Old Yard Games

Horseshoes

• Players each have two horseshoes to toss, and the goal is to get the shoes around a stake set into sand. Two players or teams compete to toss their shoes closest to the stake. Scoring is three points if the horseshoe goes around the stake and one point if it lands within six inches. Scoring is generally set at 21, and the player (or team) reaching 21 first is the winner.

Croquet

• A European game, croquet is played with colorful wooden balls and mallets. Players must use the mallets to maneuver the balls through "wickets"--hoops that have been staked into the ground. The first player or team to complete the course with their colored ball wins.

Bocce Ball

• A favorite of the older European generations, bocce is played on a rectangular grass court. Like bowling, players roll balls down the court. Instead of hitting pins as in bowling, the object is to roll your ball or balls closest to the "pallino"--the target ball.

Lawn Darts

• A circular target is placed on the grass and players use an underhand throw to lob oversized darts at it. Once a backyard favorite, lawn darts have become collector items since manufacturers stop making it. In the late 1980s, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission took the stance that small children with large darts posed a safety risk. The game was discontinued, though vintage lawn dart sets can still be found in antique and collectible stores and on eBay, more as a collector's item than a toy. Today, a similar game is available with rubber-tipped darts.

Badminton

• An Indian game brought to Europe by the British in the 1860s, badminton is a timeless classic. Often referred to as "tennis lite," badminton is played with two rackets, a net, and a shuttlecock (sometimes called a "birdie")--the mesh and rubber object players lob back and forth across the net. The net is stretched out higher than a typical tennis net--about the height of a volleyball net. The shuttlecock is lightweight, and the slightest wind can add a degree of challenge to any badminton game.

Volleyball

• One of the few distinctly American yard games, volleyball was invented by a Massachusetts YMCA instructor in the late 1800s. Two teams of six players lob a ball back and forth over a net, attempting to make a "kill"--to cause the opposing team to let the ball hit the ground. Catching the ball is not permitted; the ball must be kept in motion using fingertips and wrists, and a team may only touch the ball three times before it is sent back over the net. Volleyball became so popular that it is now an Olympic sport.