Outdoor Family Games

For Quidditch this week, the Hogwarts students have to play a new outdoor game as a family. Here are some of my student's favorite outdoor games. 

Spud: This outdoor game is a lot of fun. Every player gets a number and crowds around the person who is “it” for that round. “It” then tosses the ball straight up and the other players run away. As the ball reaches the top of its toss, “it” calls out the number of one of the other players and then runs away also. The player whose number was called must run back and catch the ball (or chase after it if it is bouncing around). Once that person has the ball, they yell, “Spud!” Then everyone else must freeze. The person with the ball must try to hit one of the players with the ball. If they do, that new person gets a letter (first S, then P, then U, then D) and is now “it.” If they miss, the person who threw the ball is “it” for the next round.
Number of Players: A small group.
Equipment: Playground ball.

Four Square: This ball game is played on a square court further divided into four smaller squares, numbered one through four. One player stands in each of the squares, with the highest ranked player in number one, lowest in number four. You bounce the ball among the players, bouncing once in the other person’s square before that person catches it. When I played this as a kid, we had countless additional rules to choose from. The person in square one got to choose the rules. Anyone who violates the rules will have to move down in the ranking, or be eliminated with another player rotating in to square four.
Number of Players: Four, unless you take turns.
Equipment: A four square court or sidewalk chalk, a playground ball.

Kick the Can: This game is a variation of tag and hide & seek. One person or a team of people are designated as “it” and a can is placed in the middle of the playing area. The other people run off and hide while the “it” covers his or her eyes and counts to a certain number. “It” then tries to find everyone. If a person is tagged by “it”, they go into a holding pen for captured players. If one of the un-captured players manages to kick the can, the captured players are released. The game is over once all the non-”it” players are in the holding pen.
Number of Players: Ideally at least three.
Equipment: A metal can.

Wall Ball

Materials

• Tennis ball
• Wall

Directions

This is a game for one or two players. The idea is to throw and catch the ball according to a sequence of tasks. When you miss, you lose your turn and have to start all over the next time. Here are some tasks:

• Meensies: Throw the ball and catch it before it bounces—10 times
• Onesies: Throw the ball and catch it after one bounce—9 times
• Clapsies: Throw the ball and clap hands before you catch it—8 times
• Kneesies: Throw the ball and touch your knees before catching it—7 times
• Twosies: Throw the ball and catch it after two bounces—6 times
• Under the knee: Lift your leg and throw the ball under the knee before catching it—5 times
• Highsies: Throw the ball as high as you can before catching it—4 times
• Touch the ground: Throw the ball and catch it after touching the ground—2 times
• Turn around: Throw the ball and catch it after turning completely around—1 time

Note: After going through the sequence without missing, go through again using the right hand only, then with the left hand only.

***Thanks to Geek Dad for these great instructions! 



Pin It

Musical Sprinkler Freeze

For Quidditch this week, the Hogwarts Students get to play Musical Sprinkler Freeze. I found this fun game at Awesome Kid Birthday Parties. com. Here are the instructions. 

Musical Sprinkler Freeze

The great thing about this game, is that everyone’s a winner (and everyone gets soaked!!).

What You’ll Need:

• 1 or more sprinklers
• Great party music and a music player (e.g.: CD player or iPod with speakers)

How to play:

1. Set up the sprinkler(s) in the play area and have all the players gather round.
2. Start the game with the sprinkler(s) turned off.
3. Then turn on the music and encourage everyone to act goofy (e.g.: jump, dance, strike funny poses, etc.).
4. When the music is turned off everyone must freeze immediately (holding whatever pose they were in when the music stopped) and get drenched until the sprinkler(s) are turned off again.
5. Call attention to the funniest looking poses, the poses that are the hardest to hold, the most soaked player, etc.

Check out this site for more fun water ides and much more! 

Awesome Kid Birthday Parties

Pin It

Splash Tag and More Water Games

For Quidditch this week, Hogwarts students will be playing Splash Tag. July is the hottest month of the summer after all! Here are a few more fun water games from Family Fun Magazine and the Spoonful Website you could try. 

Splash Tag

Sopping sponges hit the spot in this hot-weather variation of classic tag.

What you'll need

• Big, soft sponge
• Buckets of water

How to play

1. One person is designated as being It. Players run away from It, who tries to tag them by throwing a wet sponge.
   
   
2. Once tagged, that person becomes the new It. The great thing about this game is that there's no bickering about whether or not someone got tagged. The splatter on his or her back says it all.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Splash Down
   Don't be surprised if this sponge-toss game turns into an all-out water battle. The goal is to get wet; winning points just adds to the fun.

   What you'll need

   • 1 small bucket (ours were 2-1/2 gallons) for each player
   • Water
   • 1 big car wash sponge for each player

   How to play

   1. Each player gets a small bucket filled with water, and a big car wash sponge. Players stand about 8 feet apart with their buckets on the ground directly in front of them.
      
      
   2. Each player tries to throw her wet sponge into the other's bucket (and splash the other player, of course!). Each successful toss is worth one point. The sponges are thrown back and forth until one player reaches an agreed-upon point total — or both players just start throwing sponges at each other.
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      Fill Er' Up
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      Whether you want to liven up a backyard bash or help your gang cool off on a hot day, this fast-action game will make quite a splash. Divide the group into teams of two. Have teammates stand six feet from one another, one holding a small cup with a Ping-Pong ball in it and the other a water-filled spray bottle. On "go," players with bottles try to be the first to squirt enough water into their teammate's cup to float out the ball. Keep a bucket of water nearby for refilling. If teammates get closer than six feet, they must dump out the water in the cup and start over.
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      Got Your Back 
      
      
      
      
      
      
      The name of this wild game of water tag says it all: players take aim at their opponents' backs, trying to squirt off their paper tails.

      What you'll need

      • Duct tape
      • White crepe paper
      • One water spray bottle per player

      How to play

      1. 
         To prepare, use duct tape to attach three 6-inch strips of white crepe paper to the back of each player's shirt.
      2. 
         Give each kid a spray bottle, then let the squirting begin.
      3. 
         Whoever has the most remaining paper once the water runs out is the winner
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         Sponge Brigade
         Beat the heat at your next summer gathering with a game that requires fancy (and very silly) footwork.

         What you'll need

         • Large sponges
         • Water
         • Bucket

         How to play

         1. First, divide players into two teams and have the members of each team lie down side by side, alternating directions as shown.
            
            
         2. Place a bucket of water near the head of each line.
         3. 
            Have the first player on each team hold a large, soaked sponge with her feet. At "Go," the teams use their feet to pass their sponge down the line and back. If a player drops the sponge, he may sit up to recover it but can use only 
            his feet to get it back into the game.
         4. 
            The first team to get their sponge into the bucket wins.
            
            
            
            
            
            
            
            
            
            
            
            
            
            
            
            
            
            
            
            
            Have fun beatiing the heat with these games.  Our family has an "annual" surprise water fight on the 4th of July. I love this tradition! (We do realize the misnomer of the title---- The surprise comes in because no one knows when Mom or Dad will kick things off that day!)  Well, this year we were unable to have the water fight because we were in Idaho at Grandma and Grandpa's House. So I am going to really surprise everyone by starting a water fight on July 24th this year. This date is also a holiday in Utah. It is the date that the Mormon pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley to begin settling the area in 1847. If you know any of my kids or my husband, please don't tell!! 

Pin It

Flashlight Limbo and Other Night Games

Kids and flashlights are so much fun in the summertime. Students at Hogwarts will be playing Flashlight Limbo this week. And here are a few other night games for you to try. 

Flashlight Limbo
This game is as easy as it sounds. Simply gather two flashlights and have two people hold them facing each other. Other players then try to Limbo Under the beam of light. Those holding the flashlights can lower the beam of light each round to make the Limbo even more challenging. Turn on Limbo music to add to the fun. 

Ghosts in the Graveyard
Basically this is a game of reverse hide-and-go-seek. Select one or two players to be ghosts. They go and hide somewhere in the playing area. While they are hiding, the rest of the group gathers at the "home" or "safe" area, closes their eyes and counts (loudly), "One, o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock..." all the way up to "Thirteen o'clock". Then the players fan out through the playing area, looking for the ghosts. If a player spots one of the ghosts, she yells "Ghost in the graveyard, run, run, RUN!" This warns everyone to race back to the safe area. At the cry of "ghosts in the graveyard", the ghosts, too, are free to move and chase the players. Anyone they tag becomes a ghost in the next round. So in the first round of the game you only have one or two ghosts, but as the game progresses, you may have many ghosts all at the same time.
Note: Regardless of which ghost is spotted first, once a player yells "Ghost in the graveyard, run, run, RUN!", ALL the ghosts are free to run. This is one of the elements that makes this game scary, since a player could be concentrating on a ghost she can see, only to turn around and find another ghost emerging from a hiding spot!

Firefly

To Play: Gather all the players in one spot. Send two or three players out into the play area with flashlights. These are the "fireflies". These players can either walk around the play area or stay in one spot, but either way they must flick their flashlight on-off, on-off, like a firefly. The rest of the players must try and catch a firefly by sneaking up to her. If one of the fireflies sees or hears a stalker, he or she may stop flashing the light for 30 seconds. Once all the fireflies have been captured, the game is repeated with new players as fireflies.

Here are a few great night games for younger children: 

Flashlight freeze – Get silly and work out the wiggles by dancing and moving until the flashlight beam hits which is the signal to freeze!  Those who move in the light are out!

Flashlight follow – Simply have your kids try to jump into the circle of light while you move it around and watch the giggles.

You could also tell ghost stories while holding a flashlight to your face. And don't forget to take your flashlight to bed so you can read under the covers for History of Magic this week. 

Pin It

Family Game: Knock, Knock Your Socks Off!

For Quidditch this week, the Hogwarts students get to play the game Knock, Knock Your Socks Off! This is our favorite game to play as a family.

I discovered this game almost 15 years ago in Family Fun Magazine. We played it almost weekly for family night when my four oldest were small.  Playing games like this as a family is a great way to teach your child important social skills. In a safe family setting, kids learn how to be good sports and accept both winning and losing with grace. They learn how to play energetically without crossing the line and playing too rough. And they burn off a whole lot of energy in the process! What could be better?

All you need is a carpeted area of the floor and some socks. At the signal, (we shout "Knock, Knock Your Socks Off! together) all the participants crawl around on the floor on their hands and knees and try to grab the socks off the other participants. When you lose one of your socks, you can continue playing. When you lose both of your socks, you must sit out and watch the rest of the game from the couch. The last player with at least one sock still on wins.

Tip: Use only clean socks unless you want to have an unfair advantage over your opponents!

Pin It

Super Fun Summer Time Games

Here are some more the activities that the Hogwarts Students will be participating in this week.

Glowstick Capture the Flag

Here are some basic Capture the Flag Instructions and some specific Glow in the Dark ones.

Drip Drip Drench
This version uses a cup, but we have used a large sponge in the past.

Instructions:
Grab the neighborhood kids and a cup of water to play this wet version of Duck, Duck, Goose. Instead of saying, "duck, duck" the child who is It says, "drip, drip" as he or she drips a little water on each head around the circle. Instead of saying "goose," the child says "Drench!" and pours the rest of the cup of water on another child's head as the two of them then race around the circle to see if It can get back to the child's spot before he or she gets tagged.

Rock Stacking
Yep, this game is as simple as it sounds. Get out in nature, find some rocks and stack them. Compete to see who can get the rock stack the highest!

Finally for Arithmancy, the Hogwarts Students get to play this math game. You will be surprised at how addictive and fun this easy game actually is!  

Fun and Easy Competition Counting Game

Enjoy Week 3 in the Hogwarts Summer Fun Challenge! 

Pin It

Statues with a Flashlight

I love night games during the summer! For Astrology this week, the Hogwarts Students get to play statues in the dark with a flashlight. 

I love this idea from The Camping Family. 

Choose one person to be the museum tour guide and one to be a tourist. 

Everyone else is a statue. 

The tour guide gets the flashlight.

In the dark, each statue strikes an interesting pose and "freezes".

The tour guide turns on the flashlight and leads the tourist from one statue to another. 

As each statue is visited, the tour guide shines the light on the statue and describes the statue to the tourist, making the descriptions as comical as possible to try to get the statue to laugh or move.

The statue tries to stay perfectly still.

If the statue laughs or moves while in the flashlight beam, s/he is "out".

The tour guide should listen carefully. If there is a sound of movement, the guide can quickly shine the beam in that direction and try to get that statue "out".

The last remaining statue becomes the next tour guide.

You can also play Statues with just the museum tour guide. The Museum Tour Guide will move from frozen statue to frozen statue with his or her flashlight trying to get each one to laugh. 

Gather your family and some neighborhood kids and play statues today! 

Pin It

Sardines-- Outside In the Dark!

Are you ready for a fantastic summer weekend? The assignment for Quidditch in the Hogwarts Summer Fun Challenge this week is to play the game Sardines. The twist is that you need to play it outside and in the dark! 

Here are the Directions: Gather your family or a group of friends. You can play this in your backyard if you have lots of hiding places or you can go to park if you need a larger space so that everyone can hide. Turn off any outdoor lights. The person that is "it" goes and hides - similar to hide-n-seek. Everyone else counts slowly to 100. When they're done counting they go find the "it". But when they find "it" they hide with him/her until the last person finds the hiding group. Then the last person becomes it on the next round. 

Warning: It can be super fun and scary if you are the last person to find the hiding group!

Note: You can also play this game inside if you don't have a big backyard. Just turn off all the lights and hide somewhere inside the house!

Pin It

Fun and Easy Competition Counting Game

Here is my favorite quick and easy game. It is the perfect number game to help children learn to count from 1 to 50 or from 1 to 10 or from 1 to 100 or whatever you are working on. You will see how adaptable it is.

All you need is:

A pencil
A piece of paper
Two dice

Have the players sit in a circle with the piece of paper and pencil in the middle. This can be on a table or even on the floor. Start to pass around the dice. Whenever someone rolls a double, they grab the piece of paper and start to write numbers on the paper from 1 to 50.

They continue writing as quickly as they can, until someone else rolls a double and steals the paper. That person continues writing numbers by picking up wherever the player before them left off. (For example: 35... New Player 36, 37, and so on.)

Whoever gets to write the number 50 before they lose their turn, wins that round! You can keep track of how many points each player has received on the back of the number page.

Continue until everyone gets bored, which surprisingly takes quite a long time!

The play can be adapted to any age child. Count up to 100 or just up to 10 or 20 to reinforce whatever numbers you are working on. You could even count by 2's, 3's, 5's or 10's for an added challenge.

I would suggest that you try this game the next time you are waiting for your meal at a restaurant, but I have to warn you..  play does get a little loud! There is something about the competitive element of trying to beat the dice that makes this math game loads of fun.

Pin It

Country Day: Russia

I have been thinking that it would be fun to feature a different country each week and spotlight crafts and activities that you could do with each country. With the Winter Olympics right around the corner in Sochi, it made perfect sense to start with Russia. Both my parents and my brother-in-law Adam served a church mission in the beautiful country of Russia. They love the people and the memories they created there. Share a few of these activities with your family, preschool class or cub scout troop today.

Fun Books About Russia

Activities To Do With The Book "THE MITTEN"

Free Printable Mitten and Animals

Great Movies with a Russian Theme or Russian Characters

Russian Crafts

Faberge Egg Collage

Russian Nesting Dolls

with Free Printable Patterns

Russian Cityscape Silhouette

Russian Foods

Orange Drop Cookies

Russian Tea Cakes

Russian Pierogis

Russian Games

Games Children Play in Russia

Russian Fairy Tales

Enjoy the adventures of the mighty knight Ruslan, the beautiful "dead" princess, Ivan Tsarevich, Prince Gvidon and many others. 

Fairy Tales Told in Russia

Russian Music and Dancing

Watch this fun video and then try out your hand at some traditional Russian Dancing!

Pin It