Even though everything we do is crooked, we do occasionally go with some traditional methods for things! With most of our crooked children's playhouses being outside, we have also always been advocates for outdoor playtime and we’d like to remind everyone and their children of various playtime games that we remember - and none of these take any sort of special equipment or extra gadgets and gizmos other than to just get a few kids together! Hope you like these fun children’s outdoor games and some of you remember these from the good old play days outside:

Scavenger Hunt:

This children’s game can take on many forms and directions. You can play this one inside or outside or both. The scavenger list you create can be as imaginative and as varied as you’d like. It can follow the outdoor seasons or take on any theme of the day. If you’d like, you can incorporate gadgets and gizmos, computers or other too. Here are a few suggestions for list for an outdoor scavenger hunt that requires nothing special other than what might be available in your area outside:

If the kids aren’t reading yet, then, you might need to use that computer and create a visual list instead of a written list of items to find.

I Spy:

This is a great children’s game that can be played anywhere. We use this one on long car rides too. Two or more can play with one person giving a hint as to what they see, or spy. For instance, I spy something blue on this page. Keep guessing... Yes, it’s the blue kids playhouse down at the bottom of this page!

Sardines - Variation to Hide & Seek:

Similar to the children’s game of Hide & Seek but in reverse. One person hides while the rest count to 50. The kids try to find the one person hiding. When they do, they have to join that one child in the same hiding place until the others find them and so on. This one can be interesting depending on the hiding place and the number of children playing this game!

Red Light Green Light:

Another fun game that can be played by all ages, outside or inside. Red Light Green Light is best with a group of kids. One person starts with their back to the other children. The other children are a distance away, behind a line or marker, from the one that starts.

The one child shouts out “green light” which is the ok for all the others to move quickly toward the one child. The one child then shouts “red light”, everyone must completely freeze where they are. The one child can check to see that no one is moving. If they are then they have to move back to the start line to begin again. The one child turns their back again and says “green” light”, “red light”, and so on. The object is for one of the children from the bunch to reach the one shouting red or green light before the one child has turned around to spot them. The child who reaches the one shouting is the next person to be “it”.

Imagination Travel:

This children’s game could require a little more than just the children if you’d like to take it a step further. Imagination Travel is a way to act out different ways in which others live or do things from around the world.

Think about a different place from where you live. You might want to use books or a computer to do a bit of research on that place first. You can decorate your current area, outside or inside, similarly to that place, or paint a background on large sheets of paper.

Some ideas for Imagination Travel:

African Safari - Great for outside, you can hunt around looking for creatures, big or small, bugs work well too. Discovering creature hiding places will make it seem like you are on safari. You can take pictures or creatures you find or draw them too.

English Teatime – Have an elegant tea party inside or outside with tea and little pastries, toasts, or cookies – any little snack or goody will do, juice is fine instead of tea too. Make sure proper table manners and politeness play a part in the whole scene.

The Museum – This can be outside or inside. If you are outside you can pretend that anything seen is a special sculpture or statue. Look at the trees, plants, any object and describe them for their interesting shape, style, color or whatever comes to mind. If you could bring that art form inside, where would you put it in your home? Inside, if you have pictures or artwork on the walls, help the kids discover what they’ve seen over and over with a different mind to them. Pretend that the people in the pictures aren’t them and that they are from a different time or place, make up stories to go with the pictures.

The creative writers at Kids Crooked House would like to give credit to some of these sites for helping us remember some of these outdoor children’s games and rules: