CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

CREATE THE ULTIMATE DIY BACKYARD OBSTACLE COURSE

BY ERINNE MAGEE

Summer is the time for exploration in Maine, but it’s also nice to enjoy the beauty of your own backyard. While grown-ups can happily plant themselves in their favorite backyard seat and listen to the birds or talk amongst themselves, kids tend to need a little more entertainment to keep them outside.

Enter the backyard obstacle course.

Forget the giant yard games that have been released in recent years like Jenga and Connect Four. Though fun, those games tend to be expensive and sometimes even hard to find in stock.

Instead, take a DIY route to something memorable. Here are 11 ideas to awaken your creativity and inspire a summer filled with outdoor family time. Mix and match them to create the perfect obstacle course.

WALK THE PLANK

Those round plastic kiddie pools aren’t just for babies, but in fact an inexpensive way to liven up the obstacle course for all ages. Fill the pool with mud or water or your choice of substance and place it under a balance beam of some sort. A board secured to buckets or cinder blocks or logs does the trick.

WATER BALLOON PINATAS

Hang water balloons from various tree branches and challenge the kids to use only objects from nature to puncture the balloons. For older children, challenge them to break each balloon with a different object (sticks, rocks and so on).

Bonus: since balloon pieces can be harmful to animals and tedious to clean up, try making the picking up a part of the game (ex: whoever has the most balloon litter adds 5 points to their obstacle course score).

PHOTO: ©SERGEY NOVIKOV/ADOBE STOCK

LAUNDRY BASKET SKEE-BALL

Bean bags, balls and water balloons are all options for this backyard classic. Of course a laundry basket can also be replaced by any sort of bucket, large bowl and so forth. Assign a points value for each of the baskets and attach that number to the basket so there’s no confusion.

ICE BLOCK TREASURE HUNT

Chances are you have purchased one of those mining for gems or dino dig toys that comes with a pick to chip away at the hardened clay in search of the treasure inside. That can be repurposed for an ice block treasure hunt. The idea here is a DIY version. Find the appropriate size Tupperware for your child’s age and fill it with water, adding various little toys and figures that are lying around. Then, pop the storage container into the freezer. When the toys have been chiseled free by your little one, they can move onto the next obstacle.

WATER THE PLANTS

Each contestant gets a sponge and a bowl of water. Soak the sponge, run to the assigned plant or shrub and water it! Repeat until the bowl of water is empty. This is a win-win-win for parents, kids and the thirsty garden.

BACKYARD MAZE

Create your own backyard maze with some good old fashioned yellow caution tape and several stakes (or whatever you have lying around that can be safely poked into the ground). If you live in a wooded area, trees could also work in place of stakes. Wrap the tape around the stakes, adding as many “walls” as you have available stakes.

POOL NOODLE HOCKEY

Using a pool noodle as your “stick,” and a lightweight bouncy ball (the size of a soccer ball), see how many goals can be sent between the trees (or cones) in 5 attempts or however many you want to offer.

POOL NOODLE RING TOSS

Pool noodles for the win again! Duct tape the ends of the noodle together to make a giant ring. With the same stakes needed for the Pool Noodle Crawl at right, secure an upright noodle to the stake and voila, it’s ready for a ringer!

HULA HOOP BOWLING

Whether using plastic bowling pins, empty plastic bottles or something else, decide how many hoops each contestant gets and see how many “pins” can fall. It may be helpful for parents to keep a whiteboard or at least a piece of paper handy so the kids can simply yell out their points along the way.

POOL NOODLE CRAWL

With stakes or dowels and as many pool noodles as you can round up, create a space where kids can army crawl through. Place a small wooden stake into the ground, slide one end of the pool noodle over it and arch the noodle until the other end meets the grass where you’ll add the second stake. Bonus use: have the kids come back to this obstacle, but this time, jumping over the arches, rather than crawling underneath.

ICY WORM HUNTING

In a bowl of ice, hide rubber (or gummy) creatures. When the contestant reaches the bowl, they can only use their toes to retrieve the items. If you have a sandbox, hiding the worms in the sand could be an alternative to ice.

Have older kids who find these obstacles too easy? Hand them a blindfold. Looking to sell your home? Having experience on your side matters.

CALL TRICIA LARGAY

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