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Easy Games for Kids

The easiest games for kids are those that use little equipment and lots of energy. Old-fashioned outdoor games that have been around for decades or even centuries, like leapfrog and Red Rover, are good examples. You can put a personal stamp on games by adding new rules of your own.

Relay Games
- Relay games are simple and have an obvious goal: be the first team to get an object to the finish line.
  
  These games are for groups, of course, and are ideal for any age. Use a soft stuffed animal for young children to pass along to each other, a raw egg for a group of 10-year-olds and something "gross" like a slime-covered meatball for tweens.
Tag
- Old-fashioned tag, where one player starts out as "it" and everyone else hides until they're tagged and become "it" is easy to understand and play. There are many variations on this theme (see Resources) and you can create your own version based on the occasion.
  
  For birthdays, have a player who's about to be tagged shout the name of the birthday boy or birthday girl to get "in" free. At a Fourth of July picnic, make the password "Uncle Sam."
  
  For indoor tag, have the player who's "it" carry around a stuffed animal until he finds another player, who then becomes "it" and has to carry the stuffed animal.
Treasure Hunt
- You can hold a treasure hunt indoors or outdoors. For young children, place the "treasures" where they're fairly easy to see, for example, on an end table, beside a toy box or in a sandbox. For older children, make the game more interesting by using a theme, like things relating to a favorite movie or TV show, for the hidden items.
  
  A scavenger hunt usually covers a neighborhood or an even larger area and is better for tweens and teens. In this case, the searchers know what they're looking for and the general boundaries of the area in which the items can be found. Again, you can use a theme to make the game more challenging.

Kids Games