Along with trips to the beach and icy glasses of lemonade, lawn games are a beloved summer pastime for many families. With these creative DIYs, you can turn up the fun on outdoor games and spend the entire season playing, laughing, and making memories outside with your whole family.
Project via Phyllis at Grandparents Plus
Homemade slip-n-slides are fun on their own–if you’ve got the yard space to set one up–but with the addition of a pool noodle goal on each side plus a ball, this lawn feature turns into a summertime showdown. Kids ages 5-10 will absolutely love this outdoor activity, and it will keep them cool in the sun!
Project via Angela at Twelve Oaks Manor
Cut wooden boards into thick, stackable blocks, and turn them into a large Jenga set perfect for picnics on the grass. Get all the kids together and start a super-sized Jenga tournament that will keep them stacking, nudging, and prying away in the yard all summer long.
Project via Angela at Blue i Style
Use large pieces of cardboard to create cute cartoon boards with holes for bean bag tosses. Make different levels of difficulty, so younger and older kids can have fun tossing bean bags until the sun goes down.
Project via Carrie at Making Lemonade
Turn a corner of your lawn into an outdoor fort using scrap wood or an old fence, and decorate using your children’s favorite prints and patterns. Forts are centers for imagination, and they can give your kids a place to dream up games, activities and all sorts of fun ideas.
Project via Mallory and Savannah at Classy Clutter
Assemble a budget-friendly water park right in your yard using PVC pipes riddled with holes. Just run water through the whole contraption, and kids can spend a gleeful afternoon running through the spray and drying off in the sun.
Project via Aimee at It’s Overflowing
Cut a pack of cheap sponges into absorbent sponge balls, perfect for epic backyard water fights. These easy-to-make sponge balls take just a couple of minutes and, unlike water balloons, they can be reused again and again until everyone’s dripping with water and happily exhausted.
Project via Morena at Morena’s Corner
Leave bubbles in a no-mess, easy to reach spot for kids, so they can spend hours playing in an endless stream of bubbles and watching each one sparkle in the sun. The no-mess dispenser is easy to make by upcycling an empty detergent container and adding spray paint and stencils.
For more fun kids’ ideas, check out the projects for kids page on Hometalk!