What you need: You need a basketball hoop, basketballs, and baseball bats.
How to play: Divide the players into equally numbered teams. Give each team a basketball and a baseball bat.
The rules: One player at a time from each team will go to his baseball bat, bend over, put his head on the bat end, and circle it for five times while remaining bent over. Then he will pick up his basketball, dribble to the hoop, shoot a basket, and rebound the ball to bring back to his team. He tags the next player to go. This continues until all players have gone.
What you need: You need a swimming pool, a rope or net, and two baskets of lots of pool toys, such as noodles and soft-sided balls.
How to play: Divide the pool in half with a rope or net. Divide the children into two teams and have each team get in the pool -- one team on one side of the rope and the other team on the other side. Make sure each basket has the same number of pool toys. Dump the baskets of toys into the pool (one basket for one side and the other basket for the other side).
The rules: At the starting signal, each team will try to throw all of their pool toys into the opposing team's side. The object is to clear its side of the pool.
How to win: Whichever team has the least amount of pool toys in its side at the stopping signal wins.
What else you need to know: You can put a time limit of five to 10 minutes for this game.
Related: More Kids' Games
Is it dinnertime yet, Mr. Wolf? Credit: Getty Images
What you need: You need at least four players and something to serve as home base (a tree, a porch or a patio).
How to play: Choose one player to be "Mr. Wolf." All other players stand at a designated home base. Mr. Wolf stands about 20 feet away from the other players with his back to them.
The rules: The players shout out, "What's the time, Mr. Wolf?" Mr. Wolf turns around to face them and says a time. The players take the same number of steps forward towards Mr. Wolf as the number of the time. For example, if Mr. Wolf says, "10:00," the players must take 10 steps towards him. Mr. Wolf then again turns his back to the group, and they ask again, "What's the time, Mr. Wolf?" Mr. Wolf says another time, and the players take that number of steps towards him. Once the players get close to Mr. Wolf, he will answer "Dinner time!" when they ask him the time. When he says this, all players will run back to home base as he tries to catch them. Any players he catches are out of the game. Play continues until only one player remains.
How to win: The last player remaining in the game is the winner.
What else you need to know: Another option you can do with this game is whoever gets caught by Mr. Wolf has to be Mr. Wolf in the next round.
Enter the dead box and you're out! Credit: Leo Reynolds, flickr
What you need: You need a concrete surface outdoors, chalk, and bottle caps.
How to play: Draw a large box with the chalk on the concrete surface. In the middle of the box, draw a small box with a skull and cross bones inside it. This is the dead box. Then you will draw and number 13 small boxes around the deadbox. You will use the bottle caps as playing pieces.
The rules: The object of the game is to flick the bottle caps into each of the 13 numbered boxes. If your bottle cap lands in the dead box in the center, you are out of the game.
How to win: The player who is able to flick bottle caps into all 13 boxes and avoid the dead box is the winner.
What else you need to know: You can change the dead box rule from the player being out of the game to the player having to remove all his previously landed bottle caps and start over.
Holes in the coffee cans ensure that extra bit of fun! Credit: vfowler, Flickr
What you need: You need two large coffee cans, three large trash cans or 30-gallon tubs, and a water source.
How to play: To prep the coffee cans for the game, you will punch several holes in the sides and bottoms of the cans using a hammer and nails. Be sure to hammer from the outside of the cans to prevent sharp edges on the outside of the cans. To make sure there are no sharp edges around the top of the cans, hammer around the inside edge against a hard surface. To play the game, divide the children into two teams. Fill up one of the large trash cans or 30-gallon tubs up with water and place at the starting line. At the finish line, place the other two large trash cans or 30-gallon tubs as receiving containers for the two teams.
The rules: The first people on each team go to the container filled with water, dip their cans into it, put their cans on their heads or carry them, and go down to their team's receiving container and dump in whatever water is left in their cans. Then they run back to the starting line and pass the cans on to the next players. This continues until a receiving bucket is filled.
How to win: The first team to fill their receiving bucket wins.
What else you need to know: You can spray paint the cans, if you wish, to differentiate between the two teams' cans.
What's behind that tree?? Credit: cdsessums, Flickr
What you need: You need some sort of tokens to hide. You can use Matchbox cars, dolls, ping pong balls, or even sticks and rocks.
How to play: Choose one player to be the leader. Establish a starting point and a finish line. While the rest of the players stand with their back to the game's course, the leader will hide the tokens throughout the game's course. Hiding places include behind trees, under rocks, in the dirt, etc.
The rules: Once all are hidden, the leader will say "Time to search!" Players will turn around and run from the starting line to hunt for the hidden tokens. Once a player has found a token, she will run for the finish line.
Are Screamin' Green, Granny Smith Apple, Asparagus, Fern, Mountain Meadow, Shamrock and Tropical Rain Forest among your favorite Crayola colors?
Well, it's time to take your love of green one step further this back-to-school season with the brand's new eco-friendly crayons, markers and colored pencils. Here's some of the new stuff to check out as you shop:
Crayola markers will now have black barrels instead of white, which allows more recycled plastic to be used and gives new life to more than 1 million pounds of plastic bottle caps.
Starting this summer a billion crayons will be made using solar power each year -- look for specially-marked boxes of Crayola crayons. And, during the crayon making process, any chipped or broken crayons are remelted in the mixer, so there's no waste.
All wood used in Crayola colored pencils comes from reforested trees and for each tree used, another of the same kind is planted.
Just another step in saving the planet. At most mass retailers and Crayola.com.
The water play area at the east end of the playground was designed to fit against the backdrop of Manhattan's East River and the historic tall ships that dock there, and features reclaimed teak boards.
On a hot day in the city, parents stand in the water play area enjoying relief from the heat, as their kids are busy at play with buckets, blocks and other constructable pieces.
The water play area includes a stream and a fountain where PVC pipes and joints can be attached, and reclaimed wooden planks can be used to create dams, while foam blocks, noodles and push brooms add to the fun.
The crow's nest in the center of the playground was designed to resemble a tugboat, and houses the only restroom, a storage room and a lookout at the top that's accessible by stairway.
The listening forest on the north side consists of a maze of pipes with lots of talking and listening openings, challenging kids to figure out where the sound is going to come from next.
Other loose parts include sections of PVC pipe, pieces of fabric, foam noodles, wooden barrels, even traffic cones -- which lend a visual pop of color.
The kids tirelessly worked on all sorts of imaginative structures, including this one, which featured cool swinging foam block doors that opened into a secret chamber.
"Imagination Playground" at the South Street Seaport in Manhattan officially opened to the public this summer, with a press conference featuring New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg -- and a $7.5 million price tag.
The South Street Seaport has a long history as the city's maritime commerce center, dating back to the early 1800s. In 1983, through a city redevelopment initiative, the Seaport was opened to the public with dozens of shops and restaurants. Since then, it has grown into a major tourist area with a schedule of events and amenities that attract scores of visitors and locals to the area.
Imagination Playground was clearly built to honor and celebrate the area's rich maritime tradition, using design elements such as ship's masts and a crow's nest, and featuring water and sand as the two core play elements. It spans an entire city block, replacing a parking lot that had been used by one of the city agencies, which helped develop the project.
I heard of the plans for the playground about four years ago, when the concept was first announced by the city. Architect David Rockwell is well-respected and pretty well known in these parts, so the fact that he was turning his talents to design a playground for kids was certainly newsworthy.
Yet, when I read about the playground's opening and its hefty price tag, I have to admit I was outraged, as my thoughts turned to the battle of the budget fought this year by New York parents to ensure their kids still receive free transit cards for travel to and from school.
What you need: You need a large outdoor area with a boundary (a tree, a building or a rope) on each side.
How to play: Choose one player to be "it." "It" will stand in the middle of the playing area. All other players will line up along one of the boundaries.
The rules: At the starting signal, players must run to the opposite boundary without getting tagged by "it." If players are tagged, they must help "it" tag other players. Players continue to run from boundary to boundary until only one player remains untagged.
How to win: The last player remaining untagged is the winner.
What else you need to know: The winner has the option of being "it" in the next round.
Red Devil, Red Devil, what are you thinking of now? Credit: Getty Images
What you need: You need a group of at least 4 players.
How to play: Choose a player to be "it" or the "red devil." All players gather in front of a house. The "red devil" will be facing the players.
The rules: The "red devil" says, "I'm thinking of a certain shoe (or candy bar, video game, restaurant, grocery store, etc.)." The other players will guess what type of shoe he is thinking of. The "red devil" will let the person who guesses correctly know when she says it. At this point, she and the "red devil" will run around the house in opposite directions.
How to win: The person who gets back to the front of the house first is the winner and becomes the new "red devil."
What else you need to know: The rule can be changed that whoever gets back to the front of the house first is not the new "red devil."
What you need: You need a swimming pool, balloons, and a t-shirt for each team.
How to play: Divide players into two to four teams of four to eight members. Give each team a large t-shirt and blown-up balloons.
The rules: At the starting signal, the first person on each team will put the t-shirt on, take one balloon, and jump in the water. Once he is in the water, he has to put the balloon under his shirt before he can swim. Once he has the balloon under the shirt, he must swim to the other side and back. If the balloon pops out, he must return to the place where the balloon came loose and start over. Once he makes it back to his team, he will take off the t-shirt and pass it to the next player. Play continues until all players have gone.
"City Dog, Country Frog" by Mo Willems, illustrated by Jon J. Muth (Hyperion, $18)
We all know Mo Willems from his comedic kids' classics like "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! " and "Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale," but never before have we seen him tug those heartstrings the way he does here. This sweet and warm story, told over the course of five seasons, recounts an urban dog's visits to his human family's bucolic vacation house. With no canine companions to be found, the pooch bonds with an affable frog who teaches him the ways of the country. The ending -- aided by the wonderfully realistic paintings of Jon J. Muth ("Zen Shorts") -- packs quite an emotional wallop. Adults and kids alike can expect to get weepy.
Reading by iPad app-light. Illustration by Christopher Healy.
Whatever you want to do, there's an app for that: It's already a stale joke.
But, as they say, there's truth in jest. And when it comes to bedtime stories, yes, there's an app for that. Many, actually. And a lot of them are (ahem) not very good. But there are a few picture book apps out there that are mind-blowingly great. Here's a look at just how cool virtual storytime can be.
The Little Mermaid and other stories by Hans Christian Andersen (Game Collage, $8.99)
With the look of a well-worn tome, pulled off the shelf of a long-forgotten library in Grandma's house, the cover of this e-book alone is enough to entice book lovers to dive in. And once you start flicking pages, you'll come across Andersen's original text, augmented by beautifully lifelike three-dimensional illustrations, nearly all of which you can interact with on your iPad. Light and unlight swaying lanterns, swat mosquitoes, pop bubbles, swish the tendrils of sea anemones -- even set off fireworks. These are truly interactive illustrations. There are even neat Easter eggs in the text (tap the word "bells" and you'll hear them tolling). The app also includes equally interactive versions of "The Emperor's New Clothes" and the garden snail fable, "The Happy Family." If you're squeamish, you should love the unbelievably real-looking bugs and slugs that crawl across your iPad screen in that last one.
Creations can even stick to the refrigerator. Credit: Tegu
Your kids will be so attracted to these newfangled magnetic block sets, they won't be able to put them down.
Though they look just like ordinary wooden blocks, each Tegu block has a strong magnet embedded inside, so they connect instantly to each other, seemingly defying gravity. Four different shapes -- cubes, rectangles, short planks and jumbo planks -- ensure endless configurations and countless hours of play time.
And, when they're done, kids can use the clever packaging as a stage to pose and take photos of their creations to submit to the "show 'n tell" gallery on the Tegu website.
UPDATE, 7/22/10: Tegu is offering ParentDish readers free shipping in the USA and Canada through Monday, August 2, 2010. Use code: TEGUPDISH when ordering.
Oh, Mickey, you're so fine! Credit: Raymond Brown, Flickr
You've kept the kids' summer schedule busy with trips to the pool, the movie theater and play dates all over town. But if you're ready to get out of town for a bit, it's not too late to plan a family vacation.
Here are some ParentDish tips for planning a family vacation that will be fun and maybe even a little bit relaxing.
Where to Go?
In case you hadn't heard, kids love this place in Orlando, Fla., called Disney World. It's referred to as the happiest place on Earth, and there's a reason for that. There's so much to do, you won't be able to get to all of it in one trip. But, as great as Disney World is, sometimes you want to do something else. For nine other ideas, check out AOL's list of the Top 10 U.S. Family Vacation Destinations.
If everyone has their passports in order and you're willing to venture to a country where, to paraphrase Steve Martin, they have a different word for everything, you could try Paris. You'll find the Eiffel Tower, great food and more museums than you ever knew existed. Or, you could do as the Jolie-Pitts do, and go somewhere really exotic, such as Cambodia.
If you want to stay stateside, and maybe save a few bucks, go the road-trip route. Here are some tips to stay sane while your entire brood is in the car with you.
If you think you can stand being trapped at sea with your children without throwing them or yourself overboard, consider a cruise. Make sure to factor in such things as what activities they have for kids the same age as yours, and whether they offer child care for when you want to hit the midnight buffet.
" by Mo Willems, illustrated by Jon J. Muth (Hyperion, $18)
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