Bored? Can't decide what to do at home? Before you turn on the TV, try these backyard games. They're easy to play with a brother, sister, friend -- even by yourself. Or use these ideas to make up your own backyard games.
Take a Frisbee and decide on several targets around your yard you will aim for -- a tree branch, a spot on the fence, a lawn chair, a snowman.
Decide where you will throw from. See how many tries it takes to hit each target with your Frisbee. Just make sure your Frisbee golf targets are nothing that can break!
Find as many as 10 empty plastic bottles -- like water, soda, or juice bottles. Fill them with tap water and then put the caps back on.
Use any ball you have and make sure the ball can knock over the bottles if you roll it into them. (If they won't fall, use less water.)
Set the bottle-pins up on one end of the yard and start bowling!
Write down how many pins you knock over each time, or just take turns knocking them down.
Bicycle Barrel Racing
This is a twist on a rodeo game where you ride your bike, instead of a horse, around obstacles. Don't forget to wear your helmet. Here's how you play:
Set up some cones, water-filled plastic bottles, trash cans, or rocks in a pattern on your driveway or in a safe open space.
Decide what path you should ride around the obstacles. Then see how close you can ride to the cones.
Use a watch to see how many times you can do the course in one minute or five minutes.
Draw a hopscotch grid on your driveway or sidewalk with chalk.
Don't just draw numbers in each box -- draw some pictures or words in the boxes, too. The words or pictures should describe a wacky dare. For example, "jump like a frog." Or draw a foot, and that means you have to hop on one foot for 30 seconds. Draw a music note, and that means the person has to whistle or sing a song.
Instead of hopping down the hopscotch, you have to do the wacky dare in each box before going to the next box.
The rules are up to you!
Backyard Obstacle Course
Take lawn chairs, boxes, hula hoops, trash cans, piles of leaves or snow -- whatever you can find -- and create an obstacle course.
Then run, walk, hop, or climb your way through.
See how many times you can do the obstacle course in five minutes, and see if you can do it faster next time.