Children's imagination really has no limits, and therefore games and competitions in nature should be special for them. Any adult can envy their inventions. Children can come up with a game out of nothing, but it won’t necessarily be safe. To avoid this, you should prepare in advance and select several interesting activities that your child will enjoy and will be safe.
"Smart Thief"
To play you will need: a ball, a rope, 15-20 small objects (coins, pebbles, shells, small children's toys, candies, nuts...).
The rope is tied to a tree branch so that it hangs down evenly. A ball is tied to the rope below. This must be done so that there is no more than 2 centimeters between the ball and the ground. All small objects are randomly placed under the ball on the ground. This completes the preparatory stage.
Next, one of the players approaches the ball, takes it in his hands, steps back 2-3 steps, lifts it high above his head and pushes it forward with all his strength. While the ball is swinging, you need to collect all the wealth laid out on the ground as quickly as possible. And, of course, the ball should not touch the player. After which the total number of collected items is calculated. Then the items are returned to their places and all players go through this procedure. The winner is determined by the number of items collected.
Important: if the ball still touches the player during the theft, then his entire score is reset to zero.
Build a hut
In one of the secluded corners of the garden you can build a real Indian wigwam or a small fortress. All you need is skill and imagination. And also dry branches left after pruning trees, plywood from construction, bricks, hay.
As a last resort, you can simply fence off the area under the tree, covering it with a thick tarpaulin. Give the child a sleeping bag. Or put up a tent. Older children may even be allowed to stay in their hut overnight, provided they have a flashlight and safety instructions.
Children love to play in their little house, hide from the rain or heat and just have fun.
"Twist the rope"
For the competition you will need an unusual set: a ball, a rope, a net. We put the ball in a net, tie a rope to the net, and tie the rope around a tree. Next, we unite the children into two teams, each of which is placed on different sides of this tree.
The essence of the game is to kick the ball hard and wrap a rope around a tree. Each team takes turns striking: the first - in a clockwise direction, the second - counter-clockwise. It is logical that the stronger the blows, the more revolutions are obtained.
There are no restrictions on the number of hits, which means the game continues until one of the teams winds the entire rope around the tree in this way.
"Hot Ember"
For this game you will need a ball. He can be anything. The number of participants is at least four. But the more people involved, the better.
Everyone stands in a circle. One of them is appointed as the driver and placed in a circle, blindfolded. He will have to give commands to the others. He begins by declaring: “Keep the potatoes from the fire, take care of your palms.” After that, the rest of the players quickly throw the sports equipment to each other in a circle, as if they had grabbed a really hot potato. And when the driver unexpectedly says: “Stop!”, the one who still has the ball in his hands is “burned,” that is, he lost and leaves the game. And so on until only one of the most persistent remains. The winner becomes the driver.
"Pigs Don't Dance"
This game can be called entertaining and intellectual. She will also need a ball and a good vocabulary.
All participants stand in a circle and pass the ball to each other. This can be done either in a circle or in random order. The difficulty lies in the fact that the first player must name any noun, the second - an adjective that would fit the meaning of the first word, and the third - a verb, so that it also fits logically into the sentence. If, for example, at the end you get the phrase “The big pig is dancing,” then the player who said the word “dancing” is eliminated, because this does not happen. It is important to pronounce the words quickly - a maximum of 3 seconds is given for the answer. While the participant is thinking, others are counting out loud. The most resourceful one wins.
Make a house for beneficial insects
Attract beneficial insects to your site by building a hotel house for them. Any materials are suitable: wooden pallets, fragments of bricks, stones, sticks, branches, pieces of boards, cones, bark, hay, moss - anything that can be found in the forest or collected on the site. The main thing is to drill a lot of holes in the pieces of wood in which insects will hide. The roof and walls will protect the insects in such a house from wind and rain.
Tell your child what beneficial insects are for (bumblebees, ladybugs, lacewings, etc.). How they pollinate trees so that fruits ripen on them, destroy aphids and other harmful insects that spoil vegetables, fruits and berries growing in your garden.
"Zoo"
This game is a little similar to the previous one, but there are significant differences. Firstly, there is a driver who stands in a circle of other participants. Secondly, there is no need to form phrases here.
At the beginning of the game, the driver says: “We came to the zoo and saw what is here...” Then he throws the ball to one of the participants, saying “beast.” The participant must quickly name some animal and return the ball to the driver. Next, the driver throws the ball to another player and says “bird,” and he quickly says the name of a bird and returns the ball. The third player gets the word “fish”. The words “beast”, “bird” and “fish” can be named in any order and even several times in a row. The one who answered incorrectly, hesitated, or named the animal that another player named is eliminated from the game.
The competition continues until one player remains. He then becomes the next driver.
Look at the starry sky
For this activity, you only need the sky to be cloudless and without the moon, and outside the city, where there are no bright lanterns, the stars are visible very well. Download a special interactive application to your mobile phone that works online. After launching it, you only need to point your smartphone camera at the part of the sky that you want to examine in more detail.
The application allows you not only to determine the location of the main stars and constellations of the celestial sphere, but also to find out their names, history of occurrence, and also read background information about the distance to the stars, their spectrum of light, mass and age. A star map will help your child quickly navigate among the constellations and accurately find the brightest stars in the sky.
Even if you spend only a few weeks outside the city with your child or come to the dacha only on weekends, this time should become the most vivid and memorable for you and your children.
Prepared from materials from the website www.theenglishgarden.co.uk
"Breakthrough"
The game can be quite traumatic, so it should only be played in the presence of an adult. Children stand in a circle, and one child with a ball stands in the center of the circle. This ring should be as tight as possible: the distance between the participants should be 15-20 cm. The task of the central player is to break through the defense, that is, push the ball outside the circle. You can push the ball only with the help of your legs, knocking it out only at ground level. That is, aiming at the heads or stomach is strictly prohibited - the ball must roll on the ground.
The remaining players do their best to prevent the central one from making a breakthrough. But they can only act with their feet. At the same time, closing the circle into a narrower ring is prohibited. The one who misses the ball takes the place of the driver. There is no one winner here. But if you want to create a competitive moment, then you can keep track of losses. Whoever has the fewest is the winner.
Play mini farm
If you don’t raise livestock at your dacha, invite your children to play with their own mini-farm. Pet figurines can be purchased in the toy department. Build pens for livestock using construction sets or bricks, and build a pond from a basin, filling it with water and throwing in toy frogs.
Cows and pigs can graze on the grass during the day and return to their stalls at night. Children are happy to organize many different adventures for the inhabitants of their farm, and they themselves will not miss the opportunity to splash around in the toy pond. You will have to look after the kids!
"Tail of the Dragon"
This kind of entertainment is perfect when you don’t have any equipment at hand. Unite the children into two teams and line them up in two lines. These will be two dragons. Determine where the dragons have their heads and where their tails are. Place the ranks opposite each other so that the “heads” are face to face at a distance of 1 meter. Next, you announce that there will now be a competition in which the fastest and most dexterous dragon will win. And in order to find out, each dragon must, at a signal, catch the tail of another dragon, but not get caught himself. Only the dragon's head can catch.
All children place their hands on each other's shoulders and, at a signal, begin to move. The team whose tail is caught loses. And two of the team are eliminated - the “tail” and the “head”. The game continues until only one player remains on one of the teams. If this happens, then this dragon is recognized as the weakest.
What to do with children in nature: 7 tips
If you give children freedom, they will find something to do with themselves. Therefore, directing their energy is very useful - especially in nature, where everything is curious and not very safe.
The ideologist of children's tourist gatherings, Zhenya Katz, told us what to do with children in nature, so that it is not boring for you, and interesting and educational for the children.
Collect natural materials for crafts
Cones, twigs, moss - you can find a lot of things in nature, from which you and your child will later create a small masterpiece. The cones can be painted for the New Year with paints or doused with glue and sprinkled with glitter. From twigs, moss, the same pine cones and various blades of grass, you can make a picture or make figurines and act out a fairy tale in a clearing of moss - you get a home mini-play.
Observe and discuss
Why do the leaves turn yellow? Why do some turn red and others yellow? What kind of tree is this, and what is it called? How do ants crawl? Do you, adults, know this yourself? Do you know that before weaving a web, a spider makes a triangle from the webs, and only then inscribes a polygon into it? And then everything else weaves in? And that not all webs are sticky - those on which the spider itself moves are not sticky. When going outdoors, it is sometimes useful for parents to do their homework too - then they will have to answer the child’s questions!
Play by the water
Water is a very attractive place. But also a source of danger. According to Lisa Alert search teams, most children lost in nature drown. Therefore, we lead, organize and control entertainment near and on the water!
You can run back and forth across the stream if it’s warm. And at the same time (with kids who are still learning to count) count how many times they ran. Or stop using a code word. And stand as if frozen until you hear “die!”
Who said that standing on one leg in water and sand is easy? But it's fun! And useful.
You can launch boats in streams and rivers. How to make a boat and from what? A piece of bark, a stick-leaf. Will you make a two-masted one? Oh! And we launch the fleet!
At the same time, we talk about the structure of ships - which mast is on which side, what these sails are called, what commands are given to the sailors. Or about the properties of wood (why it is easy to cut a boat from one piece of wood, but difficult from another). Or why water flows. You have hundreds of stories to tell, just look around.
Of course, towers made of sand, holes in the sand, defensive ditches around castles - you yourself built them as a child.
Play travelers
We spend the night in a tent - in the forest, at a camping site or in the yard of the dacha. Let's learn how to set up a real tent correctly. If your campsite or picnic area has designated fire pits, you can teach children how to make a fire while discussing why the fire is different colors. If there is no special officially designated fire pit, do not take risks with fire under any circumstances!
Fight and compete
Rams on the bridge
A fallen tree or log is suitable (it is only advisable to get rid of sharp protruding knots), two balls or balloons. And into battle! Who can push who off the log using only balls? Don't hit me in the face!
Forest sea battle
At gatherings of little tourists we use props: several meters of ribbons in two colors, a lot of sticks, painted pine cones. But the field can also be laid out with simple twigs. Or draw on the sand (like ships). And it is not necessary to paint the cones.
Rules: two people try to knock out enemy ships with pine cones. The cones bounce and try to jump out of bounds.
Climb, jump, take risks
A fallen tree, a tree with several trunks from a powerful butt, is an excellent climbing frame.
“At one of our “tourist” gatherings, children climbed a slanted pine tree for all three days, starting on Friday until departure,” says Zhenya Katz. “We helped them string parallel ropes side by side, hang rings, made rope railings above the pine tree, and rope ladders under the pine tree. Children of all ages climbed there constantly, some cheerfully and confidently, others overcoming fear.”
Risks within reasonable limits are useful! There is no development without risk. Without risk there is no understanding of your capabilities.
In the forest, on the same fallen tree, one five-year-old child cheerfully climbs and confidently walks along the trunk, then confidently jumps to the ground himself - from the height that seems safe to him. And another child on the same log is afraid to take three steps, sits astride, afraid to jump even from a small height. And that's okay. But parents who worry and worry about their children often harm their children themselves.
If a child climbs only where he can climb himself, then the risk is much less than if we constantly put children on high apparatus and then insure it. If a child is accustomed to the fact that he can only rely on himself, then he climbs much more carefully. But if children are accustomed to being supported and insured by mom and dad all the time, then they may suddenly let go of their hands and fall - in the hope that an adult will catch them.
So the main safety rule is: if parents do not sit their children down, then the children themselves climb into places where they can climb, and do not climb into places where they are scared. So we just keep watch nearby.
Feel, be happy, be sad
This is probably the most exciting thing about outdoor recreation - romantic moments with children. Look at the moon together. Lie on the grass and look at the clouds. Count the stars. Make wishes on falling stars. Look for constellations. Listen to the night birds. Listen to a frog concert. Listen to the sounds of the forest. Thinking that fireflies are fallen stars. Stay silent together, holding hands. Sigh together about the same thing. Seize these moments, they don't last forever.
Read more on the topic
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"Until the thunder struck"
To play, you will again need a ball. Only you don’t have to tie it down. The number of players here is unlimited, but not less than three.
To begin with, a driver is selected and the ball is handed to him. Everyone else stands around him. The ball in the hands of the driver is “thunder”. While it is in the hands, everyone must stand still. As soon as the ball is in the air or on the ground, everyone runs in different directions (the further the better). At the very beginning, the driver throws the ball above him, and until it falls into his hands again, the players scatter. When the driver catches the ball, he loudly shouts “Thunder struck” and everyone stops. Then the driver throws it at one of the players. If he misses, he runs after the ball, and at this time everyone scatters again. If he hits, he changes places with the one who was shot and the game starts again.
Break up a flowerbed
Give your child a plot of land near the house so that he can arrange his own flowerbed there. Dig up the soil and remove grass roots. Buy flower seeds and give your child bags. Teach how to sow seeds and care for crops, but let the child do everything himself. A children's flowerbed can be marked with a border of painted stones or a multi-colored picket fence.
Let it be a personal children's corner of wildlife. By watching how seedlings grow, how they change, how fragile they are at first, and then grow stronger, turning into beautiful flowers, the child will learn to handle plants carefully and carefully, and will not pick leaves from trees or flowers simply out of boredom or for fun.
"Black Mark"
In this game, all participants, except one, stand in one row facing forward. One (the driver) stands a little further away (2-3 meters from the others) with his back to everyone. At this time, one of the players throws a ball at his back. You just need to throw it lightly so that the driver doesn’t get hurt. The driver then turns to face the players and tries to guess who sent him the “black mark”.
If the driver guesses correctly, he changes places with the thrower. If he doesn’t guess, he turns away and everything repeats all over again.
Interesting activities at home
At home, as you know, even walls help. Don't be afraid to come up with ideas and bring them to life with your children. If you are not lazy, think everything through well and show a little imagination, then every day you will have a new option for how to keep your child occupied in the summer.
- During bad weather or in the evening after a long day, it will be nice for the whole family to assemble a large picture from puzzles or build something with a construction set. A large construction kit can last for several days of assembly.
- Many children dream of pets. The best time to get a pet is the summer holidays. The child will have enough time to learn how to care for his pet and get used to responsibility for a living creature.
- Girls really enjoy playing with dolls. If you have a daughter, encourage her to start modeling doll clothes. And from the leftover materials that many families keep at home, you can sew beautiful outfits. Little ones will be interested in paper dolls, for which they can draw dresses and suits themselves.
- Perhaps your child will become interested in design. Allow him to come up with and make changes to the interior of your home. Take an active part in this matter, help your favorite designer realize his plans.
- It is very good when a child has a hobby. If he has not yet decided, help him with advice, and then support him in every possible way. It doesn’t matter what the baby wants to do, the main thing is that he finds it interesting.
