Best Outdoor Toys for Kids
We live in the suburbs of Detroit, I rarely lock my door and I feel pretty safe in our neighborhood. Safe from crime, I do not feel safe from the irritation of loud neighbors. So you’d think my kids would be living the same kind of carefree stay outside from morning until night life I lived as a child. But they do not. There are a few reasons for this. I can’t say that the constant media coverage of every abduction, shooting and overall bad things which happen to kids hasn’t affected me and my ability to let my kids run around the neighborhood unsupervised. Our neighborhood is also lacking in children so there’s no one to run around the neighborhood with and finally we lack a garage so the kids bikes and other outside toys are difficult to get at in the crowded shed.
But all that is going to change this summer as we move to a new place with a garage, a private backyard and a lot of kids to play with in our new neighborhood. This coupled with the fact that I have a difficult time filling the summer with 1,000 activities when my kids have nothing to do leads us to today’s Buzz Off, Outdoor Toys.
Get your kids ready for retirement today with this rubber horse shoe game. When my husband and I were first married we lived in a small duplex with a retired older couple next door. Each morning I was awakened by the “clink, clink, clink” of Mr. Wood perfecting his horse shoe game for the winter when they’d return to Florida. Logan and I had an elaborate story we entertained ourselves with involving Mr. Wood and his place on the Horse Shoe Pro Circuit. There were bitter rivalries between different retirement communities and even groupies…in our mind at least.
My kids love ring toss games and they keep them occupied for almost 20 minutes! Hooray! 20 minutes doesn’t seem like a long time, until it’s summer and then a summer 20 minutes feels like hours. This colorful wooden set from Boikido is perfect. Just make sure you make it easy to put away after the kids are done playing: Wood + Rain = No more fun. (This set is no longer available, but you can find other wooden ring toss games here.)
This year in gym class my kids have been working on jumping rope. Jumping rope is great exercise and if you can get a few kids over there are so many games to play in the rope. You might even squeeze 30 minutes out of this activity. I love these bug handled ropes at Amazon.
My kids are a little annoying about sprinklers and playing in the water. They want to do it but then the minute they get wet they act surprised, as if they thought a sprinkler which shoots water would not get them wet. Still this oversized beach ball sprinkler looks like way too much fun to resist. How many minutes can I get out of this?
I’m not featuring any bikes in this round up, but you have to have a bike for your kid. My kids are currently unwilling to take their training wheels off and I think my daughter will be 30 before she ever learns to ride a two wheeler. My plans for them this summer include a lot of bike riding so I’m going to have to do something to get them on the bike in the first place once we “lose” the training wheels in the move. These bike bells are just $9.75, are bright and cheerful and will help you track your child’s location in the neighborhood.
My son has been asking for stilts for the last two years. I’ve avoided buying them because I thought he was too young and it seemed so easy to just make our own. I realized though we’re never going to make them and Max is old enough to give it a try so I’m checking this set from Villac. The stilts come in white and green or red and black with ladybug handles. (There’s also a pair available from a different brand at Amazon.)
My grandfather had a croquet set and I remember many hours playing in the backyard. Of course, we weren’t very good and I’m certain I would have been better if we’d had mallets sized for us, like this set. I am also certain I would have been better at croquet if my set had been packaged in this bright striped bag. To this day I am not very good at croquet, don’t doom your child to a life like this. I am not overstating the truth at all.
Up next: cooking with kids!
