Now that summer’s just around the corner, kids all over the world are eager to get outside and play in the backyard. You know they’re going to have hours of fun swinging on swings, sliding down slides, and climbing all over their backyard playset, but what do you do when your kids inevitably want more? If you want to make sure that their summer is packed with active play, check out our list of nine awesome outdoor activities to do with their backyard playset!
Host Your Own Backyard Olympics
If your kids are excited about the Olympic Games, why not have them host their own backyard Olympics for their friends, family, and neighbors to participate in? You can create different events for your kids to participate in: seeing who can swing the highest, who can hold onto the monkey bars the longest, who can climb the rope ladder the fastest, or any other events they can dream up.
Our Bobcat Ridge™ playset has over a dozen different activities built into it that all make for fun Olympic events. If you’re feeling particularly inspired, get some awards to give out to the winners. Of course, safety comes first, so make sure you pick a sturdy playset that can handle the extra activity.
Go Stargazing
If your wooden playset has a large clubhouse deck, like our Bear Basin™ playset, why not get out your telescope and go stargazing? Stargazing is a great way to inspire your kids’ curiosity and teach them about the solar system at the same time. See which constellations, planets, and lunar craters they can find in the night sky. If you’re lucky, you might even see a shooting star or two while you’re at it!
Host Story Time
For parents with younger kids, or parents who just want to chill out for a second (or an hour), a great activity to do with your kids is spend the afternoon reading or hosting story time. Our Cottontail Hideaway™ playset is perfect for relaxing afternoons because the large, suspended cargo net underneath the main deck makes for the perfect reading nook. It’s the ideal place to unwind and knock a few books off your kid’s summer reading list while you’re at it.
Create a Mural with Chalk
Do you have a budding artist in the family? Let their inner Picasso out and have your kids decorate their backyard playset with a chalk mural. Chalk is less messy than paint and washes off easily with the hose, so your kids can decorate their playset again and again. All of our Real Wood Adventures playsets, like the Bear Basin™, have plenty of walls, tables, and other surfaces your kids can decorate to their heart’s content!
Play Capture the Flag
Capture the Flag is the quintessential backyard game kids love to play in the summer. Have your kids invite their friends from around the neighborhood for a game of Capture the Flag and outfit their backyard playset with water balloons or any other fun, friendly ways they want to defend it from potential invaders.
Host Outdoor Movie Night
If you have a projector at home, you can host your own outdoor movie night by setting it up to project on a sheet or the side of your house. Your backyard playset can then serve as either the screen itself or stadium seating, look how comfy our Bear Basin™ is, for you and your kids. Make sure you bring a big bucket of popcorn to share!
Campout in Your Backyard
Camping is always a great summer activity to do with the family, but it also involves a lot of bugs and porta-pottys (which, let’s be honest, we’d all rather avoid). This summer, why not capture the best parts of camping by hosting a campout in your own backyard. You can make s’mores around the campfire, sleep in sleeping bags, drink lemonade, and do anything your heart desires while never having to worry where the hand sanitizer went!
Play the Grass is Lava
This classic variant of Tag is perfect for your kids to play on their Real Wood Adventures playset. Try setting simple rules like: no touching the grass for more than 5 seconds to keep your kids moving as they try to avoid whoever is ‘it.’ If you have a bigger playset like our Bobcat Ridge™, try making things a little more difficult by saying players can’t touch the grass at all. You can even add in other items like blankets or cardboard boxes to create islands of safety in the grass. Once your kids start playing, they’re sure to come up with their own twists on the rules. Let them run wild!
Make Your Backyard Playset into the Ultimate Pillow Fort
Gather up all the spare pillows, blankets, tarps, and cardboard boxes you can from around the house and let your kids turn their backyard playset into the ultimate pillow fort! Many of our Real Wood Adventures™ playsets come with moveable sun shades that your kids can incorporate into their fort as well. Once they’re finished building, enjoy a nice snack and relax in the shade inside their fort!
For 50 years Little Tikes has been a parent-trusted brand making kids toys that last. Looking for more great active play ideas? Check out www.LittleTikes.com for all our latest play tips & tricks!
