The Bean Blog

Thursday Thirteen #34: Water games

Jun 21, 2007 Thursday Thirteen

13 Fun Water Games for Kids
If your family is anything like mine, you like to play in the water during these hot summer months. But sitting in the pool can get a little boring after a while. Here are some fun water games kids [and adults] can play to stay cool this summer.

1. Run through the sprinkler. This is an old favorite. If you don’t want to spend money on one those cool Dora sprinklers at Toys R Us, then just hook up the regular sprinkler. The kids can have fun and the grass can get green.

2. Get a Slip and Slide. Kids love these things and they aren’t that expensive. Honestly, they are even fun for adults.

3. Buy some of those big Super Soaker Water Guns and play a game of tag. If you don’t want to use “guns” just buy water bottles. We got some from the dollar store and they shoot pretty far.

4. Play a game of Splash Tag. One person is ‘it’ and tries to ‘tag’ the others by throwing a wet sponge at their back.

5. Have a water relay race. Break the kids in to teams and have each team member fill up a cup, run it to the end of the course [a couple feet] and pour it in to their team bucket. To make it even more difficult get rid of the cups. Have the kids pick up and hold the water in their hands. If you want it to be even more interesting, have the kids dive in [or lay in, if it's a kiddie pool] in the pool before they run to their team bucket and then try to squeeze out as much water as they can. Squeeze it out of their hair, out of their swimsuits, out of their shoes if they forgot to take them off…you get the point.

6. How about some water archery? Make a big paper target, marking the rings with points [20 points for the center, 10 points for the next ring, 5 points for the outer ring and maybe 2 points for one more ring]. Give each player a squirt bottle with colored water [let food coloring be your friend]. Let the kids take turns scoring points by shooting their squirt bottle at the target.

7. Set up a water obstacle course. Set up stations kids have to complete before they can move on. Do things like fill a small cup with a squirt gun, dunk a sponge and soak your hair, jump rope three times in the sprinkler, throw two balls in the pool from a distance, etc. You get the idea.

8. Kerflop had a great idea of painting with water. All you need is a bucket of water and some paintbrushes. She recommends painting in the shade so their masterpieces last a little longer.

9. Play Water Balloon Catch. Cut the bottoms off of milk cartons and then catch water balloons. How many can you catch without breaking them?

10. Put on a hula skirt and do the water limbo. [Ok, you could probably scrap the hula skirt and just wear your swimsuit.] Use a hose with a steady stream and try to limbo under iit. Or use it as a hurdle and jump over it.

11. Don’t forget about Splish, Splish, Splash. It’s just like Duck, Duck, Goose only with water. You can either use a cup do drip drops of water on their heads and then dump the whole cup on their head for the “splash” like we did at school. Or you could use a big sponge. Just hold the sponge over their heads and then squeeze it when you “splash.”

12. Remember Hot Potato? How about wet sponge? Ok, so I just made up that wet sponge name and I admit it’s a pretty lame name, but it’s a fun game. Turn up the stereo and toss a wet sponge around. When the music stops, whoever has the wet sponge is out. Soak the sponge again and start another round.

13. Thanks to Necole, our final game is water balloon dodgeball. Fill up a ton of water balloons [but not too full so they are still bouncy]. Invite the neighborhood kids over and split the group in to two teams. Then let them throw the water balloons at their opponents. When you get hit by a water balloon you’re out. The first team to get all the players on the other team out, wins.

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