Though not as summery as, well, summer, autumn is still a great time to spend time outside with kids. The weather is cool and there’s no punishing sunshine to burn your skin.
It’s the perfect time to relax in the garden while the kids play.
There’s a wide variety of games and activities kids can enjoy from football to scavenger hunts. Here are our top 8 recommendations for autumn garden games for kids.
1. Ring Toss
This is a fun game that everyone can play from toddlers to the grandparents. It doesn’t require much skill and you can adjust hardness for different ages. It also doesn’t require much space so you can play it even if you have a small garden.
A ring toss game set is inexpensive or you can make your own at home using bottles or sticks. But you’ll probably find it easier to just buy one.
2. Scavenger Hunt
This one’s a great one if you want to get some relaxing time while the kids play. A scavenger hunt sends kids around the garden looking for certain items.
The one who finds all items within a given time wins.
You can hide specific items around the garden and yard or tell them to look for things you would find naturally in a garden like certain shapes of leaves, a rock, a red flower and so on.
If you have kids of varying ages, balance the game’s difficult to suit all of them. If there are large age differences, you might find it easier to create separate scavenger hunts for the older and younger kids.
3. Treasure Hunt
This is related to a scavenger hunt but is quite different in how it’s played. Instead of searching for several items, kids use clues to find a hidden treasure.
This one will be a bit more involving for you because you have to provide the clues or riddles and maybe hide them strategically around the garden.
Alternatively, just buy a treasure hunt game set with everything prepared.
4. Backyard Kite Flying
Without the sun to blind them, autumn is the perfect time to fly kites. You can get a cheap kid-friendly kite online that’s easy to assemble and fly.
Most of these beginner kites don’t need a lot of wind to fly. So you can enjoy some kite flying in your backyard.
5. Leaves Matching
This is a simple game that all kids can play.
Print out a pictures of different leaves. Then kids have to go out and find leaves that match those in the pictures.
You can make it a collaboration game where they work together to find all leaves or turn it into a competition with each kid having their own set of leaves to match.
You can also include printouts of flowers.
Just make whatever you print is available in your garden.
6. Drawing
Ask kids to draw the leaves around them. They can even go ahead and colour their drawings the same colour as the leaves.
For those having trouble recreating the shape of leaves on paper, they can trace the leaves by placing the on paper and drawing around the edges.
7. Bug Hunt
Gardens are often crawling with life just below the grass and flowers. Ask your kids to get on their hands and knees and find as many bugs and animals as they can.
No killing, touching or catching anything; just identifying them.
8. Amateur Photography
If your kids love gadgets but you don’t want them playing games and scrolling through social media all day long, why not try some amateur fall photography.
Give them your smartphone (if they don’t have their own) and ask them to photograph things around the garden. They can also use a simple point and shoot digital camera if you have one.
Print the pictures and arrange them in an album or scrap book.
Did you like our recommendations? Please leave a comment below with your own suggestions for autumn garden games for kids.
