Outdoor Toys for Older Kids

My boys are getting older. That seems ridiculous to even say because clearly we are all getting older ever day but I’m feeling it a little more these days as my boys transition from little preschoolers and elementary kids to bigger kids. I always like to encourage a lot of outdoor time in the summer so I thought I’d share some of the outdoor toys for older kids that we have personally enjoyed and have worked well for us as a family.

Some of these items are the obvious ones that every kid has but I wanted to share some of the specific ones that we feel like worked really well for us. Case in point, #1…

Bike

My boys love to bike. Our favorite bikes have been the Schwinn ones. We especially have loved the Schwinn bike with Smart Start that both my boys learned to ride on and that my 8 year old still rides. The Schwinn bikes have lighter frames, the pedals are a little forward, and we just found them easier for our sons to learn on. We love their bikes and no matter if your kid is learning or already knows how to bike we think they make excellent bikes for kids.

Cones

My boys like a challenge. We use little cones to set up obstacle courses to run through, dribble through with a soccer ball, etc. These are inexpensive and yield a lot of fun.

Ninja Course

Last summer we added this ninja warrior course to our outdoor toy arsenal. The boys left behind their playset that we loved when we moved so we decided we needed a new climbing structure that would be more of a challenge. You do have to make sure the slack line is super tight so it does take some work to set up but my sons spent hours on this last summer and I felt it held up well.

Flashlights

This one may sound strange, but hear me out… In the summer when it gets dark and we are enjoying a nice evening with friends over at our house the boys love to run around with flashlights. I make sure to keep some cheap ones on hand so that they don’t ruin the good ones that we have. I also give copious warnings to them about the importance of not shining them into people’s eyes.

Scooter

This was totally not on my radar until we moved into our new neighborhood last year. All the kids rode scooters around so my boys asked for some as well. The 8 year old has this micro-maxi scooter and the 11 year old has this Mongoose Force 3.0. I’d say if your kiddo is younger then go with the micro one but if older and able to balance then the Mongoose would be better. This is probably the last year for the 8 year old on the micro one.

Slip N Slide

There are so many versions of this out there. We used to have a large inflatable waterslide but our boys outgrew that. These days they are having a ton of fun running and sliding on a basic Slip n Slide.

Basketball Hoop

If you have a paved driveway then I cannot recommend a hoop enough. We have spent hours playing basketball and just chatting while shooting around. You don’t have to spend a ton to get a good one either. This basketball hoop has worked well for us for a number of years now and even made the move last year.

Spikeball

My mom got Spikeball for the boys and it’s so much fun to play together. I can see this being something that the boys continue to love as they get older. It does require a good bit of coordination so I’d say this is for kids who are like 10 and up.

Soccer Goals

So we have had a couple of these now. The first goals we got were these portable goals. I think these are good if you really want portable ones or are on a budget but we had them for a while and one of them got broken. So…

we upgraded to this sturdier goal. Love this one so far. We haven’t had it super long so I will have to report back on durability.

Chalk

I know you’re probably thinking sidewalk chalk is for little kids but honestly, my boys still use it. We challenge them to draw things on the driveway, we use it to mark basketball lines, and we draw random obstacle courses on the driveway for them to run or scooter through.

Ok, that’s a few ideas from me for outdoor fun. Let me know what your kiddos enjoy in the comments below! I’d love to hear some more ideas.