Garden games for children

Here are some our garden games for children.

1. Hold your own sports day

Get in the mood for this year's Olympics by creating your own mini games in your garden for the whole family. You can go old school with sack or egg and spoon races or up the anti with home-made skittles using used drinks bottles filled with water or how about timed hoola-hoop sessions to see who can whirl the longest. Make tin-foil and ribbon medals and prizes for all the participents.

2. Have a pirates treasure hunt

Make yourselves pirate hats, distrube childrens gardening trowels send your little swashbucklers out with a home-made treasure map (so they stay away from any much loved plants) and let them dig up some treasure. Bury small treats (party bag fillers will do) and clues in envelopes that lead them around the garden to where X marks the spot and then at last let them find a buried treasure chest (tupperware box) full of chocolate coin tresure.

3. Make natural art

These garden games are great for all seasons. Collect natural objects from your garden like petals, pine cones sticks and leaves and get creative with some glue and water-based paints on a blanket. Make a collage on sugar paper, design a petal necklace, decorate large pebbles or make woodland creatures out of pine-cones and twigs.

4. Get messy with water

All children love playing with water and where better to splash pour and play to their hearts content than in the garden? There are plenty of ways to use water to have fun in the garden using paddling pools, water tables, water pistols and the sprinkler. Other water garden games could be balancing buckets of water on your head whilst walking a line, playing catch with water-balloons or even making a watershoot with a large plastic decorators sheet. Be sure to supervise your children at all times when they are playing with water.

5. Have a teddy bears picnic

Get you child to make invitations for their their teddies then take the travel rug and some sandwiches, fruit and cake into the garden to enjoy a fury alfresco lunch. Put juice in the tea pot for an extra fun treat as kids love to feel grown-up and pour.

6. Paint a wall mural

You'll need to make sure your children understand this is an out-door only activity! But once that is established the little picassso's will love the freedom of being able to draw on the garden walls with chalk. You can buy specialised wash-away, out-door chalk from Hobbycraft. And after a few days get the hose out and have fun with a clean up job ready for next time.

7. Build a den

This garden activity is good for letting you get on with garden chores while your children play nicely in the shade. Take 4 or 5 bamboo canes and fashion them into wig-wam style frame pushed slightly into the ground for support. Cover with sheets and blankets and secure with pegs. Building the tent is all part of the fun and the kids will love arranging cushions, blankets and toys inside. Adding a waterproof picnic blanket inside as a ground-sheet will keep out any damp. Once set up they will enjoy the privacy of their new secret hide-out for hours and once you've finished gardening why not join them and snuggle up with a torch, story book and a few treats?