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Fun Stuff to Do on a Tire Swing

On an easy summer afternoon, kids can spend hours in the backyard. An old-fashioned tire swing can provide hours of amusement. A creative gang of kids can come up with a number of fun activities around a tire on a rope, and you can help them. Add in a ball or action figures, and you can create games that can entertain kids for days. With a good dose of imagination, your kids can pretend to fly like Peter Pan or sail the Seven Seas.

Flying and Sailing
- Your child needs to hang on tightly when swinging.
  
  A tire swing can play many roles in a child's imagination. If you give your kids a bandanna and a makeshift eye-patch, they can pretend to be pirates with the tire swing serving as the pirate ship. Just make sure they watch out for their friends on the ground. Even the world's meanest imaginary pirate wouldn't want to knock over the pretend coast guard. Also, your kids can close their eyes and pretend to fly while swinging on the tire.
Playing Catch
- Two people throwing an object through a tire swing makes for a difficult game of catch.
  
  Use a tire swing for target practice. Your child can throw a football, baseball, flying disk or other object through the tire's hole to make the tire into a goal. A pair of children can increase the difficulty of a game of catch by tossing the object back and forth to each other at various distances. Even alone, a child can practice her aim and control by skipping the ball through the hole of the tire, trying to keep it from touching any edge.
Action Figures
- Use a tire swing as a landscape and obstacle course for action figures. The swing can be a grueling backdrop of trenches, cliffs and lakes for a platoon of small army figurines. If one of the action figures goes down, others can slide from the rope to a murky puddle at the base to fish him out. Tiny toy weaponry can stick out above the tire's lip in order to shoot warning shots at passers-by. The outer rim of the tire can serve as a craggy rock face to which little plastic toy soldiers can cling. By taking your child's army toys outside, you're helping them to expand their imaginative games to other locations.
Physics Experiments
- Parents can use the swing as a teaching tool.
  
  A tire swing is essentially a pendulum. You can show children the effect of forces on an object in motion and at rest. Explain air resistance to your child by setting the swing in motion and letting it stop on its own. Repeat the step after tying a sheet to it so that the wind catches in the sheet's body. Fold the sheet in half and place each end around the rope. Tie the sheet off. This will make a sheet-net that will catch the air as the tire swings. Have the child sit on the swing to demonstrate centrifugal force. As you push the swing in a circular motion, the child will feel the force centering her. Use a small toy to prove the law of inertia. Set the toy on the top of the swing. When you set the swing in motion, have your child forcibly stop it on the other side. The toy will fly off because an object in motion will stay in motion unless the object is acted upon by an outside force.

Backyard Toys