Adventure Play at Home

Our Adventure Play educator, Nancy Bower, offers a simple game that turns the backyard into an adventure for  children.

Here’s a game to try at home:  Touch 4 or 5 or 6

Name 4 places in your yard or on the playground. Once identified, everyone will run and touch each of those objects in any order they want. They can take the long way, circle around objects, go under, over structures. After each person touches all 4 places they will come back to start.

The next part of your directions is very important as it eliminates the concept of racing and being first to get back to the starting place:

Invite the children to get as much of a workout as they need. “If you have a lot of energy, take the long way to get to all of the touch spots. Make sure you get as much running as you need. You get to decide where you run.”

Once you’ve done a round, you can ask the children if they would like a bigger challenge. How many objects do they want to touch next? Name them and off they go. “What do you do if you forget all the touch spots? Ask a friend! It’s okay to forget, I forget all the time but we can help each other out.”

Lollipop hockey was a fun game after a warm-up of “Touch 4.” The children LOVE to challenge themselves to find something around the playground to touch and to discover different routes around their familiar play space.

Sometimes I will play this game without identifying objects. Touch any 10 objects that you want.

Be sure to let the children know that the way to stay safe in this game is to watch where you’re running. Keep an eye out for obstacles and for people.

Have Fun!

Learn more about Nancy Bower and the Adventure Play program at Nancy’s website. There you can see more photos of Adventure Play and also find a link to purchase a copy of her new book, Adventure, Play, Peace.