[Active Outdoors!] A roundup of garden games you can enjoy with your kids

Badminton

In the spring of ’17, the neighbor’s kid was playing badminton in the yard.

With the rise of star players like Reiko Shiota and Kento Momota, badminton quickly became a major sport.

The medal rush at the Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo Olympics is still fresh in our memories.

That sharp “whoosh” when you hit a smash is just so cool! Another charm of badminton is that parents and kids can enjoy it as a recreational activity.

Even if you’re not very skilled, you can keep a rally going with lots of laughs.

You can even use a clothesline as a substitute for the net.

It seems perfect for a sunny, grassy backyard.

Be sure to get out and play on a clear day!

playing in the sand

Playing in the sand in the garden

A story about the sandbox at the park.

In some places, volunteers or the park caretaker cover the sandbox with a cat-repellent sheet in the evening.

I’m grateful for that.

Maybe there are many people who find it a bit of a hassle to go all the way to the park? These days, you can even buy small sandboxes at home improvement stores.

Having your very own sandbox sounds like a dream.

Sandboxes are play spaces packed with imagination—building big mountains, digging holes, and more.

At big toy stores, there’s even something called “kinetic sand,” a strange kind of sand that sort of moves on its own! It would be fun to try playing with all kinds of sand.

horizontal bar

11 Horizontal Bar Tricks for 4-Year-Olds!

At today’s large toy stores, they even sell personal batting machines and home-use swings.

They even offer horizontal bars with proper bases—apparently a home horizontal bar isn’t all that unusual! Since elementary schools almost always have a test for doing a back hip circle, why not practice by playing on the bar? Try forward rolls, backward rolls, and continuous spins, and keep expanding the tricks you can do while having fun.

A horizontal bar in a sunny garden makes for great photos! People often say that just hanging from the bar is good for your health, so for small children, start with simply hanging.

soccer

Soccer “Toys“R”Us” Stats Soccer Goal—Red Ogre and Blue Ogre unbox and introduce this sale item! Review!! Can we pull off a Drive Shot or Tiger Shot inspired by Captain Tsubasa!? Dreaming of becoming a pro soccer player, a J.Leaguer

If your child is in the lower grades of elementary school, playing soccer in the yard sounds like fun! You could use Dad’s golf net as a makeshift goal, or make a ball out of newspaper instead of using one that bounces too much—those little experiments can make soccer even more enjoyable.

Competing to see how many keepie-uppies you can do in a row will definitely get everyone excited.

Setting up plastic bottles and trying to knock them down from a distance can also be great practice for accurate passing.

Just be sure to keep an eye on the ball so it doesn’t leave the yard!

Basketball

Backyard Basketball ②

If you have a house with a fairly large yard, you can enjoy basketball there.

You can buy a basketball hoop, but if you don’t have one, you can make your own.

“Port ball,” where someone stands on a platform and acts as the hoop, brings back memories too! Free-throw contests and spinning the ball on your fingertip are classic activities.

You can imitate Jason Kidd and take a shot, or throw down a Vince Carter–style dunk on a low hoop—there are plenty of ways to have fun beyond just playing a standard basketball game!