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Keeping your children entertained over the summer can be challenging, especially during lockdown! If you’re looking for exciting ways to make the most of your garden while the sun’s shining, then consider getting a swimming pool for your space!
Even if it’s a simple above-ground pool, having something to keep young ones active and away from their screens can make their and your lives much easier over the holidays. Make sure the kids love their new swimming pool thanks to these awesome games, perfect for family fun!
Marco Polo
An all-time classic, Marco Polo is a great game to play, no matter how small your pool. It also works for children of all ages!
For this game, choose someone to be ‘it’, who starts in the middle of the pool with their eyes closed. That person then needs to tag the other players using only sound. When they say ‘Marco’, everyone else must say ‘Polo’!
Raft Races
If your children are confident in the water, then they’ll probably love riding along on floats and the occasional fall into the water!
How this works is totally up to you – all you need is a large enough inflatable to sit (or lie) above the water. You could get your children to race each other from one end and back, or you could pull them along and see if they can stay above board!
Treasure Hunt
If your children are particularly confident swimmers, you can test their abilities with a playful treasure hunt! Pick a few objects that are easy to catch but will sink to the floor, preferably plastic toys that won’t get tarnished by the chlorine and won’t cause your pool problems. If they’re small enough to be hard to spot, that’s a bonus!
Once all the objects have sunk, it’s time for your children to go searching! They have to find and collect the objects from the foot of the pool, so getting a pair of goggles and swimming underwater is the name of the game.
Volleyball
The ultimate way to keep children occupied with a physical challenge. Volleyball works ideally in shallow pools when kids can stand in the pool and move side-to-side.
Find a light, inflatable ball that is easy to hit upwards, and pick two teams (or people) to stand opposite each other. If you have a net, that’s great, but if not, simply try to make the ball land in the opponent’s half of the pool.
If you’re not the competitive type, you can also try to see how long you can keep the ball in the air. To make it more challenging, try to use your weak hand, or maybe even your head!
Catch
Similar to volleyball, the simple yet enjoyable game of catch can be made more exciting in a swimming pool!
Using a small ball, your children could try to skim it towards each other and catch it while it’s bouncing. Alternatively, you can challenge your kids with difficult catches to get them diving across the pool!
Whirlpool
This one is less of a game and more of an activity that will keep your children occupied. Ideally, you need multiple people stood in a circle. When everyone keeps moving in one direction (clockwise or anti-clockwise) faster and faster, the effect on the water will create a whirlpool in the middle!
Playing with the water is great fun for young minds, and there are many different things they can do, even by themselves. From creating waves to whirlpools and vortexes, see how many unique things they can do with the water.
These are just some of the fun games that can be enjoyed throughout the summer in a swimming pool! If you want to make use of your pool all year-round, a swimming pool heat pump can help to keep it feeling pleasant even in the winter months.
*This is a collaborative post.
Fantastic ideas! I like the idea of Marco Polo too!
Loads of great ideas – rafting is my favourite – all brill