Babysiting games for kids

The last one with his tail intact wins. This can get really loud and crazy with more than a few kids — the larger the yard, the better!

Obstacle Course — This game can be as difficult or as easy as you want it to be. Building the course is often as much fun as running through it!

Grab ladders, hula-hoops, trash cans and anything else than can be jumped over, ducked under or run through. Set them up throughout the yard. You can time the kids for their very own backyard Olympics. Bubble Pop — This is an easy one, and a big hit with the under-3 crowd.

Most households with small kids have some bubbles on hand, but you might want to bring your own just in case. Outdoors, kids may be able to find a leaf shaped like a heart, a rock with at least two colors, a flower with six petals, etc.

Indoors, you can list a blue sock, a water bottle, a blank piece of paper, etc. Give each child a copy of the list and see who can find the most items first. This game can be made easy or difficult, depending on how old the children are.

Balloon Volleyball — Blow up a round balloon and engage the kids in a game of living-room volleyball. One variation of this babysitting game is to see how long each person can keep the balloon in the air using all available body parts.

Have the kids do crazy dances to the music, but when the music stops, they must freeze in whatever pose they are in at the time. The number of empty squares on the board is your score. The goal is to have the lowest score.

When your craft supplies run low, or you have no time to pick up things you need for games, a fort can come to your rescue. Gather the children, peek into the linen closet, grab a few sheets, and use them to build a fort. Fort building is a great way to improve team-building skills and pushes children to be creative. You can even encourage them to use pillows and other nonbreakable items. You can even go outdoors and create a cozy fort between trees. Start by creating a clue to find an item or location, then have another clue waiting at that spot.

That clue leads to the next spot, and so on. Keep a treat or toy for the winner at the final destination. Scavenger hunts help children complete tasks and learn to work in a group setting, which will help them later on in life. Tape, owing to its stickiness, flexibility, and strength, has multiple uses around the house.

Who knew just a few simple lines of tape can lead to a lot of fun, games, and activities? On days when you cannot take children to the park to play in the jungle gym, create an obstacle course on the lawn!

Obstacle courses provide endless hours of fun, help kids stay active, and burn off excess energy. You can build different stations where each one contains a different challenge, movement, or activity that the child must complete to move ahead. You can create simple courses for younger children and include a few zig-zags and more complex obstacles for older children. The sack race is a classic game that has been around forever. All the children need to do is get into a sack and hop around a racetrack in the hallway or on the lawn and toward the finish line.

Whoever gets to the end first wins! Young children love to pretend play. In this game, each player takes turns to pretend to be an animal they think of, and the others have to name that animal. The child can slither like a snake, hop like a bunny, or crawl like a spider. This game encourages children to think and use their imagination. Give each player a donkey tail with adhesive. Then, blindfold a player and spin them around five to ten times. Next, the player has to walk over to the donkey and pin the tail on the donkey by attempting to stick the tail in the right spot.

All you need is some paper and you can create a whole fleet of aircraft. Try different designs for speed, stunts, or gliding. Who can fly theirs the furthest? Find a tree or favourite pot-plant in the backyard and make it a magic tree by decorating it with special things. Sprinkle glitter or confetti around the base of the trunk and hide small toys and trinkets in the branches. Tie ribbons or coloured string to the leaves so it flows with the breeze.

Next, prepare the food, make celery and carrot sticks, cut sandwiches, get a selection of fruit, and maybe even some chocolate for dessert! Start by cooking flat pieces of gingerbread. Decorate your house with icing flowers and little animals. Take turns mixing with a wooden spoon. Kids love decorating cakes. Start by collecting a variety of yummy toppings, eg: fruit, chocolate, sprinkles and nuts. Finally, create beautiful patterns and designs with your toppings, you could even make a picture.

Spike potatoes with a fork, cover them in butter and wrap them in silver foil. Next, put them in the hot coals of a bonfire once the flames have died down a bit for 30 - 60 minutes.

Add your favourite toppings such as capsicum, salami, mushroom, pineapple, ham and olivies. Add a layer of mozzarella cheese then put it in the oven. Start by finding lots of different drinks and extras from your fridge, eg: fruit juice, coconut water, sports drinks, milk, strawberries, oranges, berries and mint. Use different coloured icing, currents, chocolate chips, nuts and sprinkles to make the most amazing creations.

Fruit ice blocks are so nice in hot weather. Experiment with different juices and add pieces of fruit for a wow factor. Alternatively make fruit ice blocks in an ice block tray and add them to drinks. Fresh salad sandwiches are delicious and healthy, learn how to make them together.

Recommend ingredients:. A healthy salad where all ingredients start with 'C'! Start with a cous cous base then include any of the following:. Let your hair down and rock out. Feel the music flow through you as your hands move like lightning across the imaginary strings. Take turns being the deejay and play all your favourite up-tempo music while everyone dances. Practice special moves. Have a dance-off! Find three things to juggle, eg: balls, balloons, screwed up paper balls, handkerchiefs, wooden spoons, or sponges.

Start by selecting a fun song to dance to. Play the song bit by bit and make up moves that match the sound of the music. Try acting out words to help tell a story. When the music is playing everyone dances like crazy with wild movements, twirls, jumps and spins. When the deejay stops the music everyone has to freeze on the spot! Take turns telling scary stories in the dark while shining a torch up at your face.

Tell strange but true stories that really did happened to you. Tell 'what if' stories, eg: What if I won the lottery, what if I entered a surfing contest, what if I was a horse. Try telling funny jokes see our best kids jokes , wearing funny clothes, accidentally falling over, or be silly and make a fool of yourself. What way works best for you?

Find all your musical instruments or make your own. Use two spoons to make a tapping sound, pots and pans as drums and cymbals, or make a guitar from a piece of cardboard and string. See our huge list of over funny kids jokes and pick your favorites to make a comedy show! First make a puppet stage, try moving the couch out from the wall so you have space behind it to operate the puppets without being seen by the audience.

Next make up a fun show, eg: fighting action with robots and dinosaurs, romance with Barbie and Ken, or an animal adventure. Start off slow and then get crazy.

Move the legs and arms in time with the beat, do spins, somersaults, the splits or breakdancing. Tie a string across the room and place a sheet over it to make a net then play tennis by batting a balloon to each other with your hands.

Get in a big circle so everyone is the right distance away. See how many times you can fly it to each other without dropping it. Basketball is a fun game kids love to play. This is a fun game to play with music. Two kids can hold a broom or place it on something like a chair to get the right height. All you need is two kids and a ball. Start off close together, throw it to each other and when you catch it, take a step back. Run in a group or take turns and time each runner on your mobile and see who gets the lowest time.

The best thing about putt putt golf is it can be played almost anywhere with household equipment. For older kids who are interested in science, dismantling broken toys can be a fascinating experience. Before throwing a toy away, take it apart to see how it works on the inside. You can find lots of interesting parts like, electric motors, gears, wires, switches and lights. You can even use these parts to make something new.

This is a fun learning experience for babies. Find lots of safe household items that have different textures and surfaces and let them explore. Just make sure they don't eat anything! Here are some good suggestions:. Writing a story can be very exciting because you can include all of your favourite things. You decide what happens and there are no limits! There's nothing like brain teasers to pass the time and keep the mind sharp. How many bedrooms do you want? What about a pool inside with a waterslide from each bedroom?

Make sure you have room for a garage or rocket launching pad! Spread out the pieces on a table and turn them all face up to begin. Start by finding the edges and corners and build from the outside in.

Try a variety of operations such and addition, subtraction and throw in a few negative numbers too if they're advanced enough. The learning dinosaur game starts out as a fun DIY project that you can easily build with recycled materials, then the game begins!

It is fun to play for babies, toddlers and even older kids. See our complete instructions and how to play guide including pictures! There are unlimited worlds to discover in books, and kids who read regularly can get a better head start in life. For these reasons, reading is one of the best activities for thirsty, young minds. If your child is too young to read by themselves, then read for them. Ask what their favourite books are and enjoy the stories together. See our reccommended kids books for babysitters for iconic stories along with activity ideas that follow-on to keep the kids entertained.

Do you have a magnifying glass, a microscope, or a macro lens that clips over a mobile camera? A zoo, or even a petting zoo, is always a hit with kids, and is a great way for them to learn empathy and be able to respect and understand different kinds of animals.

This activity will allow you to be able to spend an hour or even an entire day, and requires no planning as such, if those facilities are close to where you are babysitting.

Name that animal is a wonderful kindergarten babysitting game that is played the world over. Deriving inspiration from our previous idea, you can be at home and play charades with the kids, and pretend to be an animal, and get them to guess.

This is a game that can turn into something funny very quickly, as kids love adults acting like animals for them to guess. Assign different parts of the house to the kids and yourself, and get them to clean or rearrange parts of it. This could be a shelf or a cupboard, but they must arrange it such that it looks good.

This is a kind of cleaning game that kids could be into. In a situation where you are babysitting multiple kids, sports games can come in handy, because it will give the kids the chance to play outdoor games.

To execute this, bring anything that is lying around the house, and set them up in the backyard such that it resembles an obstacle course. This could be hula hoops, cushions, trash cans, etc. Time the kids as they run around the obstacles.

Put together a list of objects for the kids to pick up from around the house, and bring back to you. This could be stuff lying all around the house, as well as outside. Make sure to give them a long list, so that they are all occupied for a while.

Everybody loves tossing a Frisbee! This is a great way to get the kids to bond and have fun together while keeping them engaged.

You can change up the game by laying hula hoops on the ground, and getting them to throw the Frisbee into the hoops while awarding points. Any kind of ball game is a hit with the kids. This could be kickball, football, basketball, or even plain old catch. Fill up a balloon with air, and get the kids to play volleyball in the living room.