Backyard Fun
One of the best outdoor investments you can make is to buy a couple of basketballs, soccer balls, kick balls, and a good bicycle pump to keep them inflated. Add a couple of softballs, baseballs, Wiffle balls, tennis balls, bouncy rubber balls, and golf balls, too. A few dollars spent on an oversized beach ball buys many hours of fun. It will bounce on grass unless the earth is exceptionally soft. To protect against loss, have your child write his name on all the balls with a marker.
Frisbees, balls, and dogs are perennial tween-pleasers. If no friends are available to play keep-away, suggest your youngster teach Fido to play catch. The trick is to pat and praise a furry companion for doing something
Tie a rope across the yard and your child has a homemade volleyball net. Hang a bottomless bushel basket in a tree and you've got a hoop. A big piece of plywood thick enough not to warp can be set up on a couple of sawhorses to make a Ping-Pong table. With the addition of a few blankets for walls, it can be readily converted into a fort, playhouse, or puppet theater. Just be sure it's sturdy enough to hold climbers.
When your child is tired of freeze tag and blind man's bluff, encourage him to keep running, bending, and stretching with a game of badminton or croquet. Kids will appreciate them as presents for Christmas or Hanukkah even if they're not much use until spring. Apartment dwellers can easily carry them to play with at a nearby park, and they're great fun on camping trips, too. An even less expensive, more portable toy is a Wiffle ball and plastic bat, which can be used to play either baseball or golf, depending how your tween swings the bat and whether he tosses or rolls the ball.
Kite flying is another traditional pastime that tweens love. Eliminate the upset over a lost kite by suggesting your child make her own. Two sticks lashed together with string, some brown butcher paper cut to size and stapled to the sticks, a big ball of string, and some rags for a tail will do it.
Swing sets are always popular, although older tweens may consider the kinds sold at most department stores too babyish, and in fact they may not be sturdy enough. As with so many things, homemade is best. Suspend a tire or plank from a tree limb for swinging, and set up a thin bar for trapeze artists. The time you spend installing a bar in your backyard won't go to waste, given the hours your child will spend doing gymnastics. Check to be sure wild swinging doesn't cause a collision with a tree or fence, double-check for strength and stability, and check the ground beneath it for hard landings.
End all the mowing, spraying, and fertilizing by creating a giant dirt hill in your backyard. A five-foot mound invites games of king of the mountain, and kids will find plenty of other ways to entertain themselves. Alternatively, pour concrete so your tween can play basketball and four-square to her heart's content.
End your child's social problems once and for all by buying him a full-size trampoline, which is guaranteed to draw kids from far and near. Even undersized yards can hold one; tall mesh nets can be purchased that attach to the perimeter to prevent a wild child from being catapulted into a nearby tree trunk or onto the sidewalk. Still, don't cancel your child's health insurance or homeowner's policy. As with all sports that encourage kids to hurl themselves about, there is definitely an element of risk.
