Unfortunately, some kids at a young age don’t understand how fun camping can actually be. When we are older, we see the beauty in the forest and know that hiking, talking, and breathing in the fresh air is some of the best of camping.
We know that kids need more entertainment because they sometimes get bored easily, hey, we’ve got kids of our own so we know the score.
It’s not easy to come up with games on your own, here is a list of 6 games you could play to pass the time and keep the restless kids at bay.
People love to solve mysteries, and that’s why detective dramas are so popular. Here are a few that will keep your crowd guessing for hours.
How to play: Tell the group the riddle and then only allow no or yes questions. Give out hints as much as you need to keep things moving along.
The hunter: A hunter leaves their cabin, then walks five miles south and three miles east and sees a bear and shoots it. He then walks five miles to the north and arrives back to the cabin he came from. What type of bear did he shoot?
The mystery: It was a Polar bear. The hunter began in the North Pole.
Bob: Being found dead, Bob is in a pool of water with glass all around. How did that happen?
The mystery: Bob is actually a fish and the bowl he was in broke.
The Straw: A man was found in a field, holding a straw, naked. What could have happened?
The mystery: He had been flying in a hot air balloon with some friends. When it started losing altitude everyone took off their clothes and the victim who drew the shortest straw had to jump out.
Poo sticks or racing sticks in the stream is always great fun. The problem is that you’ve not got a stream near by? If you have smooth bark conifers and a lake or pond, you can still play the game.
How to play: Search for spruce, smooth bark fir, or pines trees that have sap. Make sure to pick up a small, straight stick and poke the blister filled with sap.
Get the sap onto the stick, roll it about. When you have a good amount on the stick get over to the pond or lake and drop the stick in it, it will start to magically motor away.
The mystery solved: When the sap is in the water the sap disperses, creating force, this propels the stick forward.
A long-time favorite for adults and kids, this is a game combining hide and seek and kick the can.
How to play the game: Look for an area with lots of hiding places. You can hide things behind boulders, hollows, stumps, trees, and bushes. The child will draw a circle in the dirt, this is where the kid will stand. Then the child will close his or her eyes and say “camouflage for 20 or 30” and then start counting down. During this time, everyone runs and hides.
When the child reaches zero, he will stay inside the circle, and the kid will have to try and see where the others are hiding. If the child spots where the other kid is, he or she can call them out by name. If they get caught, they are out. When the child is not able to find anyone else, he or she will close their eyes and call out “food for 15”. After they say those words, he or she has to put their hands out in the air.
The children will have to run up to the kid in the circle, tag him or her and try to hide again before the countdown reaches zero. He or she opens their eyes again, and tries to see where the other children are hiding.
The game will continue with he or she calling out “water for 10” and then after that “rest for 5” up until all the hiders are seen. The last person that gets caught is It in the next round.
How to play: Get an old can, make sure it’s not got any jagged edges and is safe.
Pick the person that’s ‘it’ or the ‘tagger’ (the one chasing)
When you’re tagged, you go to jail
If someone kicks the can, everyone in jail is freed!
Carry on the game until everyone is captured or the tagger gets sick of chasing!
Start again with a new tagger
It’s also possible to play this with fabric strips sticking out fo your belt or some such so that it’s more of a grab the strip and go to jail game (the tagger would need to give the strips back!)
This will get the kid’s mind cranking and with this riddle that’s so obvious everyone will groan because of it.
How to: Collect 10 twigs or sticks of around the same size or shape. Explain to the crowd who’s playing the game that you know an ancient numbering system. It’s the crowd’s duty to find out exactly how it works.
Arrange the sticks carefully in no specific order, but try to make it look like it’s precise. Subtly place your hands on your legs having two fingers out one hand and three fingers on the other. Tell the crowd that this is a number five.
Pick the sticks up and rearrange them. After that, you will put out a different combination of fingers placed on your leg. However many fingers you chose to extend is the new number. Have the crowd guess and continue until someone is right or if they give up.
The mystery: Have the crowd focus on the stick’s position, and this will distract them from your fingers. As they are getting frustrated, make it more obvious. Drop the sticks into a pile and then place your fingers in the dirt next to them.
Another puzzle that would be a good follow-up to the Pick up sticks riddle.
How to play: You will need four sticks that are the same length and use them to create a football goal post shape or the shape of a wine glass. First lay out a bar in a horizontal fashion and connect two other bars at a 90-degree angle.
After that, all you have to do is to create a third vertical support beam on the opposite side of the two other vertical bars. Now put a rock through the uprights. The goal is to move your way past the uprights through the use of moving just two sticks.
The secret to success in the game is the slide. If you position the horizontal stick so that the vertical support sits at one of the ends. Then all you have to do is pick up the upright and then place it to mirror the first bar placement.
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If you have any kids games or activities you would like to share let us know about it on our FB page, we’re also happy for article and review submissions , we’d love to hear from you.
We live in a beautiful world, get out there and enjoy it.
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