just like hot potato except somebody will end up soggy and giggling. To play, simply fill a water balloon and have the children pass it around a seated circle as quickly as possible. To really up the ante, add an extra water potato part way through the game.
Sink the Ship
While on the subject of simple water balloon games, sink the ship is where a water balloon is tied to the ankle of each player.
Players then do what they can to pop the water balloon, avoiding toes but ultimately sinking ships. The last person with their ship afloat wins.
For more information on how to enjoy your garden, get in touch with Minster Paving by calling 01865 300252 or contact us online.