Outdoor Brain Games For Children

When it comes to firing up those neurons and making children smarter, it is ‘Nurture over Nature’ principle that rules and Outdoor brain games for kids is just wondrous way to start with.

Outdoor brain games help develop children’s spatial reasoning skills as well as critical thinking abilities.

What you need is the right approach with your high energy kid. Whichever bucket your child falls in (check out Monster List of STEM Toys indoor games), here are the best Outdoor Brain games for kids that will surely keep your loved one entertained and mindfully occupied.

Outdoor Brain Games For Kids

1. I Spy

This is a great game to improve listening and observation skills. To play this game, children really have to listen and connect the verbal instructions with their surroundings.

What really awesome about this game is that it can be played anywhere- indoors, outdoors and even on the move! Also try Tippi-Tippi-Tap with younger kids.

Related: Take an uplifting Nature Walk with your kids. It is an excellent way to reconnect with nature and calm down the mind.

2. Hide and Seek

This classical outdoor game puts many skills to use. It helps children think and connect the dots while relying on various external inputs.

Observation, critical thinking, auditory and visual clues are few skills needed to play this game.

Related: Don’t let a rainy day spoil learning! Bring Brain Games Indoors with these Toys.

3. Treasure Hunt

Another game which is great at making connections, increasing the concentration and observation skills is Treasure Hunt.

Children look out for specific items and the one who finds most in the end, is the winner. This is great outdoor STEM game which helps children look at usual things attentively while try to find articles on their list.

For older kids, simple maps can be made where objects are hidden. This would aid their map reading skills and add excitement to their play as they act like real detectives to unearth a mystery!

Check out What Does A Detective Do and learn all about Crime Scene Investigation in a child friendly way. Just perfect for your mystery buff!

4. Touchy Feely Bag

This game relies on the sense of touch and visualisation. Children put their hand in a bag with their eyes closed and try to guess the object my manipulating it in their hands.

Since this game does not rely on visual clues, it helps sharpen our sensory abilities and connect them with a mental picture. This requires concentration and good memory skills.

5. Pretend Play

A hands down winner when it comes to brain building activities. Pretend play gives players freedom to explore the idea whilst maintaining the rules.

Not only it builds thinking and memory capabilities but also teaches children to be team players.

6. Obstacle Course

One of the most fun games, Obstacle Course, builds physical and mental balance. It requires physical coordination along with logical analysis to keep up with the challenges. All you need is chalk and imagination.

7. Hopscotch

This is another great game for building coordination, memory and logical skills. Children need to remember their foot work and at the same time need to pick up their counters.

Also it makes for a perfect brain break for kids to reboot their minds for effective learning.

8. Repeat After Me

This screen-free, zero spend game for kids requires the players to do as asked, so children need to concentrate and be swift in their actions.

The host keeps calling out different actions like jump, clap, sit, jump, hop and so on. Children have to do the action following the sequence. A great energy guzzler, this one sets children into a laughter riot when someone misses their action.

These games are far from sit and solve brain games and teasers. The real premium of these brain games lies is the fact that they address the entire body and not just the mind.

9. Outdoor Coding Games

Teach your kids how to code without the screens. Just head outdoors and play any of the outdoor coding games for hours of fun and hands-on learning.

These outdoor games have basics of coding disguised as game rules to help children understand how an algorithm works. Clever, right?

We bet its lots of fun as well!

10. Catch & Act

This fun outdoor brain game is really exciting. It’s like the old game of catch but with a brainy twist!

What you will need is an assortment of balls – cricket ball, rugby ball, football, ping-pong ball, tennis ball…basically all sorts of balls you have at home.

One person is the thrower and the others acts as catchers. The thrower randomly throws the ball at one of the catchers who not only has to catch but also enact. But the twist is, the catcher has to enact an action different to sport the ball belongs to.

Like if the catcher is thrown a basketball, he cannot do any action related to basketball. The catchers who miss the catch or do the wrong action get eliminated. The game continues till there is one winner!

Think its easy? Wait till you play!