The best outdoor games to play with your family

GoSports

Kubb (pronounced “koob”) has been a favorite of the Broida family for years. It’s great for all ages because all you have to do is throw a wooden dowel and try to knock over wooden blocks. It’s a bit of a horseshoe, a bit of chess, incredibly fun for two against two (though team sizes can vary if you want). And unlike many other games, it can also be played on windy days.

GoSports offers both regular and backyard versions. The latter are just a little smaller and cost $ 10 less. In any case, you need a fairly large garden to play in.

Kan Jam

Kan Jam is a really fun two-on-two game. The “Kan” is a kind of hard plastic bucket, one with a slit in the front. The goal is to throw a flying disc through this slot or into the top opening. If it deviates from the course, your teammate can try to put it in the Kan midflight. You get different points depending on what happens. Then it is the other team’s turn.

This is best for families with older children, partly because it requires some coordination to fly accurately and partly because Kan Jam can be hard on the hands. They clap constantly on a fast moving hard plastic disc.

Polish sport

I don’t know how Bottle Bash came about, but I would guess that it started with a fence post and a bottle: “I bet you can’t throw this frisbee and knock the bottle off!” This two-on-two game consists of two plastic posts (which are easy to put into the ground), two plastic bottles that rest on them, and a flying disc.

The goal: to cut off the bottle. In the meantime, the defending team tries to catch the disc – and the bottle if you can hit it. We liked the handy slider on each rod, but found the game more difficult than expected: even with a minimum distance of 20 feet, hitting that rod or bottle is not easy. Younger children could easily become frustrated.

RampShot

The reason why Cornhole is so popular is that people like to try to throw an object into a hole. RampShot takes up this idea, extends the hole and replaces the bean bags with rubber balls. Now it’s a team game where your teammate tries to catch the ball when it bounces off the surface and an opposing teammate tries to catch a rebound. Very easy, a lot of fun.

While RampShot requires four players, only three are active in each round. The rounds go fairly quickly, but if you want something that everyone is constantly participating in, choose something else.

Spikeball

Spikeball is very popular and compresses elements of volleyball into a small, circular space. Instead of hitting a large ball over a straight net, hit a softer, grapefruit-sized ball on a bouncy, ring-shaped one. It’s fun, but it’s pretty challenging.

And be prepared, parents: this is a fairly physical game that requires quick movement and probably some diving if you want to win points. As a result, this may only be best for the kids, although four players are required.

Crossnet

Four Square is the popular playground game with a kickball and four chalk fields on the floor. Crossnet takes the game up in the air, with a four-way volleyball net and floor boundaries marking the squares. Once it’s set up, you can literally play four fields, but with a volleyball. The net can be set to three different heights, making the game suitable for both children and adults – although it obviously requires enough skill to hit a ball over a net.

Setting up and dismantling also takes some time. So ideally leave it in the yard. But it’s worth the effort. This is one of the few games with individual and not with team rating. Although only four people can play per round, it’s easy to switch additional players. (In other words, Crossnet works well with larger families.)

Unfortunately, the game is currently sold out on Amazon, and the company’s website states that direct orders are not shipped until early July.