Hobbies And Interests
Three-legged Soccer
This game can get any kid over age 10 laughing about how silly their friends look. It works by the kids dividing themselves up into pairs, a parent then ties them together with a piece of ribbon. This part looks similar to a three legged race. The parent makes two teams out of the pairs and begins refereeing the game, which has the standard rules of soccer. One pair from each group stands in the goal and tries to block the shots. A variation on the game makes the pairs only kick the ball with their feet that are tied together. The objective is to get as many points as possible by shooting the ball into the goal.
Dodgeball
Tweens will enjoy the challenge of trying to duck being hit by a ball. Dodgeball requires a large, soft ball and an indoor space that has nothing breakable near the kids. A parent divides the kids up into two groups, each with several participants. The groups each pick a leader who gets to throw the ball at the other group. The objective is to keep the leader from hitting the other team below the knees with the ball. Participants can stop the ball from hitting them by using their hands and jumping away. Whoever gets hit must sit on the side and is officially out of the game. The team with the last person standing wins.
Photo Scavenger Hunt
The host of the party comes up with a list of around a dozen photo opportunities that include things in the neighborhood, such as brick houses, black dogs and stop signs. The host's parents divide the kids into groups of about four kids each. They may want to assign older kids or parents to supervise them, since 11 and up may not be old enough to wander around the neighborhood unsupervised. The groups go around the neighborhood gathering photos with a digital or Polaroid camera. When the game is over, around two hours later, the groups show each other the photos that they gathered. Each group gets a point for every photo they got from the list. The group with the most points wins a prize.