Going on walks as a family is a great way to bond, get exercise and relax. If you’re looking for ways to make your outings even more fun, we’ve got some great ideas for you. Whether you’re walking in urban areas or the countryside, here are seven brilliant games to keep children entertained on a family walk!
Top Games for Family Walks:
1. Walking ABCs
This is a simple game, but it helps teach the ABCs and build vocabulary. Start at the beginning and challenge children to find something that begins with A — an apple tree, for instance. Then, move through the rest of the alphabet: bird, cat, daffodil, elm tree…
2. Spot It!
This game involves paying attention to your surroundings. Before you leave home, pick a few objects you think you’ll see on the walk. On urban walks, you might choose different brands or colours of cars or different coloured front doors. On rural walks, you might choose different kinds of trees, flowers or birds. As you walk, keep a tally of all the things on your list that you spot. You can even keep this game going over a few days… Which day of the week will you spot the most white cars or red flowers?
3. Grandmother’s Footsteps
This game is great for rural walks or parks. Have one person, designated as the ‘grandmother’, walk across the area and turn their back. Now, the others must get across to them. The ‘grandmother’ can only turn around when they hear a sound. When they do, everyone must freeze and stay perfectly still. If someone moves, they must go back to the starting line. The first person to reach the finish line becomes the next ‘grandmother’.
4. Scavenger Hunt
Kids love scavenger hunts! Before you head out, write out a list of objects that everyone has to find. For competitive kids, you can make this a head-to-head game — the first person to find everything on the list is the winner. For younger kids or those who prefer to work as a team, you can try and complete the list together. For a fun new twist, try this Scavenger Hunt in a Box.
5. Follow the Leader
This one can be done anywhere! Walk in a queue — the person at the front must do a silly move, which everyone behind them will have to copy. It might be an arm motion, a hop or even a sound. After a set amount of time (for instance, one minute), the leader goes to the back and a new leader and a new move will begin.
For slightly older children, you can have each leader add a new element to the silly walk, while keeping all the old ones going as well. This becomes a memory and coordination game and is guaranteed to have the whole family (and maybe some onlookers) in stitches.
6. I Spy
This one is a classic guessing game, but it’s made more difficult on a walk because the scenery is always changing. ‘I spy with my little eye something blue…’
For younger children, this can be adapted, focusing on listing things that are certain colours instead of identifying specific objects. For example, you might say, ‘I spy something green…’ and your children could list everything green they see: ‘Leaves’, ‘Grass’, ‘A sign’, etc.
7. Twenty-one
This one is a great memory game. Each person must take turns counting aloud to 21. Each time someone gets to the end, they get to swap a number with a different word or sound. The next person must count aloud to 21, remembering the last person’s substitution. One, two, lion, four, five, octopus…
To make it more challenging for older children (and to practice maths), get more advanced with your swaps. For example, you could swap out all numbers that are divisible by five with ‘banana’. Or you could swap out all numbers that end with ‘4’ (4, 14) with ‘Harry Potter’. Practice vocabulary by limiting the swap selections to specific categories or words that start with certain letters. With this one, the fun can go on and on…
For some great outdoor toys and games, check out our website!
What should you do if you’re walking and you find a fork in the road? Stop and have lunch!
