Games to Play Outside for Only 2 Kids

Competitive Games

• Organize a mini Olympics. Establish events such as water pistol target shooting, running races, long jump, shot put with a small ball, limbo, sack race and hopping race. You can make medals for each event and hold a ceremony at the end.

  Encourage your children to set up an obstacle course. Use large buckets or Hula-Hoop to step in and out of, a broom across two chairs to climb under, a plank across two bricks to walk along, a pile of cushions to climb over and a blanket over a garden table for a tunnel. If the course isn't challenging enough, they can try to run the course while balancing an egg on a spoon or a bean bag on their head.

Chase

• Tag played with tails is fun for two. Find a piece of material for each child to tuck into the back of his clothes as a tail. The object of the game is to remove the other person's tail, and they could end up chasing each other round in a circle for a long time. Chasing each other while jumping in sacks also will provide a lot of laughter, but be sure the kids play this version only on grass because there will be plenty of falling.

Hiding

• Hide and seek is always a winner. If your children are running out of hiding places for themselves, get them to hide a doll or teddy instead. They could try hiding a toy walkie-talkie and talking into the other handset to lead the seeker to the hiding place.

  Your two kids also will enjoy setting up treasure hunts for each other, writing or drawing a series of clues to finally lead to some chocolate coins or another treat.

Traditional

• You can make tic-tac-toe an outdoor game either by chalking on the ground or simply using sticks and stones for the grid and pieces. Don't forget good old-fashioned hopscotch. Kids can draw this on the ground with chalk, or have them make it with sticks or similar objects -- will enjoy making the grid as much as they do playing the game.

  Make a game of catch more fun for two by having a different penalties for dropping the ball. If a child drops the ball, he must go down on one knee; the next drop means he must down on two knees, then he must put one hand behind his back and then he must lie down. Each time he makes a catch, he can remove one of the penalties and go back to the previous position.