According to http://www.toddlerstoday.com, warmer weather brings thoughts of summer fun, get a jump on the season by participating in National Backyard Games Week. Patch Products, a manufacturer and marketer of family entertainment products, introduced National Backyard Games Week in 1998 to bring families and friends together through fun outdoor activities. “Games are a great way for parents and children to interact and enjoy each other,” says Barbara Uebelacker, public relations manager at Patch Products. “Backyard games add to the excitement and allow people to enjoy fresh air and get some exercise, too. Memorial Day marks the start of the summer season and is a great time to focus on outdoor activities.”

What Constitutes a Game?

When adults think of games, they usually have a vision of a structured activity with definite rules and teams. Toddlers, however, often have other ideas.Kristina Sauerwein, a mom from St. Louis, says that her 3-year-old daughter, Zoe, has not mastered the outdoor favourite hide-and-seek. “She loves to play it with the other kids, but she doesn’t quite follow the rules yet,” she says. “For instance, she’ll hide in an obvious place and go running toward the person who is ‘it.’”

Paula Norton of Carol Stream, Ill., who has taught physical education for 15 years, advises parents not to worry. “Honestly, kids who are 2 or 3 are a little young for organized games,” she says. “Instead, aim for skill building. Any eye-hand activities and gross-motor stuff is beneficial: catching large balls at first and working into smaller ones, throwing, kicking, striking, aiming at a target. Also, tumbling and gate skills are great: skipping, hopping, galloping, jumping, running backwards. Simple animal walks, such as pretending to be a crab or a bear, are good for building arm strength.”

Andrea Paventi of Los Angeles, Calif., has found that her kids love special outdoor “mommy time” where she does things like kicking the soccer ball or throwing a football around. “‘Mommy time’ means I set the rules, and they have to practice, as opposed to free play (which we do later),” she says. “We do mommy time because neither my husband nor I am into sports, and I want to make sure they have the basics of kicking, hitting and catching before grade school. Sports stars? No. But basics, yes!”

The Benefits of the Great Outdoors
While getting exercise and building skills are certainly good reasons to get the family outdoors, there are many others as well.

“I think a little bit of sun is good for kids,” says Jeremy Braccio, a father of two from Phoenix, Ariz. “I like them to get fresh air and for them to get exposure to nature at this stage so they can begin to appreciate plants and animals.”
Sauerwein echoes this sentiment. “Zoe is a big Dora the Explorer fan, and one of the things she loves to do most outside is put on her backpack and get out her plastic pink magnifying glass and go exploring. Sometimes she’ll bring a little basket along and collect her finds, such as leaves and pinecones.”

Don’t be surprised, too, if some outdoor play puts everyone in a better mood. “I like to be outside, so there is definitely a benefit for me when we play out there,” Braccio says.

Paventi notes that after spending time outside her son seems to listen more and not be as argumentative when it comes to bedtime. Sauerwein states that backyard play seems to make her daughter take longer naps and be less cranky because she has released her pent-up energy. “Fresh air is proven to make kids sleep better,” Norton says. “Any physical exercise or activity aids in concentration, too.”

Norton also encourages inviting other kids over to play and letting the children create their own games and work things out among themselves. “The social lessons they learn in the backyard can help prepare them for recess and other situations they will encounter in school,” she says. If all of these reasons aren’t enough to make you want to head out the back door with jump rope in hand, remember the original purpose of National Backyard Games Week – bringing people together to have fun. Whether that means chasing each other around with squirt guns or engaging in a friendly game of T-ball, the object is to find activities that build positive relationships and leave memories that will last long after the summer sun has gone away.

Homemade Fun
Backyard fun does not have to involve fancy equipment. Turn items you have around the house into hours of creative play!

Create an obstacle course: Kids love to race against others or to try to beat their own best score. Create a backyard obstacle course in which kids have to hula-hoop three times, jump over a stuffed animal, skip to the fence and bunny-hop to the finish line.

Turn the sandbox into a deserted island: Bury play coins (or tops from milk jugs) in the sand and let your child pretend to be a pirate digging for treasure.

Make some Bozo Buckets: Gather up boxes, laundry baskets, plastic flower pots or any other convenient containers you have on hand and put six of them in a line behind one another. Let your child see if she can throw a ball or bean bag into each, one at a time. A miss means you start back at the beginning with the first container again!

Construct a soccer challenge: Help your child learn to control and kick balls by setting up objects for him to maneuver around. See if he can bring the ball around the swing set, in between two lawn chairs (set them closer or farther apart from one another depending on skill), and into a hula-hoop placed on the ground as the goal.

For a gigantic list of all the fantastic games that you and I used to play, visit http://site.escapadedirect.com and start enjoying the outdoors today.

Standing on my Soapbox,

JB