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Our son was at Boy Scout camp a couple of weeks ago. Among other things, he learned to play gaga ball. I had never heard of it, but we played a quick game as a family and had a great time laughing and trying to get each other.
It got me thinking about the outdoor childhood games we played as kids? Do you remember them?
Some of them our kids play or have seen played and others seemed to have disappeared. We resurrected some of these games and played them for one of our kid’s classroom holiday party. The teacher reserved the gym, so we had lots of room to move around.
I thought I was being slick several days ago when I drew out hopscotch on the driveway with chalk and thought I was going to teach our youngest two a new game. It seems that Max and Ruby had already taught them.
Here are some games I remember from my childhood. (I apologize ahead of time for the long post). I have included a description if you need to jog your memory {as I did on a few}.
The best thing about these games is that they require players and maybe one item such as a rubber ball, jump rope, or flashlight.
Red Rover Red Rover is played between two lines of players, usually around thirty feet apart. The game starts when the first team, calls a player over, using a line like “red rover, red rover, send [name of player on opposite team] right over”.
The goal for the person called is to run to the other line and break the team’s chain (formed by the linking of hands). If the person called fails to break the chain, he/she joins that team. However, if the player successfully breaks the chain, they may select either of the two players where the link was broken and take them to join their team. The opposing team then calls out “red rover” for a player on the opposite team, and play continues.
When only one player is left on a team, they also must try and break through a link. If they do not succeed, the opposing team wins. Otherwise, they are able to get a player back for their team. (source)
Red Light, Green Light Go~We played this at a holiday class party for one of our kids last Thanksgiving. We played red turkey/green turkey.
One player plays the “stop light” and the rest of the players form a line about 15 feet away from the stop light.
The stop light faces away from the line of kids and says “green light”. The players begin to move toward the stop light.
The stop light may say “red light!” and turn around at any point. If any of the kids are caught moving, they are out.
Play continues when the stop light turns back around and says “green light”.
The stop light wins if all the kids are out before anyone is able to touch him/her. Otherwise, the first player to touch the stop light wins the game and earns the right to be “stop light” for the next game. (source)
Duck-Duck-Goose~We also played this for a Thanksgiving game and said turkey-turkey-goose.
A group of players sit in a circle, facing each other, while another player, walks around tapping or pointing to each player in turn, calling each a duck until finally picking one to be a goose. The goose then rises and chases trying to tag the player who choose them.
That player is trying to return and sit where the goose had been sitting. If the player makes it back without being tagged the goose becomes the “picker”. If the goose tags him/her, the goose returns to his/her spot and the “picker” has to choose another goose. (source)
Kick Ball~We played this all the time with the neighbor kids growing up and in physical education.
It is similar to baseball…players kick the ball instead of using bats. As in baseball, each team alternates with one team attempting to score by having its players circle the bases and the other team is in the outfield working to stop runs from being scored.
Players kick a rubber ball to advance players around the bases and score runs. The team with the most runs after a predefined time wins the game. (source)
Dodgeball~We played this in physical education at school growing up.
A game in which players on two teams try to throw balls at each other while avoiding being hit themselves.
Each team tries to eliminate all members of the opposing team by hitting them with thrown balls, catching a ball thrown by a member of the opposing team, or forcing them to move outside the boundaries when a ball is thrown at them. (soure)
Flashlight Tag~This game is so fun to play on summer nights.
Played at night, this game mixes the popular games, hide and seek with tag. The person who is “it” waits at the “jail” counting while everyone else hides. The ‘it” person uses his/her flashlight to search for the others who may be switching hiding spots.
The flashlight must remain on at all times and may not be covered. When “it ” spots someone, he/she must use the flashlight to get a close enough look at the person to identify player and call out his/er name.
There are different variations to this game. One way is to pass the flashlight to the caught person, so he/she becomes “it.” Another version is to send each caught person to “jail” until everyone is caught. The first person caught becomes “it.” Another way is to have more than one person be “it.” Players who are not “it” can tag other players free from “jail.” One of the “its” may stay near to guard the “jail.” (source)
Freeze Tag~One player is ”it” and chases after after other players trying t to tag them. Players tagged are “frozen” and must stand in place with their arms stretched out until they are unfrozen. Any unfrozen player can unfreeze them, by tagging them or crawling between their legs. (source)
Foursquare~Our oldest plays this at recces with a little variation from the way I remember playing. It is played with four players on a square court divided into quadrants with a rubber ball. The objective is to advance to the highest ranking square. The player in the highest ranking square serves it by bouncing the ball and hitting it to another square. It must bounce in the next square before it is hit.
Players are eliminated by: failing to hit the ball into another square, allowing the ball to bounce more than once in their own square, or hitting the ball out of bounds or onto an inside line. Players move around the squares towards the highest ranking square and a new player enters the lowest ranking square.
The objectives of four square are to eliminate other players to achieve the highest rank.(source)
Double Dutch~This is a game in which two long jump ropes turning in opposite directions are jumped by one or more players jumping simultaneously. (source)
Mother May I~One player plays the “mother”, “father” or “captain”. The other players are the “children” or “crewmembers”. To begin the game, the mother or father stands at one end of a room and turns around facing away, while all the children line up at the other end.
The children take turns asking “Mother/Father, may I ____?” and makes a movement suggestion. For example, one might ask, “Mother/Father, may I take five steps forward?” The mother/father either replies “Yes, you may” or “No, you may not do that, but you may _____ instead” and inserts his/her own suggestion. The players usually move closer to the mother/father but are sometimes led farther away. Even if the mother/father makes an unfavorable suggestion, the child must still perform it.
The first player to reach the mother/father wins the game. That child then becomes the mother/father, the original mother/father becomes a child, and a new round begins. (source)
Hide and Seek~Hide and seek is a very popular children’s game. Players hide themselves in the environment while one player (“it”) hides his/her eyes and counts. After counting, the player attempts to locate all the hidden players. The game can end in one of several ways. The most common way is the last player found becomes the winner and is chosen to be “it” in the next game. (source)
Simon Says~This game requires 3 or more players. One player takes the role of “Simon” and issues instructions (usually physical actions such as “jump in the air” or “stick out your tongue”) to the other players. The instructions should only be followed if prefaced with the phrase “Simon says”, for example, “Simon says, jump in the air”.
Players are out of the game by either following instructions that are not immediately preceded by the phrase “Simon says”, or by failing to follow an instruction which does include the phrase “Simon says”.
The object for the player acting as Simon is to get all the other players out as quickly as possible. The winner of the game is the last player who successfully followed all of the commands. Occasionally, 2 or more of the last players are eliminated by following a command without “Simon Says”, resulting in Simon winning the game. (source)
Leapfrog~Players jump over each other’s stooped backs. Players line up front to back and all bend over while one player waits at the back of the line to jump. Once that player has jumped over all players, he/she bends over and the player at the back then jumps until everyone has had a turn. (source)
What outside games did you enjoy as a child?
